Today was a success! And by success I mean that we didn’t loop around, get stuck, lost, or ANYTHING. We did the exact route we intended with plenty of time.

We left Pamplona and walked through some beautiful sights of the town. These buildings are unreal. The architecture is beautiful. You can just feel the history in it all.

We walked for a ways, along the road, and ultimately through these beautiful beautiful fields. It’s nice to be in a place where people don’t feel the need to build on every small inch of land.

Before we got to the top, just on the outskirts of the last town before the biggest part of today, we walked passed a family with two daughters who have been the youngest we have seen on the Camino so far. They begin walking near us, me ahead of Debbie and the youngest comes next to me looking at me. I could not help myself. She was so stinking cute! And her pack (that her Dad now was carrying) was the size of the bag I use to hold my rock climbing things. It was freaking adorable.

Me: How old are you?
Cassie: Six.
Me: Oh! That’s awesome. Are you having fun walking?
Cassie: Yes, but it’s a lot of ups and downs.
Me: Yes, but lucky you it looks like your Dad is carrying your pack for you!
Cassie: Yes. I had to BEG him.

😂

At this point, Cassie’s sister joins us.

Cassie: His bag is like A THOUSAND POUNDS
Me: That sounds really heavy. Well, good thing you are so tiny so your bag and your things are tiny and lighter weight. Do you want to carry my bag for me?
Cassie: No!
Me: *laughing*
Kate: We’re suppose to carry only 10% of our body weight.
Me: That’s what everyone says to be safe.
Kate: My bag feels like a thousand pounds, but I know it’s not.
Me: How old are you, 11?
Kate: 12.
Me: Ah, 12! I was close. You looked about 11 or 12. And where are you two from?
Kate: Texas. Where are you from?
Me: California…. I’ve never been to Texas.
Kate: Well we’ve never been to California
Cassie: Yes we have!!
Kate: No we haven’t.
Cassie: *shoots the biggest glare at Kate*
Kate: Okay. When?
Cassie: *thinking about it* Oh wait, Indiana.
Kate: Indiana is where I was born! SHE’S the only true Texan.
Cassie: *grinning*

We walk.

Cassie: I like your hair.

**Now if you know me and my feelings on my hair, I almost fell over laughing**

Me: Well thank you.
Cassie: Do you dye it?
Me: Sometimes. But not this time. This is my natural hair color.
Cassie: This is my natural hair color too.

The glare Cassie shot her sister is one I know all too well. Cause I gave that glare growing up. I GIVE that glare now. So much of this little girl reminds me of me.

Their dad came up and they walked ahead a ways, I paused to look for Debbie and Cassie paused to look for her Mom. We talked some more about how excited she is to go into first grade. Later, they came and sat next to us and we talk some more. This is where I learn their names, I ask Kate if she is going into 7th grade and I tell her I teach 7th grade, talk to their Mom a bit, Cassie says I look like her friend Maggie and then asks what the trekking poles are and if she can play with them. They are literally as tall as she is, it was so cute. In exchanging names, they ask mine and I say Desiree. They both respond excitedly and say “that’s my mom’s middle name!” I look at her and we laugh. I say small world and as a joke I say, well, what’s your first name?

Nicole.

Her first name is Nicole. I practically scream at this lady that Nicole is MY middle name and we just BUST up laughing and take a photo. This was right after Debbie asked Cassie if she could take a photo with her. Debbie explained to Cassie that she had a very dear friend named Cassie that she has thought about on this trip and asked if it would be alright to take a photo with her to send to her friend Cassie. Debbie is crying happy tears and Cassie is just going with the flow and takes the photo. It was all so very sweet. I could have talked to those two all day. I REALLY hope we see them again.

Debbie told me later that when I was walking with Cassie, her father walked up to Debbie and said “She will talk to anyone.” And Debbie said “So will my friend.” 😂😂🤷🏼‍♀️

The highest peak for today was atop mountain between windmills. It had the greatest incline and highest elevation for the day and it was beautiful.

We headed back down another steep incline and to Puente la Reina. The first albergue was closed so we went to the next. Got beds, showered, rested and headed out for dinner. After find a place that doesn’t serve food until 7 and backtracking towards the first albergue, we found a restaurant and ordered. For €9.50 I got a huge salad, an entire bread basket, chicken thigh and leg, fries, and almost an entire bottle of wine. It was unreal! I definitely finished the wine.

About halfway through our meal, a man walked in and we were sort of shouting across tables to chat and he asked if he could join us. Neil from Liverpool. Neil introduced himself and when I told him my name he said “Well that’s a song, innit? Desirée…Desiree… By Neil Diamond!” He’s literally the first person I have ever met to know that song (that isn’t my Dad) without me showing it to them. We talk about that, laugh a little and the next thing you know I bet two hours went by. Neil is intense. He said that, that he’s intense, his son is intense. And he is. It was a wonderful and interesting talk we had about the Camino, the magic of it. Chomsky, NLP, social constructs, philosophy, theology, string theory. Seriously. We covered so much ground and it was a heavy. I haven’t had that type of brain stimulation in while, it was quite nice. In that time he told me I must have been raised and surrounded by strong women to make me the way I am, in a positive appreciative tone. Said I was passionate and assertive too. Once you get me started on some of these topics, I’ll keep going. It was great. I really enjoyed his company and I think he enjoyed ours too. Although Debbie was so tired, she was just mostly enjoying listening. His story is interesting and I wish I knew more, he only shared patches of it. But his wife left him, he’s got two grown children, he does telecom work, this is his third time walking the Camino and this time, it’s for him.

We headed back, discussed tomorrow and now I’m sitting on the ledge of our window (hi Mom!) writing this blog. Debbie just saw me and took a photo.

Day mileage: 16.1
Total mileage: 65.5
Personal mileage: 17.2

We got up, got ready, packed and headed out for our short trek to Pamplona. We agreed we wanted a rest day and that Pamplona was a big city, perfect to do so. Since we didn’t make it yesterday all the way, we decided we would only go there today and have our rest day. Also, I ate the rest of the olives for breakfast.

It was great! Literally, Debbie would have been able to handle it last night had we gone the right way. We figured it out. It was what I thought. The fork in the road had the orange and white stripe one way and the shell and an arrow the other. But the shell and arrow were with a sign that pointed to an Albergue, which is why we followed the stripe. I’m telling you, it’s too inconsistent! There’s a lot of things to look for and keep track. With other people around, sure you can follow them or ask what they think. But on your own there’s a lot more “uhh….sure.. I think so? Don’t know?” happening.

On our walk to Pamplona today I took some photos of the variety of signs we follow. Plus some from a different day.

W

I kid you not! Every single one of those is part of the way of Saint James and could be the indicator we are looking for, telling us which way to go. And that’s only SOME of the types of signs we have seen. I’ll be sure to document more as we go.

We got to Pamplona before the Albergue was open. A preist actually helpded us fond it. We stopped on the street to look at a map and I could see someone walking up to us and when I looked up or was a priest who asked if we needed help and walked with us asking about Debbie’s time in Cambodia to the main street we needed and then pointed us in the right direction and went on his Merry way. It was very kind. We found a cute little cafe where we had crepes and coffee and Debbie told me more about Cambodia and the children. Also, the designs on the doors for the bathroooms made me chuckle. Definitely took me a minute. We walked back when it opened and grabbed a bunk bed with a Mom and daughter from North Carolina. This place is a giant open room with bunks, similar to our first albergue. It’s nice. We rested, did laundry, walked the town. We got pizza and ice cream and sat in the square for a while, watching families and tour groups go by. It was a lovely day. We came back, showered, relaxed and now I’m in bed at 6:15pm ready for sleep!

Day mileage: 3.9
Total mileage: 49.4
Personal mileage: 6.24

Man. What a trip today was. At this point, I can’t do anything but laugh. We just can’t win! The day started off well. It was looking promising that today would be a bit of a relief day from the first two. Now, don’t get me wrong, any type of backpacking is tough. The last two days have just been exceptionally tough with the terrain and the inclines and declines. Today has definitely and absolutely without a doubt been the easiest- and I mean “easiest” day we’ve had so far. Well, it was suppose to be.

It started off really nice. Debbie had trashed her old poncho, we had a nice breakfast, good sleep, coffee-it was looking to be a good day.

We set of back over the bridge and to the trail. And once again to no surprise there views were beautiful and just absolutely outstanding. We came across more horses, which are just so dang cute. Although, I think we saw a dead baby calf today. He was laying down sideways in the field near three other horses (two adults and another calf about the same age) it didn’t appear to be breathing. So sad.

We saw some beautiful views along the way. So much of it reminded me of a fantasy novel, or even a movie. Like we were walking through forrests where faries lived. Truly breath taking. Flowers, slugs, trees. Most of our path today was along the Rio Arga river, which was just outstanding. I have been CRAVING fruit and have been having a harder time coming across it than I expected. We decided to rest at a cafe along the way and I was able to finally find fruit at a reasonable price!

We saw New York here again, pressed on, although he caught up with us later. Asking Debbie if she’s okay, if she needs anything, reviewing a conversation about relationships they had earlier. Blah blah blah. I was walking ahead of Debbie listening to New York have this conversation, laughing all to myself at how much I’m sure Debbie wasn’t interested in his conversation and how naive I still found him to be! Which, maybe I was grumpy at this point again but COME ON MAN. DOESNT EVERYONE KNOW TRUST, HONESTY, AND COMMUNICATION ARE ESSENTIAL IN RELATIONSHIPS? Like, can’t we all agree that even stereotypically, those are things society lists when discussing this? And not even romantic ones. HELLO! HAVE YOU EVER HAD A FRIENDSHIP? YOU’RE 28, YOU’RE NOT NEW. You need those for friendship too! He was just talking to Debbie like this was the first time he’s ever heard these words being applied to a relationship. But, I don’t know, maybe he hasn’t. I don’t know his life. I’m just being super judgemental and now as I type this I feel like a total jerk. So hey, there’s that.

We were moving fairly quickly along and by 1:10 we were just 3.8km away from Pamplona, our goal city. We arrive to the first albergue (Trinidad de Arre- blue on the map) and I ask Debbie how she’s feeling. We discuss whether to stop or press forward and decide to keep going.

Well. At some point, we took a wrong turn. And to this very moment, I’m still not sure when but I think I have an idea. I’ll know for sure tomorrow. We keep following the trail, it’s marked either by shell markers, yellow arrows, yellow strips, or red and white stripe paired together. Yep. All of these are options to look for somewhere that fell you which way to go. I should really document all the different direction types we have seen so everyone gets an idea of what we’re working with.

We’re going up for a long while, we come back down, and Debbie calls my name. She says she’s not sure how much more she can do and asks where we are and if there’s a hotel nearby. Where we stopped was an intersection with a bench at the road to the path (all marked by the orange and white stripe) and a cobblestone road into the city. I tell Debbie sure, that I will go down the road and find out. I put my bag down, leave Debbie on a bench in the sun and take this switch back cobblestone road down into the city.

There’s no one anywhere.

I’m wandering past houses, buildings, all beautiful and made of stone- not a soul around. I pop out onto a main street where cars are flying by. I can see to my left there is a highway interchange, and to the right a city. I turn right and am looking for a sign for literally anything in the form of an albergue or a hotel or a person. Nothing. Car after car after car. All filled with people looking at me like “she looks lost” or “why is she here?” And I keep walking down. I go pretty far before I see a sign for a pharmacy down a ways. At this point, I’ve been gone for a while. I decide to head back, passing a road where down it I can see two men sitting in chairs outside of a building. It was down and around far enough off the main road that my Spidey senses was like NOPE. NOT THAT DESPERATE. I turn the corner to the road back to Debbie and I see a sign on a building that says Hurate. All I think to myself is that can’t be right. I take my map out, look at the sign, look at my map, look at the sign, look at the freeway interchange and think “what the fuck, how are we here” I see two orange and white stripes on the way now facing me (wouldn’t have seen them on my way down) which are the exact path back to Debbie. Now I’m totally confused and royally frustrated. I go back to Debbie and as I am getting to her, a woman passes by walking her dog and I ask her where we are. She does say we are in Hurate, points where and tells me the path she just came from (where we were going to go past the bench) is the road to Santiago but sort of steep. She says Pamplona is about 4km that way. I thank her, explian to Debbie and we discuss our options. We discuss getting a cab to Pamplona, keep going, rest. We knew something was also up when no other people came by. So far on the Camino people come and go in waves, you leap frog, etc. But there’s ALWAYS people, eventually. Not this time. There was a local map at this interchange I was trying to use as well but I don’t read Spanish well and I couldn’t wrap my head around how we would have ended up there. Hurate was South East of us. We were directly west of it at the Albergue. I was comparing that map, to my book, to my phone maps location and I just couldn’t see how we did it. I don’t even know how much time went by, 30? 40 minutes? Debbie says she’s just going to take her pack off, have a snack, and press on. Because she’s a beast. So we do that. We take this path FORVEVER upwards. I felt so bad and was so completely frustrated. And I don’t have answers. So this path goes really up, an little down, back up and where does it let back out? Right before we dropped down to the Albergue.
Remember that last photo above with Debbie leaning on a wall? Yep. There. Right freaking there.

We’ve made a loop. And all we could do was laugh. Nothing else. We knew at the bottom of this downhill was the Albergue and agreed to go stay there. We get down, listing all the positive things about our mishap today including, we got to see a scenic route we couldn’t, we probably won’t see New York guy again, he is going to be ahead of us, it wasn’t raining, it wasn’t too sunny, we still had daylight, and we wouldnt have to stay up there through the night.

It only gets funnier. We walk up to this Albergue, that’s a huge stone building with these heavy dark narrow doors. We ring a doorbell, it buzzes and we enter into a dark room at the foot of the stairs. There’s a room to the right and at the top of the stairs a no older than 13 year old boy comes walking down with his little white dog trailing behind him and leads us into this room with a desk, a computer from the 90s, and information. This room is dark and musty like everything else appears in the whole building. This boy sits in the chair behind the table and asks for our passports and Camino passports. This room is only light by the daylight seeping in through cracks and high windows.

All I want to do is laugh.

All I could think is “WHERE ARE WE, this is so bizarre.” Outside is clearly a thriving town and in here it looks old, dark, and abandoned. He stamps my Pilgrim card, dates it. Begins the same with Debbie when finally we hear footsteps and he says “Oh, my Papa” and a man walks in, turns on the lights and greets us. This seems way more reasonable. He finishes checking us in and while he does that I am looking around this check in room where I see behind his desk on this cobblestone wall is a massive painting of Joseph. I turn and look behind us only to find a massive painting of the Virgin Mary looking at me and all I can think about is how I read somewhere online last night that one of the albergues was an old hospital turned into a church. Well, we found it. On his old computer I see a bunch of crosses and rosaries hanging off and I think “well, he’s definitely Catholic, nothing bad will happen. Well, maybe. Unless this is a horror movie and we’re totally dead”.

There is literally nothing creepy about this we except well, everything.

The man tells us his English isn’t good, explains some stuff to us, grabs Debbie’s bag and instructs us to follow him. We do, out back and around through this dark room, in through more dark doors and no lights. We enter a room and we are standing in a dark church. Again, literally everything feels so creepy. It’s stone, dark, he’s not clear where we’re going and then we are all of the sudden in this room with pews and a huge alter that’s dark. So the I wonder if he’s either going to asks us to pray or something, or if we are sleeping in the church. He then tells us how this room is a church and the whole grounds use to be a hospital. I felt so validated. He takes us down the isle, genuflects, and takes us to the left of the alter through this hallway, through to this other basement looking place to show us the exit. This is also where I thought “I’ve seen hostel. I’ve seen this movie. We also die here.” And he takes us through to light to another building where there’s finally other people and our lodging. We get to our room and I just start laughing. It’s totally fine, but oh my god the whole thing was so weird.

We shower, rest, I write. I tell Debbie about the horrors running through my mind and she says “Oh, I didn’t think it was creepy. I did not. I said, I think your mom would like it! ” Apparently while I was panicking in the church, Debbie said that she thought my mom would like it. I definitely did not hear that. We also talked about how when the guy genuflected, I wasn’t ready for it and panicked. My Catholic upbringing knows the disrespect of NOT doing it but I don’t practice and just wanted to go and Debbie said she thought about how even if she wanted to, she couldn’t have because she was too sore! She also said “you know what I thought when we walked into that church? I thought, “Do we have to walk through here every time we want to leave? Because I REALLY don’t want to do that” that’s what I thought” haha!

** I just feel the need to clarify that when we FIRST walked through all of this NONE OF THE LIGHTS WERE ON. When I went back for photos, they were. SO IT WAS WAY CREEPIER!**

We made it to the market, grabbed some dinner (salami, Gouda, cherries, and olives for me, and cous cous, olives, cherries and chips for Debbie) and headed back to eat, rest, and plan. We talked to a nice guy from Switzerland for a while, don’t know his name either. We complained about how every map we have is misleading for a while, because they are. I brought a book, Debbie printed a document she found and we have been looking at the provided local maps and none of the are consistent on how the trail looks or will feel. So that’s been awesome and frustrating. We talked about that alot, other life things, had some laughs and made a plan. I think tomorrow we are only going to walk to Pamplona (3.8km) and spend the day there. Take time to rest and give muscles time to heal. Hopefully they will have better WiFi there so I can catch you all up on these dang blogs I’m writing but can’t post! If I can’t get good WiFi in Pamplona, I’m just going to have to start posting the blogs without photos. Uploading the pictures is the hold up. We will see.

Now, bed.

Day mileage: 15.6
Total mileage: 45.5
Personal mileage: 18.05

We woke up, feeling sore but good and ready to go. I overslept, not by much, but enough that I was in a panic and Debbie absolutely didn’t care and was fine. We were out the door by seven.

It started off a little confusing because everyone left before us so we were not clear as to which way to go, honestly. We figured it out and began to walk. We got to a point where we were unsure so we asked a fellow walked and continued on. We were talking so much that afternoon a while we realized we had not been fully paying attention and could no longer see indicator signs showing us we were on the right path. A lot of standing, back tracking twice and map reading we figured out where we were. We were just talking the road instead of the natural park for a little which is okay. We eventually got back on track and went. The days have been cool which had been really nice. We got lucky today because it was musty in the morning but by the end of the day it had only rained minimally on and off. Nothing compared to the first day. Overall it was still a tough day. Lots of inclines and declines but man, this terrain were are on is so inconsistent and nothing I read ahead of time indicated that and I don’t know hope that is possible. In someways I get it because we are earlier in the season or weather will be different, which changes our terrain but hope does no one mention you go from sorry to gravel to stone? I’m sure if I specifically googled the Camino terrain it would come up but I never did because everything I read made it seem like the first day was legit tough backpacking and then pretty much the rest was just a path-paved/dirt/gravel. Still hills but one defined path of the same terrain. Nothing I saw alluded to anything else so why would I have ever bothered to seek out the terrain if it didn’t seem like there was that much of a variety! But guess what! There is. And rain only makes it more dangerous.

Thats where today went bad. The end was super sketchy. It was a step decline of dirt, rock, and stone, some with a river through it. So all of the sorry was mostly deep mud from recent rains and all the steep slopes of stone we had to cross were super sketchy because of how well they were. Steep and sleek are not a good combination. It made the end tough, but we did it. We got to Zubiri and crossed the bridge into the town and stayed at the first albergue we could find. It was really nice with a great view of the river. The town was small and cute.

After checking in we decided to go look for and arm and dinner. We saw Kelly sitting by the river and went to talk to her. We first met her in the train station in Bayonne. Sorry of. We sat across from each other all day at it saying nothing to each other until she asked if we would watch her bag while she went to the restroom and we did. She sat in front of me on the bus, my throw up almost made her throw up, really-great friends now- haha! She also stated at the same first albergue and we walked quite a ways together the first day. She’s a zookeeper in Cork, which is pretty rad. She’s not doing the whole Camino, only going to Pamplona. Anyways, talked to her, asked about the atm, and decided to get food at this nearby cafe. As we get near the cafe we, before we see, we can hear New York. Now, we call this guy New York because we don’t know his name. We only know he’s from New York.

Let me tell you about New York. We came across his peppy self the very first day. I walked by as he was trying to take a selfie of him and some friends. I offered to take the photo and gleefully said yes! He then offered to take one of me and did and then I asked him to take one of Debbie and I and he did. These ones

Awww how nice. Well, New York is a very happy guy. But on day one, which was pretty miserable for everyone he was just too dang happy. He was in a better mood than most because he had paid €8 to have his bag sent ahead so while yes, he was doing this horrid trek with us in this unpleasant weather, he WASN’T carrying all of the things on his back like most. While that’s not his fault and totally his choice to do, it did put him mentally and physically in a different place than most around him. And for that, his little burst of sunshine in his sky was not floating over mine.. Or I gather most people. He is extremely kind and continuosly has checked up on Debbie, asking if he can do anything for her, give her Advil, walk with her,etc. He walked with me for a bit which is why I know he’s from New York (no accent though) and from the city. This is the first time he had been out of the country. I know that because I had to ask. They way he spoke about things and the things he said reminded me of myself when I first went to another country or anyone who is young and just learning the world is so different. So much of what he said and his views I felt were naive, maybe cause it was pouring rain and he was walking like it was nothing that my grumpy self was annoyed but to some extent it really was just lack of experience. Not that I know everything or close to anything, because I definitely do not have it all figured out by any means- I have so much more to grow and learn, I just think I understand a little more than him. This lead me to ask how old he was. He said 28. I definitely thought he was going to say like 23/24.

Sooo…that was unexpected. I think overall he probably wasn’t a fan of my less enthusiastic company and he back tracked to find his friends. Since then, we see him peruodically through out the day. He is always excited to see Debbie and even asked for a photo with her. Turns out the first night they were in the same sleeping area in parallel bunk beds. Debbie told me this story this morning while walking. He asked Debbie why she was walking (a common question here) and she said she responded and told him and out of courtesy she asked him the same to which he responded he’s looking for love and the one and how to know when you meet the one that they are it. So he asked Debbie if he could ask her some questions about her experience and her thoughts and took down notes. He told her how he talked to a couple that had been married for years who were on the trail and their advice and what Debbie feels about what this couple told him, blah blah blah. Just a lot. Very kind, well intended. But a lot. This is New York. A happy go lucky, kind hearted, emotional, loud (he just always talks so loud, completely and totally oblivious to his surroundings- and that’s coming from ME), young guy looking for love.

I feel you need to know all of this because I have a feeling we will be seeing al lot of New York in the next thirty days. Oh boy.

Annnyyywaaaays. We sit as far as we possibly can from him and Kelly ends up coming to join us to eat! I had meatballs and sangria. I reaaaaaaaally wanted salad or fruit but this place didn’t have ANY. I also figured I haven’t really had any real substantial food in a while so might as well get something. They were pretty good. I don’t usually eat meatballs but I really wasn’t feeling any of the food on the menu. Kelly mentioned she was waiting for the super market to re-open (siesta) and I asked to join in the hopes of finding fruit! We head over and there’s over priced fruit. An apple or orange was €2.80. So, I went to bed fruitless. Debbie and I stopped in the sporting goods store where she bought a new poncho because hers ripped and a new buff because she accidentally left her at the first albergue. We headed back to the room to sleep. While the sun was still up because it doesn’t set here until like 10pm it’s feels! Whattheheck! It’s crazy. I mean not that crazy. I wish we had that much daylight at home.

Day mileage: 16
Total mileage: 29.9
Personal mileage: 17.02