I was up at 5:40am and sneaking around the place getting dressed and eating my hard boiled eggs. At 6:00, I was out the door and walking thru Estella in the dark.
About two miles from town center the route splits. One way moves away from the highway and up on a side hill, the other is closer to the highway. I hesitated at the junction for a few minutes, then decided to take the upper route. Glad I did. It was beautiful walking thru pine forests and then next to field of grain. The trail rose to a pass, then it was downhill for the next 7 miles, passing through one small town, (Luquin) before coming to Los Arcos. Past Luquin Sally called, concerned that the bags had not been picked up yet. I called the manager and through my broken Spanish and her nonexistent English we agreed that there was nothing to worry about. “No Problemo!”
Also, I spent some time trying to reserve a room in Agès for the 18 of May. I couldn’t use my credit card because they wanted to verify it and I had changed my SIM card and thereby had a different phone number. I explored every avenue while keeping a 2.75 mph pace and finally had to give up. I planned to have Andy reserve it with his credit card from Kirkland for us, when he woke up.
When I was about 0.8 miles from Los Arcos Sally called to tell me her taxi had just dropped her off. She started walking the Camino backwards while I continued forward and we met in this small town about 11:00am.
Heading in the proper westerly direction we passed a small shop and bought pastries and cookies and an apple. It was an expensive shop compared to all the others we had visited.
We walked out of town, then turned around to go back and use the bathroom. To justify using one in a bar, we each had a ham and cheese roll-lunch.
On the 4.5 mile walk to Torres de Rio we met Aideen and Owen from Ireland. In their late 20’s, they are such sweet people. We also met Soma from Maine. I walked with the two girls while Sally walked with Owen for the next 45 minutes. Aideen is a primary teacher in Ireland. Soma is between jobs in Maine. When the route turned onto a paved road for the last two miles into town Sally and I sat for a few minutes on a bench while the three of them went ahead.
There are actually two towns, Sansol first, then half a mile further Torres del Río. We walked thru Sansol and noticed a grocery store, but continued on to Torres del Río. Sansol is up on a hill while Torres del Río is lower. We walked up to our albergue, checked in and found our beds. Outside we found Chris (Motorcycle Momma) and sat under the canopy for a bit with her. Dinner at the albergue was €15, a little steep, so I walked back to San Sol to the grocery, but it was midday and it was closed. On the way back I looked I at an albergue and asked if they had three empty beds. They said sure.
Sally and Becky went to dinner, I had yogurt, muslex and peanuts for dinner.
The room we see in was really quiet, except for Sally, although she was quiet by 10:00. She was packing her pack and looking for her pillow case which she thinks she left at the last albergue. The doors and windows in the room were shut so that even though it was quite cold outside the room was very hot.
We realized we hadn’t taken any photos in Torres del Río so we took this one the next morning as we left the albergue
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