Cizur Menor to Puente La Reina

We leave Cizur Menor with great memories. The owner of the albergue spent time teaching us how to take care of our blisters on our feet. She also showed us a trick for keeping our feet dry, which helps prevent blisters. The secret: panty liners! The purple for men, orange for women´s larger feet and blue or pink for smaller feet. She has a complete arsenal of supplies, including sterilized (new in package so there are no worries!) syringes which she uses to take out the fluid from the blister. She re-sterilizes it and gives it to you to take with you for blister control along with the color-coded panty liners in your shoes.

Feet good as new and refreshed after our most joyous and raucous evening the night before, we set off for Puente La Reina. But not until we have coffee made on Roger and Denise´s "pocket rocket", an outdoor camping burner. We continue our walk, which today will be 21 kilometers. Roger and Denise are amazing. They take off at a quick clip while Jose, Maite, Tom and I struggle to keep up so early in the morning. Soon, the sun is up and we are walking through gorgeous fields of sunflowers and wildflowers strewn like tiny jewels on a carpet of green silk. While the morning is gorgeous, our humor becomes more coarse and pedestrian, mostly about bodily functions in the night. There is a symphony of snoring very reminiscent of Larry, Curly and Moe going on and Maite has us all in tears as she imitates the noises of the night. Now that we are outside and not constrained by worries of waking up our sleeping hostess, we are soon all howling with laughter. This is very helpful as we are beginning another ascentn up what can only be a goat path. It is very narrow and I can´t help thinking of "Sound of Music" so of course I burst into "Climb Every Mountain." Roger asks me if I can whistle. When I respond in the affirmative, he says good because you can´t sing. After translating to Spanish, we are once again laughing up the mountain.
Our day´s journey is taking us over the "Alto de Perdon". Legend has it that close to the top, the devil offered a very thirsty and tired pilgrim all the water he wanted if he rejected his faith. The pilgrim turned down the offer at which point James the Apostle appeared. He shows the pilgrim the source of fresh water and gives the pilgrim a scallop shell so that the he can drink until he is filled. Thus, the symbol of the scallop shell has become associated with the Camino de Santiago.
When we reach the top, we are graced with the most spectacular 360 degree view. The Pyrenees, Pamplona and Navarra lies behind us and to the front the rolling hills of the wine region of Rioja. The day is absolutely breath-taking. Not a cloud in the cerulean sky. Our other blessing after the morning´s climb comes from a most welcome entreprenuer selling ice cold drinks and food out his van. We pause to enjoy the vista and quench our thirst. There used to exist a hospital for pilgrims and a hermitage that was dedicated to the Virgin of the Pardon where we are enjoying our refreshments. However, there currently is an incredible monument dedicated to pilgrims there instead. It was installed by the Association of Friends of the Way of Navarre. The monument is composed of steel or iron cutouts of pilgrims walking, above them stars showing them the way to Santiago de Compostela. We sit and admire the view, but of course, it isn´t long before our silliness explodes. We put ourselves amidst the steel cutouts and have other pilgrims take pictures of us. Again, you would think we were a bunch of goofy school kids on a field trip taking advantage of not having a teacher in sight. Our rest complete, we lift up our backpacks and start our trek down the mountain to head off to Puente la Reina.

(to be continued later...)