Noja to Güemes

The alarm goes off at 7am, I am not ready to get up yet, so I sleep for another half hour. I then hop up and start with the usual chores, pack up my things and head down stairs to check out and meet up with George. We find a bar in the plaza and order our coffees, then on goes the backpacks and off we head for our day of walking. We walk on roads all day, they range from quite bitumen to quite dirt roads, there is not a lot of climbing today, which is very welcome. It is overcast with a slight breeze when we start this morning but, it soon heats up, the clouds disappear, as does the breeze and the sun is now high and dominating the sky. It’s a really hot walking day, shade is hard to find and we break where we can. Our first opportunity is nothing more than a mirage - the cafe doors are open, the awnings are being rolled out but, no, they are not open, we are skirting around the towns, so have little to no options. After climbing a hill we find a big old oak tree on the side of the road, there is enough room under the shade of this old gentleman's branches to sit and rest for awhile, so off comes the backpacks and we just sit and relax for the next 10 minutes. After this mini break we get back on track, we walk for another 10 minutes or so, George sees a camping ground with buildings up ahead, so asks a man taking out his trash if there is a bar up there, the man nods and ends up walking us to it. We all have cold drinks and sit for the next 1/2 hour or so, then it's back to the road - these kms are not going to walk themselves. We arrive in Güemes and festivities are underway, there are 2 bars in town and they are both overflowing with well dressed families and friends all chatting, laughing and having a great time. Cue the smelly, daggy pilgrilms, in we walk and George happens to snag us a table, so we sit, drink, eat, chat, laugh and enjoy watching all the happiness that is surrounding us, we stay for a least an hour before pushing on for our final 1.5km. The last segment of our walk is extremely hot, not a breath of air and mainly up and down on a bitumen road, we get to our albergue, are given a drink of water on arrival, check in, are shown to our beds, then shower and find a cool spot under some trees and relax. The albergue we are staying at is a very special one and could quite possibly be the best one on all camino routes. It's called La Cabaña del Abuelo Peuto and is run by Ernesto and a team of volunteers, we sit and listen to a talk on the history of this albergue and the life of Ernesto, he was born in the original building and has dedicated his life to helping others across the world. Tonight there are 87 pilgrims staying at this albergue, we have a communal dinner where we are all feed at once, the meal is divine and one of the best I have had thus far, it consists of fresh bread rolls, a broth with meat and veggies, bottles of red wine, jugs of water and yoghurt. This albergue is a donativo, which means you pick the price you want to pay, some pilgrims don't pay anything as there is no set price. Güemes is on fiesta so a lot of the 20-30 year olds head the 1.5km back to Güemes to attend, they are partied out and head home around 3am, us oldies just sleep while we can, trying to forget our aches and pains.Read more