Just like the group of people one travels with down to Antarctica with becomes a family of sorts, so too is the group you first stay with in an albergue on the camino. We saw our camino family numerous times on the trail today and the familiar faces were a sight for sore eyes: Yves from Canada, Maureen and Sean from Ireland, Brund from Germany, Oliver from Hungary, Rosario and Shayla from Brazil, Fritz and Maria from Germany, etc. Also, Spanish people in every village spur us on with "buen camino!" So nice!
Pamplona, the largest city along the way at 200,000 people, is the place where the San Fermin festival happens - the running of the bulls! The streets are narrow and there is no escape. Our favorite thing about this city is the pinxos (the name for tapas in this region). The calamari, the mussels, the garlic potatoes! Oh my! We wolfed down huge plates and still had room for pasta we made at the albergue. Get this, you can buy a travel sized bottle of extra virgin olive oil for 30 cents out of vending machines! Also bagged olives! I am in food heaven. You have to eat every 2 hours to keep up your calorie intake up for walking 8 plus hours a day. Que lastima (what a pity!).
Coming into Pamplona, we had the usual issue of needing a banos (toilet). Finally we found a public restroom, but it was very different than we are used to. An elderly woman held my arm to keep me from entering because the bathroom goes through a 5 minute automatic wash (not unlike a carwash) every time someone uses it. You also have to push a special button to get out. It was quite an ordeal and it didn't help that a women came running up to me and crossed her legs, pleading with me to let her go first. "Me meo, pe pe! " she said. No translation needed. Meanwhile the men in the city just go behind a screen on the sidewalk, right in the flow of pedestrian traffic.
In the city proper, an inebriated man fawned over us and shook our hands repeatedly because we are on our way to Santiago. He says there are very few Americans on the Camino. Yet all our fellow pilgrims seem to have run across Cowboy (our Montana nemesis). "Yippee-yi-aye" they say and shake their heads. Cowboy did apologize to Scott for his California comments though, so maybe the Camino is doing its magic on him too.
We are passing many recognizable film locations for The Way (today we saw the river and bridge where the Martin Sheen guy loses his back pack into the water). That movie seems to have made quite an impression internationally.
A postscript : In our albergues tonight there are a bunch of Alaskans! And one of them knows Mark and Kristen. In fact Joanne works with Kristen in the school district. She paid me a high compliment by saying I reminded her of Kristen and she had initially wondered if we were related. Also this other woman named Connie knows all the locals from Haines. Mark and Kristen, I am always amazed at how everyone in your huge state knows each other!
Oops, another p.s.
Maribel, the older woman who runs the slightly rundown albergue told us our moods would change tomorrow when we went over the mountains, partly because of the terremotos (earthquakes) which have been happening in the area. Her eyes tracked different things as she talked to us, her pants were so tight the fly remained unzipped, and she asked for our passports three times, but she was warm and kind and I felt we should heed her words.
I am limited to pics I take on this phone for now, but when we get home we will post lots more. Scott is taking some beautiful ones!
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