Jimandi

Walked today: 8.1 mi. Camino’26: 45 mi.

Most of today’s walk was through a valley of grain fields and some scattered vineyards and olive orchards and a small field of asparagus near the end.

Although the scenery was beautiful at first, it went on and on, seemingly forever by the time we got within a mile of Los Arcos.

A lack of shade and the monotony of the long, straight paths has always made this section a challenge for us. And for each of our previous caminos, we dragged ourselves the final mile or so to the Los Arcos village square where we collapsed into a terrace chair and ordered breakfast at a nearby bar. Today, our 8th effort was no different.

We had our main meal at our favorite restaurant in Los Arcos, Restaurant MAVI.

Inspite of the difficult walk into Los Arcos, it’s a favorite because of the church, the restaurant and its interesting history.

At the crossroads of two ancient trade routes, Los Arcos was once a Roman City (Curnonium). It’s current name originates from a battle in 914 when three Sanchos ( kings of Navarra, Castilla and Aragon) fought over the town. The Navarran army won with the help of their excellent archers, therefore the coat of arms of the city contains bows (arcos) and arrows.

After a tasty meal, we retired to our room at Hostal Suexte, did daily chores, napped and blogged, until bedtime.

Walked today: 5.2 mi. Camino’26: 37 mi.

The road off to the left on previous caminos was a mere wash, less than a couple of feet wide, steep, with deep gullies from years of erosion. Today, the wash had been widened to farm road width and smoothed out, making the remaining ascent into Villamayor de Monjardin much easier, inspite of the incline.

A trend seems to be developing that efforts have been underway since Camino2025, to upgrade some of the more difficult sections of the Camino Frances, perhaps in preparation for 2027, a Holy Year, when the Camino Frances traffic can double or triple.

In exchange for starting early and walking in the cool early morning air, we arrived at our destination at 10:10 a.m. with a checkin time of 2:00!

So, we messaged our host, advising of early arrival and requested an ASAP checkin in.

In the meantime, we perched outside of a newly opened luxury hotel, Mirador de Deyo, and ordered two Cola Cao’s to claim a table and chairs and to justify our use of the restrooms, as needed, during our wait.

To occupy the time, we got reacquainted with the landmarks of this village with 129 residents.

The Castillo de San Esteban de Deyo was a strategic stronghold during Roman occupation and was held against the Moors by Sancho I, the first king of Navarre, who was buried there in 925AD. We opted out of walking up to the ruins of the Castillo. Even today, it has a dominant place atop Mount Garcia, just behind our apartment,

The 12 century Iglesia de San Andês contains a processional silver cross from the year 1800. It has rately been opened during previous visits but fortunately was open for a hour while we waited for our room,

Our room was ready at 12:30, so we immediately took possession and followed our routines for the afternoon. With a kitchen, and stocked provisions, had ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and pasta & tuna for dinner. A nice bottle of Castillo Monjardin Crianza wine was enjoyed throughout the day.

The combination of cool early morning air during the walk, improvements in the path and the comfort of Markiola accommodations made for a very enjoyable day on the Camino Frances!

Walked today: 8.0mi. Camino’26: 32mi.

After walking an hour we reached Villatuerta, a favorite stopping place for breakfast.

Leaving Villatuerta we rejoined the dirt path toward Estella. After passing through a small park and some water diverting/locks used for flood control, we continued on a rather boring stretch of dirt road that winds through some chemical factories and other industrial buildings hidden in part by trees and undergrowth.

Just after a hundred yards of walking, a local guy emerged, having climbed from another path feeding into ours from below. He greeted us and although we didn’t understand a word he was saying, his gestures seemed to indicate that the path he had come from was better and encouraged us to take it.

After walking this way previously, 7 times over the past 12 years, we thanked the gentleman, looked at each other, threw caution to the wind and headed down to the path from whence our benefactor had emerged.

Soon after joining the new path, we encountered an occasional jogger, 2 dog walking couples and one cyclist. The tree canopied trail was shaded, unlike the path above. There was also a prevalent, refreshing breeze augmented by the river which became visible to us occasionally as we walked.

After our leisure meal, it was getting close to checkin at our hostel which is on the outskirts of Estella in the direction of tomorrow’s destination.

We normally stay near the San Juan Bautista Plaza but we were unable to reserve a preferred accommodation. So we opted to find a place on the way out of Estella to shorten our walk the following day.

Unfortunately, on our way to the new location, we walked past it, due to the notoriously inaccurate Booking.com directions, and added an extra mile to today’s walking, eventually making our way back to our hostal.

One of the reasons for picking the hostal was its proximity to a Lidl grocery store and a Decathlon sporting goods store… in the event that we might need some unforeseen provisions for Camino2026.

As it turns out… other than bottled water and a few drinks and snacks were all that we needed.

A late checkin, a visit to Lidl and routine chores filled the rest of our day.

Today’s walk (with the exception the miscue searching for our hostal) seemed easier and more enjoyable, than on past Caminos, perhaps due to the discovery of the “river walk”.

Walked today: 4.1mi. Camino’26: 24mi.

We left our backpacks in the Maralotx lobby, retrieved our trekking poles and put on our shoes, then began our walk.

Finding our way from Maralotx through the maze leading back onto the Camino would have been a challenge had this been our first camino.

For Jim, no matter how many times we walk from Cirauqui directly onto an actual Roman road which then crosses an actual Roman bridge is always a surreal experience. It epitomizes the extraordinary history of the Camino Frances.

Leaving the 1st century BC Roman road we crossed over a 21st century expressway and began walking among wheat fields, olive orchards and vineyards and occasional remnants of Roman road on our way to Lorca.

Today we continued our modified way to enter Lorca, a tradition we implemented in 2022.

Jim walked to Casa Nahia and was able to successfully negotiate an earlier checkin time than the normal 3:00. We relaxed in the village square in the shade near the fountain chatting with mostly, just-passing-through pilgrims, then checked in at noon!

We stayed here in 2024 and decided to give it another visit. The proprietor family of parents and daughter named, did you guess?, Nahia, built property in 2020-21. They live on the first floor and the second floor is dedicated to spaces for guests.

We spent the afternoon resting, washing clothes with a washer/dryer (12€), reading, blogging and a enjoying a session of Hand&Foot,

For dinner we had some local red wine, and sandwiches that we bought while waiting for our room this morning, allowing us to skip the typical evening meal for a change.

Today was another enjoyable one for Camino2026.

Walked today: 5.9 mi. Camino2026: 20mi.

After a normal breakfast, we bought 2 sandwiches to carry with us for lunch, as there are no other eatery options until tonight’s dinner in our albergue at 7:00.

It was a brief walk to the entrance of old Puente la Reina.

We continued through the main street to the bridge (Puente), crossed it over the Rio Arga, exiting the town…

…and began walking on a dirt path along the river (unseen).

After about 2 miles we reached the base of a mountain and began a difficult climb for the next mile or so.

After a few steps we began to witness another camino improvement project.

On our previous caminos, this walk was made more difficult, due to aggressive erosion, over the years, digging increasingly deeper gullies down and across the road, thus adding to the difficulty of the steep elevation.

Today all the gullies, some several feet deep, were gone. The path is now relatively smooth, paved with a mortar/gravel mixture with varied amounts of loose gravel on top.

Overall, the entire 1 mile climb was much easier than on previous caminos.

Once at the top, we entered the village of Maneru, with its attractive buildings, pristine streets, a small park and village square… with great potential to welcome pilgrims. However, since first walking through Mañeru in 2014, services (albergues, bars/restrooms) available to pilgrims have gradually diminished until today’s visit, when we were presented with no services and an generally unwelcoming ambiance. We stopped at an empty bench in the village square across from an apparent resident, perusing a newspaper, who completely ignored us, not even making eye contact.

After a 10 minute repose in the otherwise zero activity village square, we disappointingly walked on.

Fortunately for us, the disappointment of Mañeru has never lasted very long because as soon as we walk out of the village, a positive anticipation builds as we await our first of many cover-photo looks at the uniquely picturesque village of Cirauqui.

We walked into Cirauqui at 9:40 and stopped at a food stand/restroom with outside terrace seating (the only one open today) and we settled in… our plan to have a place to chill until our room was available circa. 1:00 p.m..

We contributed to the local economy by purchasing fresh orange juice, bananas, a Radler (50/50 blend of lemon and beer), and bottled water in exchange for a reasonably comfortable seat with table and access to a restroom until they close at noon!

We passed the time blogging and reading and had an interesting chat with a charming couple from Singapore who were sampling several segments of the Camino Frances, their first camino, which was arranged by a travel agent.

At noon, we gathered our stuff and guided the couple to the iglesia (church) at the pinacle of Cirauqui, where they were to meet their taxi to return them to Puente la Reina at 12:30. The iglesia, coincidentally was adjacent to our alberque. We said our goodbyes to the couple and found new seats on a not-so-comfortable concrete bench beside the iglesia until we were able to checkin at 1:00.

Once in our room, we washed sweaty clothes and hung them out to dry in the warm, dry air, got showers, ate our sandwiches purchased this morning after breakfast and blogged, read and napped the afternoon away until dinner at 7:00 p.m.

Dinner was prepared by the owner who leans toward vegan cuisine. Consequently, we began with a simple salad of lettuce, walnut, apple chunks dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Second course was a mushroom and chickpea stew. Dessert was a cup of vanilla custard. The red wine was a local vintage unlabeled.

The dinner was shared family style with two other pilgrim couples. One couple from San Diego, California had walked six different Caminos all converging in Santiago. The other couple, walking their second Camino Frances was from Australia.

We said our goodbyes around 8:30 and retired to our respective rooms for the day.

Our bodies are still recovering from jetlag and the time change plus our muscles are aching from being tested by the up and downhill challenges of these first two days.

If our past experiences are any indication, we will begin to feel stronger and better acclimated to our environment in the next few days. As they say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.

Walked: 5.8+7.8 mi. Camino2026: 14 mi.

We left our backpacks in the Hotel Yoldi lobby as our prearranged taxi arrived at 5:30 sharp to take us to Zariquiegui.

This morning’s sunrise accompanied us as we scaled the 900 elevation to the Alto del Perdón.

After a brief rest we headed west … down the other side of Alto del Perdón.

Much to our surprise the usual hazardous walking surface on the descent had been changed for the better by removal of most of the small, loose stones that previously covered the path.

Linda has always dreaded this section for fear of a camino-ending fall or twisted ankle or knee. Today, the phrase, “the Camino provides” had never been truer to us.

Once we reached the base of the mountain, another project was also underway to apparently make further improvements to the path leading into Uterga. A “road under construction” sign blocked the way and pointed to an alternate path through the adjacent wheat field to bypass construction activités.

A favorite and only breakfast stop in Uterga was locked up tight, so we continued on to the next village, Muruzábal, where both of its two bars were also closed up tight.

So, with our stomachs growling, we walked on to Obanos, which also had no services open.

We continued on to the next town, Puente La Reina, our destination and had breakfast after nearly 8 miles of walking.

A tostadas and cafe-con-leche breakfast amply sated our hunger after 3+ hours of walking, as we relaxed on the terrace of Jakue bar/restaurant/Hotel/Albergue, our temporary residence until tomorrow morning.

Our backpacks were waiting for us in the Jakue reception area, confirming that the Correos mochila transport service and Jim’s itinerary input on their website were working well together. All we did was leave our mochilas (backpacks), properly identified, in our Hotel lobby this morning and they were picked up and delivered to todays destination without any additional intervention on Jim’s part other than his itinerary input nearly two months ago. The confirmation of the reliability of this Correos service eliminates a potential stressor for our Camino.

Our Jakue albergue room (double room with ensuite bathroom) was ready at 11:30, 90 minutes sooner than promised. First order of business was checking the quality of our room, shower and twin beds (verified by 30 minute body recovery naps).

Jim volunteered to do the laundry, taking advantage of a modern coin operated washer (6€) and dryer (3€).

Dinner is available at 6 p.m. in the Jakue restaurant, so we spent the remaining afternoon recovering, resting, napping, blogging, reading and playing a card game of Hand&Foot.

Dinner was filling, healthy but nothing to write in a blog about. After an hour or so of chillin’ out and prepping for tomorrow it was lights out for day one on Camino 2026.