Camino Day 8: Torres del Rio to Logroño

Total Distance: 17.2km
Step Count: 27.8k
Blisters to date: 2
Tortillas to date: 9
Injuries: 1 sprained toe 🦶

Today I walked with Adam and we started moving at 5:30am to beat the heat. We walked 10km to Viana where we stopped for brekkie and ran into a few friendly faces we were likely not to see again on the trail anymore as some were finishing their Caminos and others were walking shorter days. This included Cedric, a lovely nomadic Swiss guy who always had a smile on his face and entertained us for half an hour with many thoughts on life and society.

Once in Logroño, we met up with Marijose and Alba for a drink and a nibble (tortilla of course!) to say our goodbyes. It was very sad to say see them go but that is the Camino life. After that, Adam decided to go for a nap and I was looking for a nice cafe to sit down and journal/sketch for a bit.

I found myself walking down these beautiful laneways full of bars (and shade!) and I bumped into the Spanish guys: Jesus, Jorge and Ramon. A few minutes into the encounter, a glass of wine made its way into my hands and by like 9:00pm I had drank 3 wines, 6 beers, some weird Scottish coffee drink and enjoyed some delicious pintxos! We went to the Bar de los Champi and another bar where I obviously had another tortilla because why not!? Ramon had to leave to catch a bus back to his hometown so there was three of us left but what a joy it was to be out and about around Logroño’s vibrant night life with locals. More importantly, a real fun bunch.

Many drinks and wonderful conversations later demanded some food (at least for this lil gal that was one away from one too many) so we did a bit more bar hopping to get some food (another tortilla 🫣) and I was escorted to my albergue at 11:30pm.

Jorge was the only one continuing on the Camino so we made a bet that involved buying more beers based on who’d win the Women’s World Cup the next day. We would need them to survive the heatwave!

He was also carrying around an anti inflammatory ointment (for my strained toe) that his mother had made. I was expected to return it the next day but it has stayed with me since and helped me and a few other pilgrims along the way.

There’s lots of kindness on the Camino 🩷Meer informatie