Part 2: El Camino

Our 2nd trip on "El Camino" was much longer than the first. I don't think I've ever knowingly walked so far in my life: 12 miles. It's broken up into phases and we did the phase from Zizur Menor to Puente la Reina. The lovely Irene dropped us off in Zizur, which is where she lives, and picked us up on the other end with Mr. Francisco "Paco" Mayo (Inaki's father, not to be confused with this guy). Here's the routy-toot-toot:



 Sorry about all the flags, it's the best image I could find, since we didn't follow a road.

This was my first day with my new hiking shirt on and it felt pretty good. With a few adjustments I think I resembled what Marilyn Monroe might have, out on a camping trip. I tried to get a split screen up in here, but Blogger no likey the copyright infringement on posting a Marilyn photo.

And off we went! Through the fields of Zizur and up over El Perdon (The Pardon) which is a hill that they refer to as a "mountain" here in Navarra. I believe the first town we strolled through was Galar. Like I've said, the small towns on the route are my favorite part. Suddenly you enter a town that has been there for a thousand years, follow the path and walk right out the other side. They all have incredible old buildings and nooks and crannies to explore. Here's a shot in front of the church.

We got the best views of the day on our way to the top of the Perdon. It was a little muddy, but what a gorgeous day. This has to be my favorite picture of the day. Somehow, Inaki made the perfect face for an adult anti-anxiety ad. Oh so happy, and I don't know why, sort of thing...

At the top of the Perdon, there's a sort of art piece of other pilgrims who have crossed the top. You get a great panorama of where you've been and where you'll be going as well.

All the places you can head to from the top of the Perdon.

It started to get a little rainy on our way down, but we did get one last image of the park in another small town that I can't remember the name of.

And that's it, another little adventure of mine. I need to get another good rant in soon, so my writing gets more creative, but I just haven't had time for complaints! One of these days!

El Camino: first trek

One of the things Inaki and I vowed to do when we came to Spain was to spend some time on the Camino Santiago and do as many phases of the walk as we could. We've done 3 now, a short stretch in July and 2 longer ones this October. Though what I really want to post on are our last 2 hikes, I figure I should go in order and lead with the pithy 4 miler. In our defense, it was 95 degree weather and we weren't in the mood for a 20 kilometer trip.

This hike actually occurred on our way down the mountain with Dori in July. Since, as you may remember, we didn't want to dive into the forest, we didn't get much exercise and wanted a little more. We had her drop us off in Puerto de Erro and we walked to Ilarratz:

It was dusty and hot, but the trail was easy, mostly downhill to start. The tough part was the rocky terrain, hard to walk on and check out the view at the same time.

We had great views from the high point!

And loved the togetherness time.

It was so hot out that we actually started singing gospel songs to get through it. I don't know why really, but I think the spirit of the trail touched me somehow. Or, perhaps I was hallucinating. My "Amazing Grace" and "Saints", including the milk and honey train part, have never sounded better. A little further down the trail, We tried to catch Inaki, mid-spin jump, in a picture. Not sure why. This is as good as it got...

This is one of the small towns we went through. They are my favorite part of the camino! All the homes have so much charm and character and make me remember how cool it is that I live here and get to do this stuff.

Did I mention it was hot? On the way into our final destination, Ilarratz, Inaki went so crazy with heat that he acted out his favorite scene from his all time favorite movie, Gladiator (ask him about it sometime and get ready for the rant of your life).

And that was it. I'll get info on the other 2 tours up soon!