Walk

For dinner last night we went to the same Italian restaurant we enjoyed lunch at. We liked the food, so didn’t think anything of going back. The server thought it a little amusing.

This go round we had caprese and lasagna. Quite good, but they run a little light on the sauce. We finished up dinner and headed back to the hostel.

Estella has a beautiful downtown, but the rest of the city seemed a run down. Its the first time I didn’t particularly feel safe in a particular area of town.

We were in bed shortly after dinner. Hiking in the heat of the day really took it out of us. Molli and Tony attempted sleep right away. I chatted with the boys back home for several hours. It was a hot, rather muggy night. About 11 Molli, moved to the other bed, as it was just too hot to sleep with another person. I finally put down my phone around 11:30 and fell to sleep almost immediately.

We all woke up a few minutes before the alarm. before it went off I said out loud, “Well it’s almost 5:30 if we want to get going.” They both responded immediately. We must have all been awake for a little bit.

We hit the road right at 6. It was significantly easier to hike the coolness of the morning. Noted in the guide book, on our way out of town is a winery that has a water fountain for filling you water bottles and also a wine fountain that dispenses free wine! Right there for pilgrims to use on the side of the building! Rumor is, they put one barrel of wine up a day and when to gone, it’s gone. We thought the gate might be closed because we would by there too early. But sure enough there it was! Molli and I both had a sip. It was pretty decent wine! We didn’t take any with us. It was more just to say we did it. Wine in the morning before 13.5 miles of hiking just didn’t seem like a good idea.  In the U.S. you would be required to have a security guard, special permitting, a huge liability insurance policy and someone checking IDs.  

 
There are generally several villages along the way, so we wait to eat until we get to a village after several miles of hiking. We ran into a snag this morning in that the only cafe to get breakfast, didn’t open until 9. There were roughly 15 pilgrims milling about contemplating what to do. We only passed through 1 village today, so it was either wait for the cafe to open, or go without breakfast. T&M and I have been carrying a small amount of food. We decided to snack on that and hit the road.

We remembered there was supposed to be a mobile lunch truck about 3.5 miles away. What we ate should easily tide us over until then. We hiked on. The ice baths did wonders for everyone’s feet. We got into a pretty good rhythm and pounded out the miles. We arrived at the lunch truck and had a quick bite to eat and a coffee. We had just under 4 miles to go to arrive at our stop for the day, Los Arcos.

Similar to what we have seen the places we have been, Los Arcos has a historic downtown, with a smaller community built up around it. We found a “pension” for our nights rest tonight. A pension is basically a hotel. We have determined its only a few more euros each to share a room than it would be to stay in the dormitory rows of bunk beds hostels. So it’s a win.

The only downside to it, is we miss out on some of the social interactions you would experience in the hostels. We attempt to make up for it at lunch and dinner when we see other pilgrims out. We gladly strike up conversations. People love to talk.

After finding our room, we had lunch in the town square. I had paella again. It is soooo good. Molli and I also split a pitcher of sangria. Being a little dehydrated, it went very easily. Fortunately its not overly potent!

The last couple days have been rather hard emotionally. The camino is a strange place. It takes any emotional baggage you have been hiding away and rips it to the forefront of your mind without warning. It then waves a huge flag in your face and says, ” HERE YOU GO!!! DEAL WITH THIS RIGHT NOW!!”

Ready or not, there is generally no option but to start working it out. You are too tired to resist. So you start working through it. There should be a disclaimer on the Camino. “Anyone hiking the camino needs to apologize to their friends and family in advance. You will be reaching out to them with stuff drudged up from the far recesses of your brain. Either to make amends, make changes, or just to ask them for help.

The PCT definitely didn’t strike this sort of emotional response. Sure I worked through so things, but nothing like what I have experienced on this trail so far. A few people I have talked to have shared a similar experience. It’s something to do with the trail and not the act of hiking. No wonder people have been hiking this trail for over a thousand years.

The three of us have fallen into a groove. We have also gotten rather quiet. We are all working in our heads, and hiking down the road. Three pilgrims following the way. Im really glad they invited me to come along. The experience is golden and I’m sure I have a lot of “stuff” to deal with. I welcome it with open arms.

As a side note, Tony has been on the minimalist shoe band wagon since it started. He routinely wears vibrams.  When he told me he was planning to where minimalist sandals on the trail I was verbally skeptical. He’s hiked the last 87 miles in a sandal made by Luna and hasn’t had a single issue. Pretty outstanding. By no means am I affiliated with them, but if you like minimalist shoes, check them out at http://lunasandals.com.  He’s wearing the Luna Leadville Trail. 

 

Tomorrow we are hoping to send a package home and ditch weight of items we aren’t using.   When we arrived in Los Arcos the post office was already closed. The hours are 8:30 to 11:00am Monday – Friday. (Huh?!) On Wednesday the forecast calls for thunderstorms and rain!  Always an adventure!

Buen Camino.