Larrasoana

The morning began with a tremendous cacauphony of sounds echoing off the stone walls of the hostel.  It was truly unbelievable.  I also woke up at 1:30am.  Wide awake for a while but managed to get back to sleep with earplugs.  I woke up at 6:10am and was amazed because half of the pilgrims were on the trail already!  I didn´t get going until 6:45 and started moving ahead to catch up since i still didn´t feel completely confident i could navigate this trail alone.

I stopped in Burgette a bit later to get a bocadilla (breakfast sandwich).  Burgette is a lovely little town with shuttered houses and narrow stone streets.  The town was made famous by Earnest Hemmingways´s in The Sun Also Rises (his trout fishing base).

I then hobbled my way through Espinal, Viskarret, Lintzoain, Zubiri, Esquirotz, and finally into Larransoana.  Most of these towns are no more than a few houses and (maybe) a bar.

Blisters on the feet and aches in the shins have begun.  Arrived in town and found the hostel.  We found out quickly that the town closes on Mondays so we made due with the food that the albergue sold (which is rare they do).  So we had a communal pasta meal with a boxed spaghetti sauce.  Of course the Italian in our group took charge so i sat back and waited for the best boxed pasta ever made.  While we waited we had some wine (which is rediculously cheap here).  Assuming it was cheap tasting wine from the cost (1.50 Euros) I was suprised at the quality. I forgot I was entering wine country.

Everyone seems to settle into bed around 9pm.  Hopefully the shoes will dry, at least a bit.