Day 9

It finally dawned on me that the town we were heading to named Najera was the Spanish equivalent of "Nazareth". There had been a Nazare in Portugal with the same meaning, so I guess it made sense. That old song by the Band came to mind as it was so fitting for what I was feeling!

"I pulled in to Nazareth, I was feeling about half past dead." I had walked right about 12 miles and my feet and ankles were ready to get off this route. As always, the last couple of miles were the worst! You're filled with anticipation as you walk, looking forward to catching a glimpse of your destination, and finally you see it. But it's waaaay off in the distance and it seems to take forever.

We had learned to use an important word today in Spanish: autobus! Simply put, we used the bus to help get us on our way to where we would spend the night. I took it 10 kilometers out, avoiding the urban sprawl of Logrono, a city of nearly 200,000 people. Sharon took it all the way to Najera to help her feet continue to heal from the blisters.

I saw Roy and Cathy from Arizona as I was about to leave and they asked about our plans, so they were eager to join me in getting out of town. It was less than a euro and a half and it was money well spent, as we avoided a bit of a climb coming out of town.

So we hit Nazarette just after 8 a.m., and as we had only had a cup off coffee from the vending machine, we stopped for a bite of breakfast. It was a small town and we had no problem finding the Camino. There were some nice views!

And of course, I ran into an old friend there!

The three of us made good time and we soon were arriving in Ventosa ("Windy") just in time for mid-morning coffee. Along the way, who should we run into but Camino Tom, the guy from Arkansas who lives in Atlanta and teaches a class on walking the Camino at the REI store where he works. He is a wealth of knowledge, as this is his third Camino.  

From Ventosa, we continued on across the winefields and orchards or this part of Spain. As always, around every corner was a photo-worthy view and we even saw a hot air lifting off from behind us.

There are flowers growing all along the Camino, but one of the prettiest collections we saw was in the parking lot of just a normal apartment building. Someone obviously planted and treated it with care!

A few miles further on we came to a cemetery with a 12th century Roman door. The gardner had parked his truck out front, an odd juxtaposition of 12th and 21st century, and also an excellent opportunity for me to use the word juxtaposition as emblematic of my erudition. But I digress....here's the cemetery door:

It has held up well since the 12th century! We stepped inside for a quick view and it was somewhat similar to the ones we had seen in Portugal. Certainly well cared for! But one tombstone captured our attention--there was a photo of a young man, an emblem of a guitar beside him. His tee shirt read "Heavy Metal". We weren't sure we would want to be remembered for all eternity for our love of heavy metal!

On we hiked and as noon drew near we came upon a rise that gave view to a magnificent panorama. Cathy was good enough to snap a picture of "The Three Amigos" but we avoided bursting into song!

A little further up the road and Tom caught view of a snake, but it crawled on off quickly. He said it was green and about three feet long. We hadn't seen much in the way of wildlife along the Camino, although lots of dogs and cats. Not much further along and we saw another living being carrying all his worldly possessions on his back also, and we couldn't help but laugh! Shadowman pointed him out for the picture.

Najera is a nice town with a river running through it and a riverewalk and sidewalk cafes running alongside. Sharon was waiting for me in front of our alburgue and I was glad to see her, of course. Our plan had worked out perfectly.

We had gotten there just in time for an early lunch, about 1:30 and we Tom, Roy and Cathy soon came up and joined us, followed by their friend Bryant. Bryant was from Los Angeles and actually lived within two blocks of where Sharon and her family had lived in the Maywood area. Small world!

You meet so many fascinating people on the Camino, and everybody's story is a little different, but has at least one thing in common--they are all out here walking!

Roy was telling me about his two most interesting characters he had met. One was a young lady in her 20s who bought a donkey and is using it to carry camping gear for use along the way. But the other took the cake--he told me about a little old lady from Barcelona who was walking with a canary in a cage.

"Guess why she is carrying the canary," Roy challenged me.  "And think deep." I don't know, I answered, maybe it represented some desire she had carried all her life and when she got to Santiago she would release it.  Nope, he said. She was carrying the canary because she didn't have anyone to leave it with back home. And the fascinating thing that happened, within an hour of him telling me that story, we rounded a corner in Najera and there she was, just as he had described her! Only there was no canary.

Where is your bird, Roy asked her. She had arrived in Najera, checked in to her albergue, took a shower and left the bird in the bathroom to enjoy the cool and refresh.

As we headed back to our room after dinner, we caught a glimpse of our actual window giving out from the room where we are staying.  Doesn't look like much, but it's a place to sleep overnight, if we can. There's a rock concert starting up the road at 9 p.m. and we'll see how that goes.

But I think the most interesting people I met today were two young people sitting in the lobby as I was writing my blog. Their names are Sandra and Pablo and they are both from Mexico. She had started the 13th and Pablo the 14th, both in St. Jean. 

Sandra told me she had been in a place where pilgrims congregate and heard a young man say he was from Mexico. "You're from Mexico?"

she asked. "What city?"

Turns out they were both from the same town in Mexico, just south of Texas. But they had never met before arriving on the Camino.

"The Camino has interesting ways of bringing people together!" I observed.

So we're ready to turn in, a little earlier than last night, but still most folks have already retired in our room. Hopefully we'll slip in quietly and won't wake anybody up. Until after I go to sleep, anyway!