larrasoaña – pamplona: 20th june, 2010
daily: 18.4 kilometers (11.4 miles) – 36,881 steps
total: 70.9 kilometers (44.1 miles) – 188,098 steps
i woke up absolutely refreshed! sort of.
my knees hurt, but not so much. i’m not much of a skeptic so i am completely praising the red oil at this point. although i can’t ignore the hot water, the real bed and the amazing cuisine from the night before. all ingredients into this pot of healing! we are up and packed by 7:30am. we had all reasoned there was no need for us to be leaving so early every day so we delayed our departure a bit…after all its a super short trip today.
the book says we should be going to cizur minor today but carminia and i decided we should spend an extra night in pamplona. in theory there would be so much to see. the bull fighting arena (which paco was going nuts over) the path they ran the bulls, the cathedral, the old city, etc. touristy stuff. the terrain to pamplona was supposed to be nice and flat, a casual walk into the town with only a few minor up and downhills to sort of complicate things.
we met mon in front of the alburgue office. paco had left her at 6am or so to force march it with a bunch of american teachers who had to do somewhere near 40 kilometers a day because they had limited time. for the most part they were soldier-ish. maybe they were more surfer-boy fit-ish. whatever. the point was that they were able to walk pretty damn fast!
everyone was in good spirits. we just kept focusing on the fact that pamplona was our reward at the end of this day. i wasn’t in the mood for breakfast…which is usually strange as i am definitely a morning person. i guess my body was dealing with its own shit at the moment, so food wasn’t priority. mon was happy to take the bread with jam and butter. in trade she supplied me with knee braces that she had packed in the bottom of her bag. dude let me tell you…sliding those bad boys over my knees felt like i was getting a reach-around from a ghost….just guilty pleasure with no discernible source. lovely, really.
i tested them out…good fit, good feel…and then we head out.
right outside of town we found this old pump-action fountain/well that we wanted to use to fill up our bottles but it didn’t work. there were some of the largest snails i had ever seen in my entire life. mon and i couldn’t resist going over to both play with the well and the snail. carminia of course couldn’t help but crack jokes on us and release the random, “ewwwww”. other than that brief interlude, the walk was pleasant for the most part. nice and smooth as we gradually went down in altitude.
since there was really only one climb in altitude today and one steep descent, the trip was quite pleasant. i have no complaints at all. towards the end my knee began to bother a bit and i had to slow down. but for the most part things were okay. there is so much beauty to take in. we began to notice these massive slugs crossing the road. huge ones. black in color with a velvety type of design to their backs. we began to create names for them and make stories about their “race” across the path. its strange, when you’re in the city you go out of your way to either avoid or kill insects of all types. out here, surrounded by so much life and i guess the monotony of your own footsteps…you not only go out of the way to avoid harming these insects…but in a way you begin to like them. at least i did…
it didn’t take long to get to pamplona. we had lost mon early on in the trip as i had to slow down at some of the descending points. carminia and i felt right at home walking the paved road ways, seeing cars and people that were slightly less friendly than in the smaller towns. navigating here was even easier for us as the markers stick out in big cities moreso than in the woods…at least it felt that way.
we found both mon and the refugio and found out paco had arrived around 10am, long before the refugio was opened. we also found out his forced march with those guys hurt his leg pretty badly. he was limping a bit. the refugio was awesome. fully functioning washing machines and dryers. the bunks were clean and though it had two floors and held tons more people, it was really clean and felt really nice.
after a shower rest period, we all went out for food…
pause
you know…fuck spaniards. like seriously. i understand the statement is ignorant in nature. i do. but its crucial for me to voice my overall distaste for their culture and perspective on life (on a whole, clearly not individually). for one…these fuckers never work. i mean like…never. they open at 10am…maybe. then go on siesta from what? 1 to 5pm? then they open until like 8pm or so unless they are a food or club typed establishment. how in the name of god do they make any money? no wonder they are draining the euro of its value! incredible!
paco told us a story when we first got to pamplona about how he almost slapped the shit out of one of the bartenders. apparently he went to a bar across the street from the refugio and got himself a glass of wine, paid and left. he got hungry so he returned to the same place and tried to find out what time food would be served. i don’t recall what paco said the exchange was i remember feeling annoyed listening to it. paco and the man got into a argument where paco reminded him that not only was he a tourist, but a pilgrim and that a few words to the tourist’s bureau would go a long way (which it would). the man immediately fixed his tone and posture and paco simply said, “if you would have told me that the first time, that way, this wouldn’t have happened” blar…difficult to understand unless you’ve had to deal with the overall lackadaisical attitude here.
restart
…so unfortunately we got to pamplona on a sunday. many of the things we’d want to see we simply cannot because they are closed and so forth. paco and i went to see the bull fighting arena but it was closed. we were just a bit early for any matches or the running of the bulls. we did however get to see the fences they set up to protect the people and guide the bulls to the stadium.
restful day, for the most part. carminia and i decided not to spend an extra day here and that we’d continue in the morning. paco let us know he was definitely walking with us tomorrow…i suspect his leg still hurts.
..ra
