Estella to Los Arcos

Walking to Mass last night in Estella, we bumped into several old friends.  

We saw the two Spanish brothers and their wives.  There was a lot of hugging and and back slapping.  We agreed to meet in Logrono in two days. 

We also saw Jessica, a young German woman we met on our first day of walking. We have seen her several times on the path, always moving at twice our pace.   She is traveling with a much slower friend, also a young German woman, whom she meets up with at the end of the day.  When we asked how she was holding up, she showed us the backs of her legs, which were bright red from from her heels up to middle of her calves.  She said they were very sore. 

Lots of injuries are starting to show up on the path.  Yesterday in Puente la Reina, we saw a young woman who had tied a stick to her lower leg. 

People on the path are limping:

The physical demands of the journey are a big surprise.  We are walking 12 to 18 miles a day, and a lot of the walking is on very steep climbs and descents.  In the past, when people on the Camino would ask how far we were walking, I would tell them to Santiago.  Now when someone asks, I tell them that our plan is to walk to Santiago.  We are starting to understand why people walk the Camino in sections over several years.

It was cold and overcast when we left Estella. 

Here is the bridge out of town:

We walked out of the old quarter:

And into a suburban area:

On there outskirts of town, we came across the most famous drinking fountain on the Camino. 

There are drinking fountains for water all along the Camino:

This fountain just outside of Estella is unique, however, because it dispenses wine:

Buen Camino!

Leaving the wine fountain, the path went through a wooded area, and then by several villages. 

Here we are on the path to the village of Azqueta:

Unlike most village churches, the church in Azqueta, the Church of San Pedro, was open:

Anne went inside and lit several candles:

The path went down a hill and then back up to the village of Villamayor de Monjardin:

From there, the path dropped downhill and into a long valley with mountains in the distance:

We could see a castle at the end of the valley on a far hilltop:

The path turned out of the valley and into Los Arcos, where we spent the night: