Rest Day in Puente La Reina

Today was our first rest day. We weren’t sure what a rest day would be like. Would we be bored? Would we miss the walk? How could we force ourselves to be restful when we are always walking around, even at home?

We have four or five rest days scheduled (I can’t remember off the top of my head), and we purposely set it up to take test days in small places with little to do. We knew if we took a rest days in cities we’d be out exploring, defeating the purpose of rest days! And Puente La Reina has maybe 2000 residents? It’s not totally sleepy but not much of a tourist draw.

Today our big objectives were to wash our clothes and to get food for tomorrow. We hand wash and drip dry our clothes and we know bigger items like shirts, leggings, and my hiking dresses take more than one day to dry so rest days are our best shot at getting the wash done. As I write, only one garment has dried! But if they don’t fry we put the damp items in a ziploc and hand them up first thing when we arrive in our next destination.

Tomorrow and for the next four or five days it’s going to be hot. Mid 80°s and no shade. Not bad for sitting but not comfortable for walking really. So we’re leaving early tomorrow. Unfortunately that means we won’t get the nice breakfasts at the places we’re staying, but at least it will be cooler when we do the bulk of the walk! It also doesn’t get light here until after 7:00 am so we decided to try leaving at 7:00 and letting the predawn light guide us rather than walking with a headlamp earlier. We’ll see by tomorrow how it all works out! We bought apples, almonds, and granola bars to eat on the trail and will stop for coffee after 8:00-8:30 when the bars open. A bar is a little cafe that serves light food, coffee, beer, and wine. And bars are open most of the day where restaurants (and the restaurant portion of bars that offer cooked meals) are open sometimes in the early afternoon and then not until after 8 pm or so.

So we went to the churches in town here today, and we walked over and took pictures of the puente (bridge) that the town is named for. And we got fabulous sandwiches for lunch! Toasted baguette split down the middle with chicken breast pieces, caramelized onions, brie, and sautéed mushroom sauce. Yum! We had them with a coke with lemon. Then we took a nap!

Tomorrow we’ve got a 24 km walk to Estella!Read more