Jimandi

Walked today: 5.2 mi Camino2023: 71.8

We began walking at 5:45! It was still dark so we used a headlamp for the first mile or so, until first light made the lamp unnecessary.

The path was very straight, flat and monotonous for the first 90 minutes, making it easy to walk, as if still asleep, which might well have been the case.

our first hill and a slight wiggle in the path

Torres del Rio is the end of our walk today. Otherwise we would need to walk another very difficult 8 miles before the next stop. We did that walk in 2014, 2017 and 2019, but skipped it in 2022 as part of our modified Camino and again today.

We plan to catch the 11:25 bus from here to Viana, where we have reservations for tonight.

To occupy the almost 3 hour wait, we had breakfast and then camped out in the patio and lobby of La Pata de Oca, where we stayed in 2017. Our bus is scheduled to arrive at a stop only a few minutes walk away.

As we were waiting, we struck up a conversation with Stephano, from Italy. He completed a degree in economics then worked for a financial firm during the pandemic but realized he wanted something different. So he quit his job to give him some time to think about who he was and what he wanted for his future. He saw the Camino as tool to decide what direction he wanted his life to take. He started out walking too fast from SJPdP, treating it like a race and by the time he had reached Estella, he had a painful leg injury. After conferring with his doctor back home, the prognosis was to continue, but at a much slower pace to allow the injury to heal naturally. He said the last few days, taken at a slower pace had already given him new insights and perspectives. Our interesting chat on a variety of subjects made the time go by much faster for our wait and we also picked up some suggestions for his choice of Italian red wines.

We walked down to the bus stop at 11:10 and waiting in a nearby shady spot until it arrived at 11:30.

The bus dropped us off a couple blocks from our hotel in Viana. On the short walk to hotel, we noticed more than the usual Sunday crowd and many were dressed in typical festival red and white.

We checked in at noon but our room was not ready for another 30 minutes. We inquired about the apparent festival and the desk clerk confirmed the festival started yesterday and will continue through Wednesday. He also said that the 2:00 running if the bulls would pass under our hotel window.

We decided to leave our day packs in the hotel lobby and go out amongst the festival celebrants and partake of the free flowing wine and countless pintxo offerings.

After 30 minutes of bull running, the celebration continued with families and locals nearly all dressed in white shirts and bottoms, red bandannas and an occasional red sash… sitting together at tables along the main street, drinking wine and beer and munching pintxos for the rest of the afternoon until no pintxos could be found only drinks and people talking and laughing and enjoying each others company.

We ventured out at 5:30 for a ice cream bar for dessert and observed setups for evening music and entertainment in the main square. It appears that the festival will continue into the evening and hopefully we’ll sleep through it!

Viana has always been a town of surprises and today was among the best.

Walked today: 8.1 mi Camino2023: 66.6 mi

Even though we didn’t start until 6:30, the temperature was 49F and along with a nice breeze, the sun was only a minor issue. Of the 8 mile walk, nearly 6 of the miles were in the open fields with little or no shade and no rest stops.

Linda employed her portable shade generator as a precaution and gained additional confidence of it’s future value once we get to the flat, open plains of the meseta of northern Spain in a week or so.

We reached Los Arcos (pop. 1300) at shortly after 10:00. We parked ourselves in the town square and had our typical breakfast of toast and cafe con leche.

At 11:00 we walked a few more steps to Hostal Suetxe and were pleasantly surprised to be admitted to our room… which turned out to be spacious, comfortable and a real value at 65€.

We walked a few blocks to MAVI Bar/Restaurant and had a delicious main meal at 1:00.

After some downtime in the room, we ventured out at 5:30 to visit Iglesia de Santa María, one of the largest churches in Navara with beautiful examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and 100F. So, we’ll try to mitigate it by getting to sleep early and starting earlier in the morning to get to our destination before the heat of the day.

Today was a good one, tired from the walk but good recovery this afternoon.. after an 8 mile confidence builder.

Walked today: 6.22 mi Camino2023: 58.5 mi

The first 2 miles were uphill and only took us to the edge of Estella. Fortunately, with our early start and a cool breeze of 59F it was very pleasant.

We stopped at the “fountain” at the Irache winery and Jim took a sample “for the road”, since we were walking, and not driving.

We walked on pavement for a half mile or so alongside a huge, multi-sport camping facility then walked through a shady forest then along the edge if wheat fields.

An imposing, conically shaped mountain, capped with the ruins of a medieval castle/fortress presented itself shortly after leaving Estella and is clearly the destination of today’s walk.

As we got closer to the mountain, we could see the base was surrounded by vineyards and small, local gardens, revealing the apparent origin of our destination’s name, Villamayor de Monjardin.

We’re staying in an apartment called Markiola. We discovered it in 2019 while staying at the albergue in the village. We stayed here in 2022 and wanted a repeat visit for 2023.

Markiola is relatively expensive at 128€. But for us it’s a “pilgrim paradise”.

Markiola consists of two floors: (1) a living area/kitchen and (2) bedrooms/ bathroom.

It comes furnished with a variety of breakfast, lunch and dinner fixings for an enterprising self-catering pilgrim. It has a fully equipped kitchen and adequate amounts of dinnerware, silverware, glassware and utensils, pots and pans, a toaster and expresso maker. The full sized refrigerator is stocked with whatever you need and a nice bottle of wine from the nearby winery is provided. There is also a modern washing machine in the kitchen, so you can leave the next morning with a backpack of clean clothes.

The beds have firm, comfortable mattresses, the bathroom includes a generous sized shower and there are plenty of spaces and tables to put your stuff.

For dinner Linda had a yogurt from the fridge and Jim made a sandwich on a leftover baguette from lunch with sliced turkey and havarti. We made bocadillos of scrambled egg and cheese and stored them in the fridge tonight to take with us tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Our washed clothes are all dry and repacked.

So, with this last entry in today’s blog, we’ll call it a day with the creation of another great memory of today’s walk and our stay in this pilgrim’s paradise.

Walked today: 5.7 mi Camino2023: 52.3 mi

We started walking earlier this morning, at 6:00. It was also a cool 61F with a nice cool, dry breeze all the way.

We stopped in Villatuerta for breakfast.

then continued on to Estella, reaching the edge of town at 9:15.

Linda’s reading glasses broke on our last night in Obanos, but today was the first opportunity to find a “farmacia” to search for a replacement. On the way into town, we stopped at the first pharmacy we saw and quickly got her some new (red) glasses for 16.90€ with the patient assistance of the pharmacist.

We walked on to the Plaza de los Fueros and found a comfortable place to sit, ordered a glass of OJ (Linda) and cafe con leche (Jim) and waited for our room to be ready.

At 10 o’clock we rang the bell at Hostal Cristina and were admitted. We quickly checked in and began enjoying our Estella home for the next 20 hours.

Estella is a charming town that has become a favorite for us. We have stayed in Hostal Cristina every Camino (2014, ’17, ’19, ’22 and 2023, staying two nights and using taxi service in 2019 to advance to the next village when rooms were not available.

For us, it’s a town of positive surprises. By mere accident we have stayed here during Estella’s annual festival on two occasions. These festivals included thousands of revellers, giant dancing puppets (gigantes) and running of the bulls, marching bands, etc. And today is the second time we have stayed here on a Thursday, the town market day, which has been a routine for 900 years.

At mid-afternoon we had lunch at a favorite local restaurant on the town square.

Last year we chronicled the Thursday market in our blog. Today, we took a photo of the aftermath of the market after a miraculous 1 hour pack-up and disappearance.

After lunch we returned to our room to nap/relax and blog and to give our full stomachs time to settle.

Even with a late setting sun, our body clocks were winding down and so we called it a day, another enjoyable day for Camino2023.

Walked today: 5.4 mi Camino2023: 46.6 mi

This morning at 7:00 after a short taxi ride from Obanos to Mañeru, we began walking toward Cirauqui. It was a cool 63 degrees with a refreshing 10mph breeze.

We approached and then walked around the base of Cirauqui rather than up to the top and back down again, a trick we learned two Caminos ago.

In 2014 after a killer climb up the hill into Lorca at the end of a 12 mile walk from Obanos to Lorca, Linda saw a bench, collapsed onto it and didn’t move while savoring a much deserved rest.

On every subsequent Camino in 2017, 2019 and 2022 the reaching and collapsing on the bench became Linda’s motivation for making the final push up the hill. And today was no exception.

Bodega del Camino is one of our favorites. It’s an albergue with dormitory type beds as well as private single and double rooms, some with ensuite bathrooms. This is our 5th visit over the past 9 years.

Even though it is now under its third ownership since our first visit in 2014, it has always been well maintained: overall cleanliness, lights, AC, wifi, water, bathrooms, etc. are always in working order.

It is one of the few places that has screens on room windows, so the cool, dry breezes, especially at night can be enjoyed without having to deal with pesky insects.

Food is available all day, offerings are diverse, prepared well and tasty. At reasonable prices.

It’s one of the easiest places to wash and dry your clothes or pay to have it done.

There is a kitchen, accessible to guests to prepare their own meals if they choose.

Guests are treated with respect and are expected to act responsibly. Gentle reminders are present throughout the property that are effective and sometimes entertaining.

We had a light lunch at 12:30 and spent the afternoon reading , blogging and napping.

At 7:00, we, alone, had the pilgrims dinner of soup, simple salad, baked chicken and rice with an ice cream bar for dessert.

We retired to our room and called it a day.

Walked today: 5.0 mi Camino2023: 41.2 mi

We began our walk thru the village square at 6:45. It was only 66 degrees but unusually humid at 85%… with a forecasted high of 94 degrees.

In the 14th century Santa Felicia, sister to the Duke of Aquitaine (San Guillén) left her home for a pilgrimage to Santiago. The life suited her and when she arrived in Obanos she decided to stay and to devote herself to aiding pilgrims. Her brother set out on a mission of his own, that of bringing her back home with the lure of the comfortable lifestyle she had left behind.

He was unable to do so and in a fit of rage, he killed her. Overcome with remorse, the young Duke decided to complete her pilgrimage in penitence. On his return journey, he holed up in the nearby hermitage of Arnotegui. He built a chapel there and continued the mission that his sister had begun. The Iglesia de San Juan Bautista preserves the skull of Guillén.

A little more than a mile from Obanos we approached the town of Puente la Reina.

As we left Puente la Reina, the sun was becoming a factor so we did our first test run on a sun umbrella we brought with us from home. It does a great job of creating perpetual shade for the user. With some fine-tuning on mounting it to the day pack, we should have an effective tool for mitigating future sunny walks during Camino2023.

The final 1.5 miles to Mañeru was a nicely packed gravel walking surface that could best be be described as: steep > steeper> very steep and the last 100 yds… NO WAY!!!

We walked into Mañeru at 9:45 and stopped at Bar/Albergue El Cantero for breakfast and to rendezvous with our pre-arranged taxi ride back to Casa Raichu in Obanos.

Upon returning to Casa Raichu , we crashed in our room and in the living room available to guests. At 7:00, dnner was prepared and served by Elena, the owner/manager and our delightful host.

We met and chatted with two delightful ladies this afternoon and at dinner. One was from Belgium, the other from Australia. It was the first Camino for both. They met for the first time few days ago and plan to walk the Camino together.

We settled our bill for the past two days and said our goodbyes as we will meet our taxi tomorrow at 6:45 to take us back to Mañeru to continue Camino2023.