Istvan drove Anna, Emma, and me to St. Jean. We had our passports stamped and I made the decision to I start my Camino a day early. The wonderful man in the office helped me change my reservations and off I went. St Jean is a lovely town.

What a beautiful walk uphill to Hunto.

I relaxed at Hunto on the front porch and greeted the people who where walking past there.

My roommate, Adriana gave me a gourd to hang from my pack. It is a symbol of the Camino.

This is my room in Hunto.

Dinner was with two French couples with just one person to do any interpreting. It was great fun.

My plan was to go just a few kilometers the next day to Orrison, but I was convinced by Claire ( the one who was interpreting) to go all the way because of the weather forecast. So in the morning I walked all the way to Roncesvallles. I made it over the Pyrenees by the day I was going to start walking. Buen Camino!

My favorite sounds were

• voices speaking foreign languages
• the clicking of the hiking poles
• bells on the cows and sheep.

The trail was pretty steep both going up and going down. As hard as it was, I loved doing it.

Eating buttered bread and my dried fruit and nuts for lunch with Antonia looking off at the spectacular view was delightful.

It was a fabulous walk.

 

I met a young woman who was walking barefoot carrying her flip-flops. I asked her if she was planning to walk the whole way barefoot and she said she would walk as much as she could that way.

I walked up the the statue of the Virgin.

I thought I was almost there by this time but we had a long way to go.

Finding water fountains was a relief.

One of my favorite sound of the day was listening to the Spanish young men sining songs as they hiked.

In Roncesvalles I stayed in the Monastery Alberques.

I stayed on the third floor where we only had 2 beds in each cubical. Other floors had 2 bunk beds in each one. There were over 50 people on my floor. We shared bathrooms.

I met Deborah, a woman from Australia, who walked by Hunto when I was relaxing in the front of the alberque. We walked together today. After about 3km, she realized that she had left a bag with her phone and credit card in Roncesvalles. So I walked back with her to find it.

When we got back to Roncesvalles, we met a woman, Lydia, from France who was walking with her dog. The best part is that she had just completed the Camino La Puy across France and was on her way to Camino de Santiago. Her dog loved to swim in the streams we crossed.

We walked to Viscarret together (about 19km with our extra trip back). We were always happy to find water along the way.

We stayed at Corizan Puno, the place I stayed the first night. Again a fabulous dinner with great conversation. (A couple from Korea; Marlin, a man from Houston; and Mary from Phoenix. There is another woman here who gave us those neck scarves with beads in them to keep us cool on hot days.

Oh, the extra surprise is that I called Leonardo and he found my clip-on sun glasses. He mailed them today to Estella, but they won’t arrive until Tuesday so I may have to wait there for them.