The sunrise this morning was SO beautiful!!

When I woke up this morning, I wasn’t even sure what time it was or where I was. The room was SO dark and it felt like there was not even the smallest amount of light getting in! I could have easily slept all day! But choosing to get up and not sleep any longer allowed me to fully appreciate and watch that beautiful sunrise. We got ready, had a coffee at our albergue and headed out and up. Literally, just up.

I could tell it was going to be another beautiful day and planned accordingly this time. Yesterday I wore my pants thinking it it was going to rain and it was so hot. I did not make that mistake today! We went straight up… Then straight down. At the highest peak for today, there was a man with a stand of snacks for donation. He was the last pit stop for 7.8km, which is quite a while from what we are use to. He had this beautiful display he had done with the rocks. Debbie and I each had a banana and split a cup of orange juice. On our way out there was a tree with with tons of ribbon tied to it and a few flags. Debbie saw this and immediately asked me to take off a piece of fabric she had tied to her bag from Cambodia. I was confused for a second and then realized what she wanted me to do. I have her the piece and asked if she was going to tie it to the tree and she said yes. Yes because she made it through the first week of the Camino. She survived. It was an emotional moment but a beautiful one. And now a little piece of Cambodia is on that tree now too.

Today was filled with a lot more ups and downs than yesterday, plus more sun. But as always, the views don’t disappoint. We met a family from Washington and I walked with their daughter Diana for a while. She’s 33 and works for a local Non-profit in her local community. We talked a lot about the world, climbing, hiking, feminism. It was pretty great. She recommended a book called The Power by…Naomi……yep. all I can remember, but I’ll look it up.

We passed TONS of graffiti and art along the way and it’s always just as beautiful. I had to take some photos today because I loved them too much!

We FINALLY made it to Logroño and to an albergue. Debbie wants new headphones because she lost hers unfortunately along the way. We decided to head out and into town to find that and food. Little did we know what we were walking in to.

Today is Festivities of San Bernabé. It’s on June 11th each year. The town honours their patron saint, Saint Barnabas who is believed to be part of the Victory of Logroño’s resistance to French invasion under Francis 1 in 1521.

The city was popping.

And entirely overwhelming. It is a large city that makes Pamplona look like a cute little town (which it’s not) coupled with the fact that it is the most people we have seen in a town or in general in a week. It was a lot! But so cool! It rained too- which we weren’t ready for. We had to double back for our rain coats. We passed Neil twice during this process and once or twice walking today.

After a while of exploring the various vendors and ALL THE CANDY, we decided we needed real food. Which was a mess. Being downtown, during this festival, everything was packed. Alot of these places we’ve stopped have the exact same kind of food and I’m so over it. It’s super Western and none of it is what I want to eat, so between nothing looking good to me, Debbie being vegetarian, or cost- we were a mess wandering around looking for food. But eventually, we found a loud bar where I got a Mediterranean salad (yum!) And Debbie had a sandwich that she enjoyed as well. It was so loud, we were over it, that we hardly spoke a word. We finally came back, showered, did some laundry, and mentally prepared for tomorrow.

There’s three older gentlemen next to us from Ohio. One of them warned us that their friend snores loudly and played a recording. It’s so loud. So. So. Loud. And I feel bad, cause I know he can’t help it. But… I don’t think tonight will be good sleep and tomorrow’s going to be a long day. Looking like 18 miles of mostly uphill.

Day mileage: 13.7
Total mileage: 112.3
Personal mileage: 15.61