Last night ended with four small beers in rapid succession, some comedy sign language regarding available sandwich fillings (the chicken breast was good), an argument between Arnie the Angry Estonian and the barman regarding three unpaid-for beers... An early night but I woke two hours later slightly drunk and dehydrated and also quite disorientated.
Nonetheless, today has been a really perfect day. The forecast was hot hot hot so I took the first 12k alone and early, through an amazing landscape of greens and browns, with no humans or habitation to be seen. In the very pretty town of Los Arcos I found both, and indulged in a delicious third breakfast of coffee and fresh pain au chocolat in the town square.
The distance options for today were roughly 20 or 30k and with the heat and yesterday's fatigue I was happy to settle for the shorter. My feet also seem a bit happier, especially since I finally found an open pharmacy and have some new and evil-looking antiseptic. (This interaction involved a further bout of comedy sign language regarding which particular bits of the boys' anatomy needed soothing cream. There are things my Spanish just can't deal with).
Torres del Rio seems like it would be a very peaceful place, but right now a fair bit of high-season-preparation is going on. Specifically, there are workmen reversing dumper trucks down the steep narrow street at impressively high speed. We get the impression that we are possibly just days ahead of the hordes - this very small town for example has three auberges open. I am extremely glad if that is the case - I fear the hordes will catch us nearer to Santiago and Easter but right now it's certainly nice to have only a handful of people around.
Our auberge seems quite dodgy but has the benefit of being cheap (17 euros including breakfast, dinner, and all the wine you can drink) and, surprisingly, a small pool. Though given it's in the middle of the courtyard and I have no swimsuit I don't think I'll be taking advantage. Hopefully not of much wine either as we hope for a long day tomorrow.
The afternoon has been dedicated to sunning ourselves with cold drinks in the square and watching the local entertainment, which mostly consists of two old ladies. One taps her cane to an internal beat, and occasionally takes out her full set of false teeth; the other is wearing a fleece dressing gown and slippers as she wanders the village.
A word on photos: they don't do this landscape justice! It's so beautiful, but the scale and the subtlety of the landscape don't come across on an iPhone sized screen. But trust me, Navarra is a lovely place.
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