Rich got up this morning and could hardly walk. Seems his foot felt even worse than it did last night. Thankfully, he decided the most prudent option was to see a doctor in Estella and then take a taxi to meet us in Los Arcos. We had breakfast together at the hotel and then said our goodbyes. We had ordered a picnic lunch from the hotel to take with us as there are few places to stop and buy food along the way.
As we crossed the bridge on our way out of town, we heard someone calling Becky's name. When we turned around, it was a fellow Camino traveler we had met a few nights before telling us we had forgotten our picnic lunches.
Side note: this fellow traveler was originally from Portland, OR and she and I had attended the same all girl high school (Holy Child Academy). Although 3 years younger than me, she and I knew a lot of the same people and had a good time reminiscing about some of our old teachers. She also is the cousin of one of the nuns (Sr. Adele Marie Altenhofen) from Valley Catholic High School where our girls and the Karver boys went to school. Annie and her husband Bear now live very close to us in Vancouver, WA. Talk about a small world!! Unfortunately, Annie and Bear went on to Sarria today and will walk the remainder of the Camino from there. We made plans to meet up in October to compare notes when we're all back from our travels.
To continue with today's story, once we retrieved our lunches we headed toward Irache and the famous Bodegas wine fountain (Fuente del Vino). Becky filled a water bottle with the fountain's red wine (to enjoy at the end of the day's journey) and we were then on our way. Again, the day was quite hot and the landscape was similar to yesterday's: vineyards, olive groves and wheat fields, with little shade anywhere. We had a hard time finding even a little shade in which to sit and eat our picnic lunch until we happened upon a food cart @ 4 miles from Los Arcos. It was an oasis in the desert!
When we finally walked into Los Arcos at @ 2:00 pm, Rich was waiting for us at the bar/café with his leg propped on a chair and his foot all bandaged. His foot is swollen (we're not really sure what the problem is as the doctor spoke no English and Rich speaks no Spanish), but he's to not walk on it for the next 3-4 days at least.
Today's journey took us 13.3 miles closer to Santiago. Only 28 more stages, 30 more days and 404 more miles until we reach Santiago.
Buen Camino
At the Bodegas Irache wine fountain
On the road somewhere
Our oasis in the desert
Typical landscape we've been traveling through
Los Arcos plaza and Church of St. Mary of the Arches
A somewhat blurry photo of Rich's bandaged foot
Hope dad is now on the mend!!! And I love that there is a wine fountain!
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