May 16. 4:00 PM. Day 4 (Blister 1): Walked 21.9 km (13.6 miles) today. Walked 89.2 of 787 km (55.4 of 478 miles) total.

By my math, I have now crossed the 10% mark with regard to miles. Not bad!! I should start by saying that I am writing this blog on my iPhone today, because Spain closes on Sunday. So after walking around the entire city of Estella looking for an Internet cafe / piano bar, I gave up and found a place to sit and write.

When I last left you I had just checked into a beautiful private albergue in Puente La Reina. I stayed there in what ended up being a semi-private room for the seven of us. We arrived at the albergue early and had a lot of time to kill, which we used to shower, do laundry and (for me) make some skype phone calls. We then went out for a few drinks, and then dinner. We ended up doing quite a bit of walking from place to place, and I made the mistake of wearing my "comfortable" shoes -- crocs. So, after walking nearly 50 blister free miles, I arrived back at the albergue after dinner with a very nice one developing on my left foot. It has now grown in both size and importance, so much so that I am considering naming it. I am open to suggestions, but I think "Pablo" has got to be near the top of the list.

Speaking of Pablo... I started this morning walking on my own but after a few km I saw a familiar figure walking ahead of me. I caught him pretty quickly and yelled my now familiar call of "Hola Pablo!!". The first thing I noticed was that he was sweating as if in mid-heart attack. It was literally beading off of his neck and dripping into his shirt (mind you it was about 8 am and 45 degrees or so). I noticed tha he was wearing the same 20 pound camouflage pants that he always wears. To understand why I find this funny you need to understand that I started packing for this trip in February. I must have spent 10 hours at REI, many of those looking at 15 different "candidate pants." I finally selected the perfect mix of light weight, quick drying pants whose bottoms zip off to make shorts. I bought two of them. They are perfect. Compare this with Pablo who, by the look of it, managed to find the heaviest pants in Spain -- when they are dry. I don't even want to think about what they must be like wet (it has rained every day since we got here. Thankfully I have my super light weight rain pants to go over my quick dry zipper pants lest I experience a milisecond of discomfort!). So Pablo and I take start walking and talking. I have not now, nor did I have then, any idea what we were talking about. In fact, I am pretty sure we were having two completely different and unrelated conversations. I really just said whatever random thought entered my mind whenever I noticed that he had stopped talking. He did not seem to notice and just kept talking and sweating happily for a few km (can elbows sweat??!). However, this does lead me to my Pablo Adorable Of The Day. We were approaching a tunnel and there was some graffiti on the wall. It was a Star of David with an Equal Sign and then a Swastika. It was more than a little disturbing and Pablo noticed me looking at it, so he patted me comfortingly on the shoulder and said "no worry Jon. There ees no Nayzzeees in Spain."

I did the rest of the walk alone and it was another beautiful one. Even with the blister, I enjoyed every step, and collapsed happily in a beautiful park upon arriving in Estella at around 1:30. I took off my shoes, laid in the sun, and ate some bread I had left over from lunch. After about 45 minutes there must have been 7 or 8 other barefoot pilgrims also laying there. It is really quite a nice feeling to be both alone and part of such a close community all at the same time. As I began to put on my shoes to find a place to stay for the night, I heard some squishing behind me, looked up and... say it with me... "Hola Pablo!!" we found a nice Albergue for the night and I then went on my hour long internet search. And that pretty much brings us up to speed. It is off to find some dinner for me now. So,

Until tomorrow...



- Posted from my iPhone