- Distance today: 7.7 mi
- Distance Camino 2017: 22.6 mi
We woke up to the 7:00 alarm and began preparing to rejoin the Camino. We are both still recovering from yesterday. Our bodies are weak but nothing permanent. We considered using a transport service to our next stop and walking packless, but once we walked out the door, decided to press on with our packs, at a measured pace.
The cool air, easy walking surface through a gentle forest path and mostly flat terrain made it clear that the Camino had decided to give us a break and encourage us.
The first 45 minutes/2 miles passed quickly and as we entered the village of Auritz/Burquete, a bar (small restaurants on the Camino are called bars) called out to us to stop for a light breakfast. After two cafe con leches, a shared tortilla (frittata) and a restroom stop we were back on the Camino, rested, refreshed and rollin’!
The Camino showed us quite a variety of walking surfaces today, some up and some down but relatively short duration and all manageable.
We walked thru a couple of villages, forests, pastures, paved roads, dirt paths, crossed three small streams and even a section of sidewalk type paved paths for the last mile as we approached Bizkarreta, our targeted destination for today.
As we entered the village of Bizkarreta at 12:30, a bar/aubergue came into view and we decided to stop for a lunch sandwich and drinks. 30 minutes later we walked another hundred yards and saw a sign directing us another few steps to “AmatxiElsa” a casa rural (24€) and our home for tonight.
Our host, a delightful couple from Argentina, welcomed us and offered us cool juice to drink as we sat in their living area and waited for our room to be made ready.
We have a nice, clean room with two twin beds and an adjacent bathroom that we will share with whoever might be staying in another double room nearby.
While the proprietor was getting our personal information from our passports and stamping our credentials, his wife was conversing with Linda and me via a translation app. You see, they speak zero English and are originally from Argentina. Spanish is their only language and it may, at best, our 5th (if you include pig Latin), but growing.
As we were getting acquainted and learning the basics of our accommodations via technology, a young lady arrived looking for a room and agreed to share one of the double rooms with another female guest apparently arriving later today from Canada. She is originally from Hungary and living in Sweden and speaks very good English and a little Spanish but much more than us! Her name is Elena.
We settled on 7:00 for dinner and will have whatever they prepare. They did ask us if anyone had diet restrictions but no one did.
Our room was ready at 2:00 and we began our Camino routine of: get showers, wash and hangout clothes to dry (drying will take an hour or two in the typically warm sun/dry air/wind).
The remaining “routine” is usually unstructured for napping, blog/journal, visiting with hosts/other pilgrims or visiting the sites in the local village or town.
Today, Linda read, wrote in her journal, checked in on the internet and Jim worked on the blog (while sampling a new beer offered by our host).
The Canadian lady did not arrive so Linda, Elena and I had a delicious dinner (10€) together, prepared and served by our hosts: A vegetable salad with tuna and toast, two baked chicken breasts and fresh tasty tomatoes and a beautiful and tasty custard flan.
We got to bed around 10:00p.m.
Jimandi 