Day 8 - Los Arcos - Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Villamayor de Monjardin -> Los Arcos = 11.9K (635.8K to go!)

The guidebooks says carry plenty of water for this stretch of the road. . The elevation charts indicate a significant descent too.

The reality is, the path is not such a challenge. This kind of thing is not unusual in life is it? We hear rumors and have expectations, we anticipate and fret and then it is all for naught.

Rese and I continued to walk together and share stories. We also sang and laughed a lot. Her travel plans allow her to take a leisurely approach to her nightly destination. She basically travels from one village to the next. My schedule is more limited, but I am taking it a bit easy (my knee) for a few days. It is lovely to have a companionable person to share the adventure with for a while.

People say, on the Camino, you are never really alone. It is true, you can always walk with someone, if you choose to, and you can also walk alone if you wish. At day’s end there are other pilgrims at the albergues so finding a companion is feasible. Finding quiet is too.

We walk through wheat fields and asparagus crops and hills covered with conifers. It is lovely.

The municipal albergue in Los Arcos is large and efficient. It is just past the old town, near the river.

We spend some lazy, quiet afternoon hours soaking up the spring sun and resting our weary bodies in the lovely Plaza Mayor. The church dominates the plaza. It is a Romanesque style and there is a Gothic tower and cloister.

A French woman drives into the plaza with her team and sporting dog. I take photos and chat with her. I enjoy contact with the horses and the dog – I miss my own sweet dog. Her husband is walking the camino, she is driving the team and meeting him at places along the way.

We dine at a local restaurant where my main course on the pilgrim menu is translated as “Pig Face”. My dining companions laugh and after my meal is delivered they concur that perhaps it is not the face, but something considerable lower on the pig’s body.

Day 7 - Villamayor de Monjardin - Monday, 27 April 2009

Estella -> Villamayor de Monjardin = 8K (647.7K to go!)

The sun (literally) shines down on me as I start my walk from Estella this morning. The rain is gone and everything is fresh and green in the crisp morning air.

I spend some time looking around before I leave town. Guidebooks call Estella "the Toledo of the north" because of the wealth of monuments the city has. The king of Navarre once had his palace here - it is said to be one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture on the Iberian peninsula.

Estella is the last city in the Navarre region. The Rioja region is ahead and Logrono is the next city on the pilgrim route. The terrain and character of the experience will change in the days ahead.

Before I actually leave town I meet some of the US film crew and other team members who are here in Spain filming a documentary of the Way of Saint James, el Camino. Theresa, the senior producer, rounds the corner and we recognize one another from our previous meeting a few months ago at the Gathering of American Pilgrims in Albuquerque, NM. There is hugging and conversation. Soon I find myself agreeing to be tailed by a film crew and to participate in an interview.

I limp along (the knee still hurts) beside another pilgrim (a sweet young Scotsman in full kilt) and the film crew follows behind.

A few kilometers up the road we arrive at the famed wine fountain at Irache (sponsored by the Bodegas Irache). We stop and sip red wine from the fountain.

The film crew sets up by the Visigothic Monastery of Santa Maria la Real and films an interview with me. I share my prayer ribbons which friends have given me to take to Santiago. I also have the opportunity to discuss my personal motivations for walking the Way of St James. I speak of my gratitude for a full rich life (despite the challenges of cancer, loss of a son, etc). I share stories about my parents with them. I even sang a little song ("I'm a pilgrim, I'm a stranger, I can tarry, I can tarry but a day...")

While I was signing the release forms, one of the team members thrust a cell phone on me and asked me to contact them later in the week for possible follow-up.

I laughed out loud just thinking about me having a cell phone on me! Anyone that knows me is aware of how resistant I am to having a cell phone in my life! While many pilgrims do carry cell phones, I am not among them. In fact, I am a bit of a Luddite about telephones in general. Even in the USA I avoid answering phones. I know my spouse will laugh loud and long when he hears I now have a cell phone (and charger) on my pilgrimage of gratitude!

With the diversion created by the film crew behind me, I begin my walk. A look st my plans confirmed that my delayed start would mean a change in my destination for the night. The stretch between Villamayor and Los Arcos is devoid of places to stop and no water is available for about 12K immediately following the steep climb up to Villamayor. And my leg was still aching.

I walked through a beautiful oak forest with a fairytale view of castle-topped Monjardin in the distance. I stopped to look at the 13th century fuente de los Moros below the ruins of the Roman-based Castillo de Deyo. I played with an adorable kitten as I rested in a small village square.

After the long climb up to Villamayor, I decided to stop at the parochial albergue rather than the Dutch-run facility further up the hill. The albergue was very small and very modest (mattresses on the floor) and was run on donations. The host was affiliated with the Catholic church. 

I met a delightful American woman there (Rese) and spent a wonderful evening sharing stories over dinner at the small local bar. Later we met another American, from San Francisco. We shared our evening meal in the tiny local bar and had a lovely time getting acquainted.

At dinner we were offered the local digestive as a gift at the close of our pilgrim meal. Orujo is the name of this drink. It is green, there are herbs in it and it is quite strong. It has a deceptive effect on most of us. The joke among us became this: do not drink green stuff!

Finding our way back to the albergue, we giggled like school girls.

All in all though, it was a fine end to a lovely day.