Roncesvalles to Zubiri

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I had problems last night getting connected, so I waited until we reached Zubiri. Still having problems. We left the albergue in the dark at 6:30pm, when it was still dark, but with Raresh's headlamp we were fine. Although better than yesterday, it was still rather rough. We reached the little town of Burgers soon after daylight and stopped in a bar for coffee, a croissant with ham and cheese, a bottle of water, and a banana. The croissant was very good. I mixed in one my packets of Emergen-C and away we went. Our next stop was a few kilometer before Zubiri where I ate my banana. I think it was not quite ripe since it was a bit firm and the skin was rather thick. Either that or it was a different type of banana. We were making good time arrived at Zubiri at 12:30pm. There were a number of steep climbs that Raresh dragged me up, and a number of steep and rocky downs where I pulled him down. His knee doesn't handle those well and I had learned from the Inca Trail how to zig zag and pass quickly and safely. Still, my little was complaining and my hips were getting sore. I periodically shifted my pack up or down to give that part of my hip a break.

We had decided to stay at the municipal albergue, and since we'd made such good time we had no problem getting a couple of bunks at 8 euros each. This albergue wasn't nearly as nice but it would do. After stowing our gear, we checked out the town a bit then went down to the river to soak our bare feet. No blisters yet. After our feet freezing... soaking, we decided to find someplace to eat a medium lunch. A place called Cafe El Caminwho looked interesting, and had a good variety of dishes, so we sat down. We both ended up ordering Patatas Bravas and a cheese pincho which more than filled us both up. While we were eating, a Mexican lady we'd met before talked with us, basically asking if she could join us tomorrow morning. I think she was feeling a bit unsafe alone, so we told we'd look for her about 6:30am. A bit later two young Taiwanese guys joined us. They too asked about joining us tomorrow. While we were eating, the Mexican lady came back and told us she was going to take a down day to recover and keep another lady with a bad blister company.

After lunch we went back to the albergue to chill until dinner. The internet connection here is not very good, so I used Raresh's phone as a mobile hotspot to upload yesterday's blog, and may have to do the same with today's. Around 8pm I headed back the Cafe del Camino for dinner.

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