Cizur Menor to Maneru

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Cizur Menor to Maneru:
Last night we ate the Pilgrims Menu. I had the house soup, filet of hake with fries, and a delicious local dessert. I negotiated with the waitress and got a coffee instead of the water and wine. Everything was quite good and filling, as usual. Although there was a festival in town and the music was pretty loud, I fell asleep quickly and slept most of the night, waking up a bit late, at almost 7:30, along with my Camino friends. We quickly packed up and headed out, myself, Raresh, and the Danish lady named Kirsten Underlen.

Today was a special day, since we would reach the Alto de Perdon, a highpoint on the Camino where they have a group of metal sculptures of pilgrims. Since we hadn't had breakfast yet, we stopped at the next town called Zariquiegui, at the Albergue San Andres, again along with quite a few other pilgrims. A coffee and good, filling tortilla, and we were back on the trail... after picking up a few bananas to share and a fresh bottle of water for me. After a pretty long and grueling climb, we reached the Alto de Perdon. We took the mandatory photos and a short break, then headed down the other side towards Puente La Reina.

We took a short break at the Albergue Camino del Perdon then continued on to Puente La Reina for our lunch stop. We ended up stopping at a bar/cafeteria where they offered 6 tapas and a drink for 10 euros. We got 2 plates to share, and an extra drink. We had the waitress pick out the tapas, so there was quite a variety. I liked most of them, even the little peppers that tasted good but had quite a bite at the end. By this point it was about 2:30, so we got back on the way. We had reservations again, at the Albergue El Cantero in Maneru, but we were getting tired and wanted to get there. The last kilometer or two was rather steep, but we made it. At the entrance to the town was a clean water fountain, so we filled up a bottle and started looking for our albergue. After finding it and quickly stowing our gear, we shared popsicles that fellow pilgrim bought for us. He, his girlfriend, and another young lady were continuing on to the next town, since they were trying to do the Camino in 20 days. We wished them good luck and settled in for the night. We will probably have the Pilgrims dinner again tonight. You need the carbs!

Tomorrow we will do a shorter day of just under 20 kilometers, rather than try to reach Villamayor de Monjardin, which would require a very long, uphill climb, at the end of the day.

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