Day Three
Buoyed by yesterday’s success (and perhaps the wine), we woke up earlier, ready to conquer the day. And guess what? Another adorable 900-meter climb to start things off. I swear by the end of this Camino I’m either going to have buns of steel ……. or a GoFundMe for knee replacements.
We hiked further today and halfway through stumbled upon a quaint little hostel, run by a lovely husband-wife duo. They were offering hot drinks, cold drinks, cake, bread, cheese—basically a carbohydrate miracle. We tried cold Mate, (originated in Chile, I think), for the first time and loved it. It was light and refreshing, the exact pick-me-up we didn’t know we needed.
Here’s the kicker: despite the language barrier here in the Basque region, the woman spoke perfect English. Turns out she’s American, originally from Tennessee, married to a German and now living in Spain. We chatted for quite a while and, honestly, it was nice to speak English again without wildly gesturing and hoping for the best or using Google Translate.
They weren’t charging for anything, donations only. We threw in 3 euros, attached those blasted backpacks again and off went feeling like our experiences were improving.
The rest of the day was a rocky, knee-jarring, hip-whining path—but guess what? We might actually be finding our rhythm, or …….. we’ve just lost feeling in our legs.
It was a good day!
