Day 13- Los Arcos to Viana

Walked- Today: 5.4mi/Camino 2022: 79 mi

We began again at daybreak, and walked in a straight line with only slight variations in elevation. The scenery also did not vary. The dirt path finally made a few curves before merging with the pavement as we walked into Sansol, pop. 100.

On the outskirts of Sansol, we were saddened to see a favorite stopping place had become one of the many casualties of the pandemic too frequently observed thus far for Camino 2022.

We continued on to the next small village of Torres del Rio, pop. 122, where we got breakfast and concluded our walk for the day.

The 6 mile stretch from Torres del Rio is know as the “ knee wrecker”. It is aptly named, based on our personal experience walking it in 2014 and 2017. We used a taxi to bypass it in 2019 and we plan to use a bus to skip it today. We used La Pata de Oca albergue as our base, while waiting for the 11:35 bus to transport us into Viana, where we will spend the night.

At the bus stop, we met two other pilgrims (Phillip, from Texas and Lora, from Germany) who had similar ideas about the “knee wrecker”. They both had previous experiences walking the Camino. Phillip was nursing some blisters and Lora was recovering from heat stroke, suffered a few days earlier. We rode the bus to Viana together, then parted with Phillip going on to Logroño and Lora meeting some other German friends in Viana or Logtoño.

We walked a short distance from the Viana bus stop to our guesthouse, San Pedro, checked in and return to the Viana Calle Mayor (main street) to have a pilgrim menu for lunch before beginning our routine afternoon chores. We were entertained by hundreds of Viana locals enjoying Sunday afternoon socializing, spontaneous outbursts of music and song, plus the constant flow of pilgrims either joining in or moving on to Logroño

We returned to our room, doing our usual, then returned at 6:00 to the now, abandoned streets to grab a couple of pintxos and wine for a snack meal, then calling it another day on the Camino 2022.