Friday, April 5, 2024
Last night was the worst night of sleep I’ve had on the Camino. Heck, it was the worst night of sleep I’ve had on this whole trip. Anahi has developed a cold, and Betty might be coming down with it too. They were both sniffling and coughing through the night. My mattress was all springs and no padding. I was sharing a tiny bed with Ian, and he had the pillow. Our next-bed neighbor moved around a ton in the night, and his bed was super squeaky. I don’t think I slept a wink.
Despite that, we got off to a little better start this morning. After packing we had a quick breakfast and made a lunch for the day. That is a really crucial part of each day because if we don’t make lunch we run the risk of having to pay for expensive restaurant food or not having a town in the right spot and missing lunch altogether. Both of those things have already happened to us on the Camino.
The hike out of Estella took us by the forge workshop of Ayegui, where we got a stamp. Not far from that is the wine fountain of Iratxe (Irache). It’s literally a fountain in the side of a wall that has two spigots, one pours out water, and the other wine. Then a long uphill took us into the woods. We played leapfrog with a couple of Brazilian ladies nearly the entire morning.
The trail today was beautiful, and it had more variety than I had expected. We had a couple of little towns, but the first part was mostly a long uphill through forests. The views were amazing, and during a couple of stretches beautiful old castles watched over us.
River walked a lot more today than she has in the past. I’m to the point now where it doesn’t bother me much to carry her, but it’s good for both of us for her to walk. The problem is that when she walks, she wants to be four. That means she wants to stop at every park, and climb up rocks and pick flowers and splash her hiking pole in every puddle. It makes for slow going.
We had our bocadillo lunches in Luquin, and then not too long after we started back on the long and lonely road through a beautiful green valley.
Anahi was really booking it, so Betty sped up to be with her. I let them go ahead. Then River decided she was done walking and done riding. She just plopped onto the grass by the side of the trail to take a nap. I was in no mood to argue, so I pulled out our little travel blanket (this thing is super useful), and she took a nap.
Alicia didn’t want to wait around, so I told her to move on and catch up with Betty and River -- more on that later.
I thought for sure River would fall asleep, but she didn’t. She just laid there bundled in her little blanket looking at the sky. After 15 minutes, I said it was time to go, and she was OK with that. It was a nice rest for Kimball, Ian, and me as well.
Not too long after that, Kimball told me he had a massive stomach ache. I told him there wasn’t anything I could do about that. Then I saw the urgency in his eyes. This was that kind of stomach ache. The problem was, we were in the middle of this enormous and beautiful valley that had no bathrooms, and barely a bush to squat behind.
But there was one bush, so Kimball went and ... ahem ... took care of business while I talked him through some things and Ian and River played in a puddle with their hiking poles.
It was definitely a moment to be remembered.
I kept thinking we would catch up to Betty and the other girls, but we didn’t -- not until we got into Los Arcos.
There, at the entrance to the town, we found Alicia. She had never caught up to Betty and Anahi, and when she reached the town she had decided to stay there and wait for me because she didn’t know where in town the others could be. She had waited there for nearly an hour before we got there, and she was understandably frustrated.
So after we got Alicia we walked to the municipal albergue. I had hoped that Betty would have our beds already set aside and maybe even some dinner going, but she wasn’t there. We finally found her and Anahi on the steps of the church, finishing off what had been a lovely day for them with ice cream. Alicia and I were a little frustrated, but I was also really happy to see them so happy. Betty has had some hard days on the Camino, and she needed another good one.
The albergue in Los Arcos is pretty nice, and the hospitalero got us into a room with just a few other pilgrims. I even found a big sink to give River a bath in.
Oh, and I snuck out with Betty in the evening and took some pictures of the church, which is beautiful.
After more work prepping and cleaning up dinner and checking email and reading scriptures and taking a shower, I finally got to bed. These days are very full.
