We have been walking now for a week and a typical day of our new peregrino (pilgrim) life involves walking, eating, sleeping and socializing.
After arriving in Pamplona, our feet and bodies were tired so for the past few days we have been walking approximately 20 kms a day. We´ve walked through Puenta la Reina, Estella, Los Arcos and now we are in Logrono.
We´ve been staying in refugios, which are hostels for pilgrims. We must show our pilgrims passports in order to get a bunk bed for 3 euros ($4) a night. The typical day of a pilgrim starts at around 6:30am. The ants or pilgrims all start getting up and scurrying around to eat, pack up and head out to start walking, since everyone must be out by 8am. We are following in Dad and Ben´s footsteps as the "lazy pilgrims" because we don´t get up until after 7am and find it difficult to make it out before 8am. A couple of days ago, they were screaming at me "vlamos, vlamos, vlamos" (leave, leave, leave) - they are sticklers on getting everyone out by 8am.
We usually eat our breakfast outside the refugio and watch everyone head off for the day. We look at the maps and decide before we start where we plan to end up at days end. We usually get on the trail, which is marked by a yellow arrow around 8:30am ... the last of the pack. Slowly but surely along the route we meet up with other pilgrims as they rest for snacks or lunch. We too stop several times to eat and give our feet a rest. The terrain each day has been completely different, which makes it such a treat each day to travel over different land.
We usually arrive at our destination in between 3-4pm and we don´t know how or why but we seem to be some of the first pilgrims to arrive. We still can´t understand it because we don´t usually pass many pilgrims during the day. Still a mystery. They give us a bunk and one by one the pilgrims we have met over the past week arrive and we all chat it up. We usually take a hot shower before having a siesta (afternoon nap) from 4-6pm. Around 6:30pm, Bow and I head out to see the city or town and try to find a place to have dinner. Restaurants open at 8pm and offer a pilgrims meal of the day, which includes an appy, main, dessert and drink. So far, the food has been delicious and very healthy. Not all pilgrims go out to the restaurants, many cook for themselves at the refugio, but we consider it our big treat of the day. We see the same crowd of pilgrims at dinner each night and when we go to leave we usually go by each table and say goodbye in either French, English or Spanish. It´s actually quite a lot of fun.
We head back to the refugio by 10pm and head straight to bed. By then, many people are already sleeping. We go to bed to get a good night´s rest. After walking over 20km a day food tastes so much better and sleep feels so much deeper.
That is our typical day of this walking journey. Along our route we have met many people of all ages who are walking the camino for a number of reasons.
We have met Helene from France who is about 55 and has walked across France for the past four weeks and plans to finish the camino in Spain in the next four weeks. We are on the same time frame so our goal of the day is to see her at least once since she is incredibly fast and even if we see her in the distance we feel like we´re walking at a good pace.
We met David, 24, from England at the beginning of our walk. He is walking the camino to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He is camping instead of staying at the refugios. He is taking two months, which is a good thing because the day we met him, he had only made it 3kms. He takes it one step at a time. As we walk, we often ask each other "so where do you think David made it today?".
We´ve met Marc Olivier, 28, from France, who is walking for 10 days this year and plans to finish the camino over the next four years. We usually see him at some point each day. Bow and I speak French to him and he responds in English - we are all learning.
We´ve met a father and daughter from Salt Spring Island who are planning to walk the whole thing together. They usually ask us what our plan is for the day and we´ve been keeping on the same route for the past couple of days.
We´ve been emailing Kendall and Graham, our Canadian friends we met in Barcelona, to find out where they are. We heard today that they are about two days behind us so we think that we will probably run into them somewhere on this route.
We are really enjoying the camino and are looking forward to the days of walking ahead!
Jill
Just to add a bit to what my wife has already stated...
It´s pretty much a game of leap frog everyday with the same group of people. some start under the cover of darkness but Jill and I both decided we might as well leave when we can see where we are going and also see the unbelievable sights and sounds of Spain waking up!
As Jill mentioned, we usually are one of the last to leave but sure enough, once we get our pace set we blaze our trail by half of the pilgrims in the first hour. Then the game of leap frog begins... we stop for a bit of a rest and snack while watching a half dozen or so familiar faces walk by... hola, buenas dias or bonjour! Then were up and at it after a quick foot rub and within the hour we pass those same faces who have stopped for a bite to eat... buen camino or bon appetit... you catch our drift. Then, we trudge along and get to our achieved destination and start the cycle all over again... sleep, eat, walk, socialize, eat again, sleep, etc.... It´s actually quite comical at times...
But for those of you who think this is an easy task, think again! This is one of the most painful things I have ever done to my body at any one time... the day we walked 30 km over the Pyrenees and then followed that with 30 km the next day... whoa, that made a 4 day ultimate tournament feel like a picnic in the park! no kidding... I for one would have never believed it either but you have to experience it to really get a proper understanding of what our bodies are going through. But I´m not complaining in the least, I just have to remember to stretch as much as possible (when I think of it that is, I`m terrible with stretching) and give the old footsies a nice rub down.
Anyways, we have just completed our first full week of walking and we are in Najera. Meaning, in 7 days we have walked 195 km!! Not bad for 2 lil kids from the stix eh!
Anyways, we´ll keep you informed of what´s going on but as well, you keep us up to date of what is going on back in O-town!
Bow.
PS. Richard Pfaff staff, if you are following... I am missing you guys a little! Actually, I´m missing you guys a lot but the kids only a little, but I am thinking of all of you! haha And feeling sorry for you all at the same time!! Talk to you soon.
Posted by jill at October 2, 2003 06:50 PM