Stages 4, 5, and 6

Two things before I get into it…

1. Happy belated Memorial Day
2. Sorry I haven't written in a couple days. I've honestly just been tired and lazy and maybe a little bit rebellious

Pamplona to Puente la Reina - 23.8km

We left early from Pamplona as we have grown accustomed to and set off on our way. As I mentioned in the last post the fútbol championship was happening and Madrid was one of the playing teams. So naturally when they won the city erupted with excitement and pride leading to drinking and general frivolity often seen after a momentous achievement for a region. While I did not partake in such activities I was sure to note their existence after the yelling, screaming, and cheering woke me from my much needed slumbers. But I digress. So as we were leaving the city that morning we witnessed various groups of people stumbling home after the night's escapades. The high buildings, the empty quiet streets, and the rising sun aided in our optimistic mood. I had one problem though, I was starving. The tranquility of the streets could only get me so far before I was acutely aware that the last time I had eaten was lunch and ice cream the day prior. Famished, very quickly did the monstrous characteristics of swimmer Annie emerge, that is will do anything if it ends in food. Naturally, since it was Sunday nothing was open. Literally NOTHING. The closest pilgrim bar was 5.1 km outside of town. After we figured that, getting to that point was my only intention. On our way through Pamplona three things of interest happened, 1) we got semi lost following two female pilgrims in pink hats and not paying attention (the hats from the wine tasting event the day prior) we got back fine because we quickly noted our error and re traced our steps a bit 2) In the distance we could hear a church choir singing, their songs echoing through the streets, their harmonized voices washing over us, compelling us to stop and take in the moment. 3) we walked through a Universidad which reminded me so much of the college life that I am only two weeks removed from. I had a sense of longing and sadness that I would not be returning to a campus such as CSU. The Universidad projected what most colleges do, potential and hope. Potential to do so much with our lives and the hope that we can all make our own individual mark on the world. Seems so much more attainable when one is axis student, a little different when you leave. Just another reason why I am going to miss college.

We made it to the café and I proceeded to snarf a basket of bread washed down with hot coffee → happy Annie. After we left the café in Cizur Menor, we could see that a large number of pilgrims were catching up with us, once again providing ample opportunities for camaraderie and companionship. We headed off towards Alto del Perdón easily seen in the distance, it's summit lined with wind turbines indicating our highest point for the day. As we climbed we came across a town a little more than halfway up by the name of Zariquiegui where we re grouped. While everyone got food, I took the time to pop over to the church of St. Andrew San Andrés to take a few quiet moments of prayer and reflection. Afterwards I headed off and came to the top of the mountain. The views were breathtaking to say the least and we were all able to look back at the region from which we have already traversed and say, “I walked across that!?” and then turn around to see what we were to tackle next.

Coming down from the mountain I suddenly had a surge of energy rush through me leading to me jogging the rocky path down. Content in my pace I had forgotten to look around. It wasn't until an Italian pilgrim waved at me from ahead and yelled something while gesturing to the side of the trail did I stop and slow down. My expression of surprise when I saw what he was indicating to must have been hilarious when paired with a rather higher pitched “oh!” The astute Italian was in fact pointing out a range of balanced rocks that lined the trail. It was a sharp reminder, to quote Ferris Beuler, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I did slow down a bit after that, but still jogged a bit, but really slowed down when I reached the bottom because ouch. My feet were feeling the distance, and I still had 6.5km left to go. So I took it slow the rest of the way in. One cool thing to note was that after we crossed over the mountain we were able to hear the church bells ringing from the towns below. One bell would ring for several minutes then the next town over would start, it went on and on. A nice addition to the already peaceful natural noises that we had been hearing. At one point in the town of Óbanos, the last town before our destination, we were walking through the vacant streets and came across a church just as they were letting out mass to proceed through the streets  to their own sounding bells. It was neat to see the community come together over something to special as their devotion to God.

Fast forward to La Reina, because I just meandered slowly the rest of the way and that's so much fun to re live (not). We returned to our developing habits of finding an albergue, settling in, setting put in search of food and drink, and returning with full bellies and happy souls for naps and reflection. In addition to the usual, I walked around town looking for an open farmacia (no such luck) and ended up wondering around the Queens Bridge before I headed to mass at the Inglesia de Santiago. Mass was beautiful and only a handful of people were present. Still getting over the not knowing Spanish thing, but I'm working on it! Getting better.

At the albergue we shared a room with only a handful of other people. A pair to note is a father/ son pair from California which we have kept along with since by mere happenstance. They have been a bit better at making friends than us so maybe they are our “in” if you will (joking, then again sort of not)

Puente la Reina to Estella - 21.9km

We left Puente la Reina not before stopping at a café for breakfast. There we experienced an older man, possibly the local drunk, who had tried to buy Betsy and I our breakfast. Not well versed in the language we struggled with our objections and even the worker at the establishment tried to aid in our objections. We left there laughing at the what had transpired and set off.

Immediately after town we started on a steep climb up and the conversation that we had started was cut short. My contacts were not working properly and I wasn't able to clearly see my surroundings, not being a fan I took them out on the spot and switched to my glasses. It's amazing what you can see when you change the lenses that you are looking through, literally! When we got to the top of the hill we could look over across the valley and see three little towns that we would got though and an expanse of vineyards and farmlands. The sun was starting to shine more on the mountains and brighten up the valley to urge it from its slumber and start anew. One area of particular interest was a group of lavender bushes grown in the shape of the earth's continents.

Once again I pulled ahead and made my way through the valley. In the town of Lorca, two towns from Estella, I contemplated stopping for our usual re group sessions, but I was feeling the momentum and have learned if you have it keep it up or you will regret it. On the way out of town I heard yipping sounds coming from a rough looking box thing. As I got closer I found that there were two puppies that resided in said box thing. I will admit to seriously contemplating taking one and putting it in the front part of my pack so it could look out as he and I do the Camino together. Tell me that doesn't sound awesome. But I thought better of it and moved on after visiting a little longer.

As I came into the last town before Estella, the black cloud that has been looming to the west decided to open up and dump down upon us poor pilgrims. At one point I thought that I could still push through it because I was feeling good. I passed by a café where a few people I was pacing with had stopped, thought better of it and turned around to relax and read the Camino book while I waited out the rain and for my amigos.

Once we re grouped we headed out and went to Estella. I was hurting and rusty as we were leaving because of the stop and slowly picked up pace, but not nearly the same as I had before. I also had to pull out the pole to assist as well. Once in Estella we got to an albergue, did our routine, and by the end of the night I was catching up on journaling and talking with fellow pilgrims on the patio on a beautiful night in Spain.

Estella to Los Arcos- 21.5km

So today! Finally talking about recent things! Yay! Today we actually stuck together most of the day, conversing with one another, laughing, and being merry. Just outside of Estella was a wine fountain that we took full advantage of :). It was very overcast for most of the day and we had apparently gone the “long” way through the towns and not the scenic route that a lot of others had chosen. Which was nice because there weren't too many people around. Today's goal was to drink more water because I have found myself on the dehydrated side of things. The error in my thinking was that what going in, must come out. And we were in fields again. Do with that what you will and how that may have affected how quickly I was walking to reach a baño. We made it to Los Arcos the quickest yet, even with pit stops, and have settled in and our people have since caught up and joined us.

That about sums it up! 

Picture Descriptions (top to bottom):
1)Wind turbines at the top of Alto del Perdón
2)Streets of Pamplona
3)Balanced rocks coming down from Alto del Perdón
4) Queens Bridge in La Reina
5) Looking down from Cirauqui
6)In Estella
7)After the big climb from La Reina
8)Wine fountain
9)Fields from Stage 6