"We're going up there," he said.
Armando was born in Mexico but works in Switzerland as an architect. He had thought about either hiking in Nepal or on the Camino, but opted for the Camino because it is the season for monsoons in Nepal. Wise choice!
We shared breakfast together, which consisted of coffee, bread, butter and strawberry jam, and some little cupcakes. It was delicious! It needed to hold us for a while as we were about 6 kms from the first village and 6 kms to the next.
But in between the two came Alto del Perdon, or the Summit of Forgiveness. It rises from Cizur Menor at a height of about 450 meters to a peak of 790 meters. That's 340 meters, and while I don't have the conversion in front of me, that's a climb of over a thousand feet! Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
The peak is somewhat famous, not only because of the ridge of wind turbines, but also because of the silhouettes of pilgrims from bygone days. While the going up was steep in places, the trail was small gravel and dirt and easy to navigate. It got us pretty easily up to the top where we had the obligatory picture made.
The young lady who snapped the pic for us was thoughtful enough to get both the statues and the wind turbines behind us. The view from up top was absolutely fantastic. Actually, every step of the way going up was beautiful. It seemed everytime you rounded a curve, you were rewarded with more beautiful views, like some of these:
They could use some Slovene style Gospel benches along the way, as you can tell!
So we hung out for a few minutes up top and rested, then prepared for the descent. I thought John Brierly's guidebook was perhaps an exaggeration. He writes that the climb gives a beautiful view back towards Pamplona "before dropping down steeply on loose boulders (!) into the valley beyond.
It was some of the worst two hours of our lives! Someone has transported all these rocks ranging in size from baseball to softball to basketball size and scattered them liberally over the trail, no doubt to prevent erosion but obviously to make the pilgrims pay for the pardon they received on top of Alto del Perdon! You just had to use your trekking poles and carefully place one foot after another. I was so proud of Sharon, she never stumbled or fell, not one time. And she hardly complained!
Finally we made it down and it was just a short distance to the next village of Uterga. We were thirsty and hungry and looking forward to a place to sit down. We weren't disappointed! The pilgrim albergue in Uterga also boasted a pretty decent little restaurant. I enjoyed fried eggs, chicken breast, french fries and peppers.
We ran into acquaintances from the previous day at the restaurant and one had had a sinking spell coming down the trail. This was his third camino, but it still had gotten to him, so they had called a taxi to come pick them up and carry them on to Puente la Reina.
You can do that, I wondered? Sure, we were up to walking five more miles. If we had to. But our ankles had already filed a formal complaint with our brains and promised to take serious action in the morning if we walked much further when we could be riding.
So we finished up our lunch and I asked the waitress if she could call us a cab. "You are a cab," she said. No, not actually. She called us a taxi cab and within minutes it seemed we were loading our backpacks into his minivan and climbin aboard for the five minute drive to the Albergue Puente, a new establishment that had opened in the last year and in which we had reserved a private room for just the two of us!
Upon checking in and finding our room, I took one of the nicest naps of my entire napping career. It was only improved upon by the hot shower that followed, as we changed into the clothes we would wear tomorrow.
Puente la Reina is a small town, but it features two churches from the 15th century and a Roman bridge built 2,000 years ago that we will cross in the morning. We wandered around town some, taking in the scenery and finding a place for our evening meal. Here are some of the pictures I took:
Finally we had trudged all the way down mainstreet, doing some window shopping and visiting the big church that stands quite literally right outside our albergue window. It was time to grab a bite to eat. The food has been getting better each meal! For dinner I ordered pork loin, eggs, pepper, french fries and salad and it came on one big plate looking like this:
We managed to stay awake through the meal and finally I topped mine off with one of these, which the kids will remember pretty well from Portugal--Magnum!
Day was done, but I had one last idea in mind. We had suffered somewhat with the 10 kilometers we walked today, and had had to call a taxi for the last part of the Way. Tomorrow would be even further between stops and our taxi driver encouraged us to start early because it would get quite warm and there isnt much cover. Our trail tomorrow goes across gently rolling farmland and vineyard, and we won't stop until we get to Estella, about 20 kilometers away. That's 12 miles. But no mountain.
So I did us a favor. I had heard about this service and decided to give it a try. For just 7 euros per bag, there's a company that will pick up your backpack and carry it to your next stop. You do have to know where you are staying, so with the help of the lady at the front desk, I made a reservation at the Albergue ANFAS in Estella, a smaller pilgrims resting point with only 34 beds. With any luck, our backpacks will be waiting for us when we get there. With any luck! Regardless, I look forward to walking unencumbered tomorrow!
We went through our backpacks and picked out a few items we could jettison to help lighten our load a bit. I had heard this was a pretty common practice. But there is one item I'm carrying that I'm pretty glad I brought. Helps me keep up with the blog so that all the details don't run together when I try to remember the trip next month or next year. Handy as a pocket on a shirt:
Buenas noches, y hasta manana!
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