Larrasoaña

A bottle of wine shouldn't cost 3.50€. Just so you know where I am.

We left Viscarret around 8:30am after a light breakfast. We walked under a canopy of trees most of the day.

Up...down...up...down...down...down...down...WTF am I walking on...down. Actually, I'd heard so much about this treacherous descent on "dragon's teeth" that I was prepared for it to be much worse than it was. It was long and hot but I never doubted our ability to get through it.

A couple from Chile were riding e-Bikes down the treacherous stretch and one of them got caught in a tree branch. When she pulled her bike out, it ended up in a jagged rock ditch. We helped her get everything righted on her bike and she was on her way. She has massive cojones riding down that trail.

We stopped for lunch at Zubiri and saw a few people we knew. I had the ribs that came with fries and salad. It was all delish. The olive oil is so good here.

All the pilgrims are in agreement that the distances on the maps are underestimated (that's polite speak for BS). We were supposed to walk 10 miles today but it was over 12 miles. We soaked our feet in the cold river and tiny fish started nibbling on our toes. We're sharing a room today with two ladies...we both got the bottom bunk since we arrived first. Pat's a lucky guy. We decided to forego dinner at the albergue since we had such a large lunch. We ended up sharing salad and pasta at a little place across the street owned by a couple who met on the Camino and left their jobs to work on the Camino. We met a couple there who live in Alsace, France (on the border of Switzerland and Germany) but the husband works in Switzerland. He is a chef and his salary is 3x what it would be if he worked in France. The wife does her shopping in Germany. It's fascinating hearing the everyday reality of other parts of the world.

Tomorrow we head to Pamplona and will be meeting up with the Aussies for dinner.Lue lisää