Day Six: The Camino Splurge

Our albergue cleared out this morning by 6am. Cameron and I didn't wake up until 7:30. These pilgrims are nuts!

After a quaint breakfast in a tiny cafe surrounded by exposed brick, we felt great about our next leg: roughly 19km and more or less even trail away from the main road. Or that's what we were told by our guidebook. I'm sure you can anticipate the twist in this story.

We had a great clip for the first part of the morning, making it to our first town in an hour or less (5km) and felt great. It was when we hit Cirauqui, a promising hot spot for some R&R, when things went south.

Thank goodness we had packed snacks because town after town we ran into closed businesses, empty streets and water fountains that had no water. These issues would have felt small if the trail had been in fact as easy as everyone had led on. No hills, we were told. Shorter than the day before they said. Your body is used to walking, it will be such a short day. Blah blah blah. For whatever reason today, we both experienced aches, pains and the mental challenges of the camino on one of the said 'easiest' days of the walk.

What do you do when life gives you lemons? You make lemonade in the form of a four star hotel. Our gift for walking 23.4km (adjusted for elevation) and for completing a week's worth of walking. As they say- treat yo' self!

New tradition? I think so. Here's to dreaming about the treats that await at the end of week two...