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”.
Jimandi 