Los Arcos

Thirteen miles today to Los Arcos, a small town of 1300 people. The walk did not have too many steep ascents or descents today, which is good since my left knee has been bothering me on steep descents. I did wrap it with an Ace bandage and also bought a walking stick and I think both helped. So the day was fairly uneventful, no rain, but it threatened a few times. I got in Los Arcos about 1 pm and the lady who runs this albergue was gone most of the afternoon, so I ended up answering questions from fellow peregrinos without really knowing what to tell them.

I wanted to go to the pilgrim´s mass and blessing at the local church but finally a local told me that their would be no mass tonight as "el padre¨was traveling. Then I waited around till the local restaurant began serving meals at 7:30. I met up with Shawn from Australia who I had dinner with in Puente la Reina two days earlier. He had met a married Japanese woman who was making the camino, so we all had dinner together. The funny thing is that she understood very little English, but spoke Spanish very well. He understood very little Spanish, and I could hardly understand his Australian accent. Plus it was very noisy in the restaurant and you know how hard of hearing I am. Anyway, Kathy and Julia, you would be proud of me, with my limited Spanish ability, translating back and forth between English and Spanish for the two of them. You would have been proud. The meal was okay, lots of vino tinto, so we all had an enjoyable visit.

Tom and Kerry- I am entering the La Rioja region of Spain tomorrow- so far all the meals have been served with red wine without even asking. Passed many vineyards today and their harvest seems not to have started yet. Also passed a lot of puny looking walnut trees. I can see why we are exporting walnuts to Spain.

Anyway, time to go to bed for tomorrow´s walk.