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THE Puente at Puente la Reina

Some wemaining Woman Woad

Some of the scenery

Yes, it has come to this. After a 30km trek (not much if you consider I´ve seen the same fat 60 year old chain smoker in EVERY albergue I stay in – it is my personal challenge to pull away from him tomorrow…) I can´t bear to keep my hiking boots on, and so slip into the flip flops at the end of the day. But´s it´s oh so cold, even when sipping a glass of Rioja (80 cents!!!). So I´ve had to blaspheme and resort to wearing socks with my thongs. Fortunately, I´m surrounded by cultures that find this combination acceptable…

Path there of.

Cistern thought to date back to Islamic Spain. And my shadow.

Me having erected my own cross, in deference to Semana Santa (holy week) and the Camino de Santiago

It´s been a while since I last wrote. At least it seems so. I have trouble remembering where I stayed the night before, so I´ll refer only to the recent past (basically now). I managed to escape the published stops and am staying in a little town called Grañon. The Albergue is in the bell tower of the town church, and cost is donation only 🙂 It´s cool. I was generous. I´m on a pilgrimage. Though the donation box does say “leave what you can, take what you need.” A risky strategy considering some of the people I´ve met.

No shoes in the pilgrim's quarters!

Multi-lingual blessing before dinner.

Dinner and breakfast is included in the donation and all the peregrinos (pilgrims) will eat together at a long table in the chuch, a la Harry Potter. The girls have to cook and the boys have to wash up. My talents are wasted here.

Dinner time, Grañon

With difficulty, I managed to post a good portion of the weight in my bag from Pamplona to Leon. I only have 10 days to get to Leon before I don´t know what happens to my stuff? There I have to collect it and post it again to Santiago. Kinda annoying, but it was the best I could manage with my limited Spanglish.

Nos pies.

A final note on Semana Santa (Easter Week?). It would be an understatement to say that it´s a big deal here… I´m sure most of you may have seen pictures of the processions of people dressed in KKK costumes carrying Jesus on the Cross? It´s pretty spooky. I was in Legroño on Thursday and the local Semana Santa procession is a purple cape with conical head thing with holes for the eyes… They even have cute kids sizes.

Spooky easter parade through Logroño, capital of la Rioja.

Credit running low. Gonna try and push out 40ks tomorrow. Now I´m off to be blessed by the locals before dinner.