el peregringo

Logroño is the capital of the province of La Rioja. The albergue there is very recently renovated and is quite nice. There is a lovely garden with a small fountain. Even though it’s right in the heart of the old part of the city, it’s very peaceful.

The day we arrived in Logroño, the city was just beginning to celebrate one of the many fall harvest festivals–and when your primary crop is wine grapes, you can guess the kind of festival we’re talking about. The central plaza was packed with people, a huge line snaked around the outside edge waiting to get into the roped off central area for wine and soup. It looked like it would have taken two hours to get through the line, so I went to a cafe instead.

  

There is a tradition in Spain of forming private social clubs–or “peñas”– whose primary purpose is, well, to be social. Each peña typically has a special neckerchief that is worn during these festivals, and many of them specialize in some activity or another: music, dancing, (drinking and puking,) whatever. The basic uniform is almost always a white shirt, white pants, and white shoes and socks. Then you put on your peña’s neckerchief. In Navarra, this is inevitably red with some insignia to identify your peña. Those not affiliated with a peña just wear a plain red neckerchief during festivals. I captured this image of a young family in their garb on their way back from the festivities–they start them young…

Since Logroño is one of the larger towns along the Camino, it has a long history supporting–and making money from–pilgrim traffic. Pilgrim art is well in evidence as well. Below are two works of pilgrim art. The first is a sculpture that sits on a bench in the albergue, and the second a mural painted on the wall of a park nearby.

 

If you wanted to party, it couldn’t have been better timing than to hit Logroño during this festival. The streets were packed all night long, and even as we pilgrims were leaving the city at 7:30 the next morning, the central plaza was still rocking with music and revelers. Though pilgrims typically get to bed no later than 11pm (and in fact the albergues generally close and lock at this hour), we did still get out to enjoy a bit. We went to one place that served only one item of food: grilled, stuffed mushroom caps, stuffed with shrimp. Absolutely delicious and very simple.

 

Leaving Logroño the next day, the Camino exits the city through a large park. At a certain point in the park, I came across one of the most famous characters of the Camino, Marcelino. Marcelino lives in Logroño, and he has spent much of his adult life living and promoting the Camino. He has walked virtually every variation of the Camino through Spain, and he has done so in the traditional pilgrim garb. You will be hard pressed to find any bar or albergue along the Camino that doesn’t have an autographed copy of this photo of Marcelino. With a long, flowing gray beard, and a quick laugh, no pilgrim meets Marcelino without sensing his absolutely genuine caring for their needs.

Because he’s such an icon, the Spanish government offered to subsidize some of his work. He refused to accept the offer. The government tried again, promising no strings attached, and he rebuffed them again, saying that they might not have any strings now, but they might try to lasso him later.

Marcelino maintains an “office” in the park as you exit Logroño. You’ll see in the picture that he’s very specific about not accepting anything for his work. He sets up here virtually daily and provides pilgrims with food and water, and he carves walking sticks that he gives away as well.

Fortunately for me, Logroño is not that far from Pamplona, so I’ll be back.

This was a perfectly uneventful day. The weather was great, the road was easy. And man am I looking good! ;-)

Still walking through wine and olive country. Since we’re headed into Logroño, the capital of the province of La Rioja, there are quite a few older vineyards around that have been in production for decades. Many of the vines are managed in the old “bush” style rather than the currently more popular “french” style where the vines are trained along parallel wires. These older style vines have to be harvested by hand, while there are machines that can harvest the french-style trained vines.

In the last thumbnail image, our guess is as good as mine as to what the parking sign is for in the middle of nowhere.

Arrived in Logroño at 1pm just as the albergue there was about to open. Logroño deserves a post unto itself… coming soon.

It was almost sad to leave the Dutch albergue. I felt as if I had become quite close to so many of the pilgrims that as we parted ways for the day, I was hard to say good-bye. Actually, there were no good-byes at all–just “buen camino” for everyone.

The total walk today was 26 km.–the longest day I’ve done. After the climb to Villamayor, today was a long, gradual descent through a great many vineyards. We’re moving through wine country now in the province of La Rioja–known world wide for its fine wines. Lots of vineyards, both old and new. It might have been quite pleasant except for the fact that the wind was unbelievable all day, and just as I started the climb into Sansol, it started to rain–horizontally. There was no agreement among the several guide books I consulted through the day about how far it was from Sansol to Torres del Río. One guide said 800 meters, another said 1.5 km, and another 7.5 km. In the final analysis, it was clear why there was no agreement–it depends on what one means by “to” and by “how.” Absolutely the most difficult part of the day was that short walk down from the heights of Sansol to Torres. A relatively steep descent over rough rocky terrain in high wind and rain.

I walked alone most of the day, though I paused every now and then to check on Lizette, Manuela, and Marina, the Brazilian women. They made better progress today after being cared for by the Dutch hospitaleros, but were still moving pretty slowly.

Another in the group arriving at Torres today was a Canadian named John–probably in his late 50s. We had quite an interesting conversation about the current world political order. He apparently splits his time between a village in Guatemala and Toronto. And somehow, he’s friends with Oscar Arias, the ex-President of Costa Rica. Arias was campaigning for the Presidency when I lived in Costa Rica in the late 70s.

    

The climb into San Sol that seemed much steeper and longer than it really was due to the rain and fatigue. In San Sol I stopped to check on the albergue there just in case the one in Torres del Río was full and I would have to walk back the 3 or so kilometers. The town of San Sol is beautiful, though there is really nothing there. No stores, no shops, no bars. The albergue is a private one, owned by a fairly young guy who answered my buzz at the door from the third story balcony (he apparently lives in the building as well). Since there were plenty of beds still available, I decided it was worth the risk to walk on to Torres del Río and if there were no beds left there, I could still get back.

There are two albergues in Torres del Río, both private. The one in the center of the village is fairly large and consists of a bar, restaurant, and 30-40 beds. The new owner is named Ana. She’s never been in the restaurant business before, but when the previous owner put the place up for sale, she decided to get out of home health care and try something new.

Dinner here was a pilgrim menu, and it was here that I met two Spaniards who are pretty wild: Antonio (on the left) and Juan Manuel (center). They saw my American Traveler Apology T-shirt and immediately adopted me as their best friend. I also met a French couple who are really special.

  

The french couple walked into the albergue restaurant at about 9pm. Most pilgrims are done walking for the day around 2 to 4 in the afternoon, so the fact that these two had walked until well after dark was amazing. The entire restaurant of some 40-50 people stood up and gave them a standing ovation. I could hardly breathe. The fellowship was absolutely palpable and I will never forget that moment.