Estella to Torres del Rio, May 27

After a good night's sleep, we were ready to head out of town on our next stage.  We walked through mostly agricultural areas, with great vistas of rocky bluffs to our north.   The terrain is rolling, but the path tends to be very steep when climbing or descending.  Once again, there were small villages where we could stop for a snack or cool drink at decent intervals.

We walked for a while in the morning with a Dutch gentleman in his mid 60s, who had started on the camino from his home in the Netherlands at the beginning of March; he had covered about 2000 km already.  A retired lawyer, he lost his wife of 45 years last September, and was worried that he'd end up just sitting around.  So, at her funeral, he announced to all that he would be walking the camino; that way he wouldn't be able to back out.  In the intervening months, while training for the walk, he found a new love, and was looking forward to returning to his village and his new life.

We are still trying to adjust to the number of pilgrims on this camino, after the relative solitude of our first weeks.  At almost any point along the way, we can see other pilgrims ahead of us and behind.  It's not as crowded as this picture would suggest: we were walking that day along with a large group of Irish high school kids.  

During the afternoon we walked for a while with a couple from Australia and their four year old daughter (who alternated between walking and riding in a stroller).  Last year they sold their house and set off to experience other parts of the world.  They had been living in Barcelona for about six months before starting the walk, and were not sure where they'd go after they finished the camino.

As we've been walking through Navarra and toward La Rioja, we are seeing increasing numbers of vineyards and wineries.   Meals usually include a bottle of wine, and we've been enjoying them all.

Almost all of our fellow pilgrims stopped for the day in the town of Los Arcos (a usual end of stage spot).  We decided to keep going to the next town to find a somewhat quieter experience and less crowded albergue.  This made for a long day of 29 km, but the small village of Torres del Rio was very pleasant.  We had a room to ourselves in the albergue (pic below is from our room's window).  We enjoyed a great dinner with two other pilgrims: a man from Mallorca, and a young woman from Quebec who is cycling the route in reverse (from Santiago back to France, where she will explore her family's roots).

The local bar where we had a beer before dinner had an autographed photo of Indurain on the wall.  He's from not far away.

After dinner we met our first other American pilgrim: a young man from New Jersey who just graduated college and had some time before starting his job in NY.  We asked him what prompted him to take this journey.  He said he was Googling the Chevy El Camino (a car of some years back), and came across the Camino de Santiago by chance.  Life is a funny and random thing.