Day 6: Puente la Reina to Estella

June 25, 2014

“It is well to keep in mind, however, that happiness and well-being are strictly personal concepts. For some people the sense of freedom and adventure is an essential part of the experience. Trust your instinct. This is your journey. The route you take is up to you.” –A Five Star Life

Route: Puente la Reina (Gares) to Estella (Lizarra)/Ayegui
Date: 25 June 2014
Distance: 23 km (14 mi)
Accommodations: Albergue San Cipriano de Ayegui

Early Morning Journal Entry

I reach up to turn on the overhead light for about the 30th time. Two minutes later I find myself once again in the dark. The light is on an auto timer. I’m struck by the fact that somehow, this could be a metaphor for life, though I’m too tired and frustrated to analyze exactly how. Once the light is on, I resume packing in the corridor of the refugio at Puente La Reina and am grateful when a young peregrino takes over the job of refreshing the light switch every two minutes.

Today we are up at 5:30am, much earlier than previous days, as we hope to complete the majority of our 24 km (14.9 mi) day while the air is fresh and cool. I am packing in the hallway so as not to wake up the pilgrims who are still sleeping. Most, however, are up as well and many leave before Olalla and I have finished eating our breakfast of tomatoes and cheese.

Cheese and tomatoes for breakfast again. I’m tired of lugging all this around in my pack.

Olalla and some other pilgrims attempting to figure out the coffee vending machine in the albergue dining hall.

As we leave the albergue, we run into our Brazilian friends, Geno and Andrea, and take pictures with the beautiful old church in the background. We begin our day walking down another beautiful, narrow street through an ancient Spanish town. We leave Puente la Reina crossing a beautiful old bridge.

We are surprised by our friends Geno and Andrea from Brazil so stop right outside the door of the albergue for a photo op.

Church of the Crucifix in the morning light.

Olalla and I pose for a photo op.

A pilgrim takes an early morning walk down the main street of Puente la Reina

Late Morning Journal Entry

I am watching a father and son holding hands as they follow the Camino.
I am listening to the birds fly overhead and to the fluttering leaves in the trees.
I am feeling the wind on my face.
I am looking at the flowers… pink red purple yellow.
I am smiling at a pilgrim from Switzerland.
I am stepping to the edge of the road to allow a truck to pass.
I am walking and walking and walking towards the tiny village perched high atop the hill surrounded by fields.
I am on the Camino.
I am walking through a tunnel and under a bridge and up a hill to a false summit.
I am watching a butterfly. I am eating a raisin. I’m tying my shoe.

view of a hillside town in Spain across a field of grain

I loved approaching hillside villages like Cirauqui. It always felt like I was stepping…

(Post-Camino note 2015 May: That wasn’t meant to be poetry and I’m a little embarrassed about posting it but this was the kind of thing I thought about while I was walking all day every day on the Camino. I was using a voice to text app on my iPhone and after finishing the Camino, when I began reviewing the text, there’d be these long lists of things like this.)

Some of the morning views:

The light this morning was even more beautiful than usual because of the cloud cover…

Cirauqui….

A variety of Camino landscapes:

Lunch in Lorca, Navarre:

Of course I love this wall!

Mmm. Tortilla, Kas Limón, and gazpacho, which seemed to be rare in this region of Spain.

Some of our pilgrim friends from South Korea. Keong, in the blue shirt, we met our first night at Orisson .

Typical sight: backpacks lined up outside a restaurant.

Back on the road:

For some reason, I just had a strong memory of the conversation Olalla and I were having right before we saw all this lavender. She was asking me if I knew any Spanish singers or rock groups and she was very surprised when I hadn’t heard of any of the ones she named.

Horses with the Camino and a bunch of pilgrims in the background.

Estella…

Headed out of Estella to Ayegui, where we spent the night, something I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. I think it would have been nicer to stay in Estella.