22 mar

Walked another 33 kilometres, from Larrasoana to Uterga. Making a total of 732 kilometres.

Last night arranged to walk with Irish James, Chilean Hans Jurgen and Galician Luis. We compromized on leaving at 8AM. Late for them, early for me. While I was still drinking my coffee and reading about today’s trip, we saw all our Camino comrades pass to start their day’s jpurney. At 6.30 the four guys from North Carolina were the earliest. And then the rest followed. At 7.30 The New Zealand accountant turned professional walker Bruce put his face by our window and said: ‘Get out of bed you lazy bugger.’

It was fun to walk together. They all carry big backpacks but keep a pace that is unbelievable. Hans has mastered the way how to go down a slope. You have to bend your knees and let gravity do its work. This was the strong muscles in your upper legs will take the hardest hits, not your knees. I’ve tried it. Might be better for the knees, but the danger of slipping and falling seriously, increases sharply, it seems to me.

Hans is 25. His second name is Jurgen, which indicates some strong German ancestry. But he looks 150% South American. He just finished his medical degree. He had to laugh when I told my name. ‘Like Joost from Amsterdam’, he said. Joost from Amsterdam is one of the iconical characters in the Camino movie The Way. Every Peregrino (spanish for pilgrim) seems to have seen the movie. I’ve seen it twice, once in the past year, but I do not remember much from it, partly because I am afraid I slept mostly through the second sitting. But I do remember Joost from Amsterdam. He’s tall, heavy, gregarious, and seemed to have an endless supply of marihuana with him, making him I suppose the stereotype dutchmen in American eyes.

James is 60, has long grey hair, is retired with homes all over the world. He’s Irish. They are the most easy talkers of the universe with an effortless kind of humor that causes me pain in my jaws. I am not used to constant laughing. I wish I could tape some of the conversations. I remember Julie asked him yesterday how his Spanish was. ‘Oh, it’s about as bad as my Mandarin Chinese. But it’s still a lot better than my English.’

Luis lives south of Santiago de Compostella. He has been working in the South of France for the past months and decided to walk back home instead of taking a train. There’s a great amount of wisdom in his eyes, but he doesn’t talk much, but it might also be that he thinks it’s impollite to interrupt James.

At one point the Camino directed to the left, but it was possible to take a detour and see an ‘open’ XIIIth century church. I had been disappointed with all the old churches we passed that were closed. My goodness, this is a pilgrim route. Who thinks of closing all these churches? In France almost all of then were open.

We all decided to go and see the chapel. It was a delightful little church with a magnificent and giant wooden altarpiece, of which I saw quite a few later in Pamplona Cathedral, but not as good as this one. But the best thing was that we could climb to the bell tower, where the oldest bell from Navarra hung, where we could ring the bell. A deafening, but wonderful experience.

In Pamplona we said goodbye. They were going to explore the city, while I still wanted to walk on. Felt a little sad.  There’s a quick bonding because of the special circumstances, I found out. But then, there’s still 691 kilometres – less kilometres to go than I have walked for the first time! – waiting for new friendships to develop.