We are Pilgrims

Yesterday we slept in a bunk huose with about 16 other pilgrims, who are all walking or biking the El Camino de Santiago.  This is (sort of) Spanish for St. James´Way, or the way to the burial site of St. James. 

There is so much to see.  I have never done anything like this in my life.  It is a fully unsupported mountain bike tour.  We are fully loaded with tents and sleeping gear, clothes for all weather as we have had just a bit of everything, and some food.  We don´t need to carry too much food because there are towns along the way.  Every time I see a FANTA sign, I have to stop because there just might be a cold drink awaiting.  There is also wine.  IT´s like they are giving it away.  In fact, they ARE as one bodega had two taps in the side of a wall: one that said vino, the other auga!  Dena and I filled up on both. 

We´ve been biking about 50 km per day (30 miles), which is pretty tough considering it´s all mountain biking.  The trail had yielded every single type of terrain including large mountain passes, dirty clay, rocks, gravel, paved roads, dried hard mud, bridges, wet mud, hills, flats, downhills, trees (hiding banditos), meadows, farmland (mostly of vineyards and wheat) and tall grass encroaching upon the trail.  At one point I stopped next to a vineyard and asked Dena did you hear that?  She said no.  And I said: Oh, i heard it through the grapevine!  As it turns out, Dena is a rockstar biker having had no prior experience biking before this trip and holding her own quite well for difficult and somewhat technical mountain bike moves that freak me out.

The Spainards are a culture of night owls.  They don´t open their shops until 9 or 10 am, and then seem to close them down again in the afternoon for siesta, which seems to last anywhere from 12 noon to seven pm.  It depends on the town I suppose but don´t go into the afternoon hungry, cause you might not eat for a while. 

And then the dinner hour.  We were seeking a restaurant at 6 pm on a Sunday, and everthing was borded up.  When we found a place that would feed us, we were out by 8 pm, and all the shops and restraunts that had been closed, were just then starting to put out their chairs and open up for business.  AT 8 PM ON A SUNDAY EVENING!  Then when Dena and I lay our heads down to sleep (usually pretty early), the voices start rising up from the street, and they get ouder and louder as the evening wears on.  Its a great culture but I don´t know how long I´d last!  More later but I don´t know when.

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