My new poles are breaking in nicely on the city streets but I wasn't about to leave my beloved stick that John found for me in a little village, behind, so I strapped it to my backpack. I'm sure I was only a day away from naming it. I came upon a pretty young girl named Ina from Stuttgart Germany who had just started her Camino and told her my stick story. You can guess the rest. She is now the new owner of the stick. I asked someone a few days later if they had seen her and does she still have the stick? They told me they did and she does and she LOVES it. It's amazing what small things can my day.
We decided to take what we thought would be a small detour today...to a tiny hermitage called Enuate. It came highly recommended in our guide book. The church of La Ermita Santa Maria de Enuate, built in the 12th century has ties with the Knights Templar who had long defended pilgrims on the journey to Santiago. We walked for what seemed like hours on a hot and dusty country road and arrived at the church only to find it closed until 5pm. It was 2:30. We needed to get to our next destination so we pushed on a little disappointed. We met someone later who got to experience it and described it as a wonderful spiritual high point. I didn't want to hear it.
We rolled into Puente La Reina around 4, hot and exhausted. The first auberge we came to, completo. (Full). The second.....completo. Mind you we had walked about 18 miles on this day. We had to walk over an ancient bridge to the third alburgue and straight up a hill to god knows what. I had had it! The minute we walked in and saw the sweaty beer tap, I knew I was home. They checked us in, stamped our credential, and showed us to our private room! High fives. Granted it has bunk beds with the ceiling open to the rest of the room, but hey, we are beginning to appreciate the smallest of luxuries and after this walk I probably would have settled for a back alley.
Showers, ahhh, grande beers and a seat! The little things. Made friends with Ivor a retired hairdresser and his wife Karen, who was surviving breast cancer, from the UK and Shannon, a Navy Corpman from Beaufort, South Carolina, attached to the marines for two tours in Afganistan and Iraq. Thought of my brother, Chris, also a retired Navy Corpman. I had been waiting for someone to give my St. Peregrene medal that I got at Mother Cabrini and had been carrying on my hat along with medals of Jesus and St. Teresa of Avila. At first I thought he was the patron saint of pilgrims but I came to find out after I had bought it, that he is a saint who received a miracle healing of cancer and became the patron saint of that particular affliction. When I sought her out the next morning to give it to her, she was touched to tears. I reminded her of her perfection in Gods eyes. John and Ivor became fast friends with much in common as they are both guitar players. We will probably not see them again since we are walking a little faster than they but I have already been blown away by the fortitude of some of the people I have met.
John had another conversation with a Frenchman at dinner, who looked a little lost. Thinking it was the language barrier, this conversation happened all on the ipad translator app. We met up with him later on the Camino and he seemed to have learned a lot more English since we had last seen him. The French are very interesting people. All in all, it was a great evening eating the pilgrims menu and drinking our awesome bottle of Navarre wine that is always included.
This was a high water mark day for mileage so far. Tomorrow to Estella only 13.6 miles...
Down loaded map of walk . Thanks for town names been able to follow your progress.
ReplyDeleteVery cool Jim. I need to look at the map too, just to encourage myself!
DeleteThe picture after Eunate, at the left. It's us!
ReplyDelete