The Left Arm

Day 11, Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

This is my non-conforming appendage adaptation. I’ve taken the silk liner from my Söx-n-Sañdàls™ ensemble, cut off the foot and transformed it into the Söx Sūn Bløck Çuff™.

An interesting challenge of this Camino: The Way of St Francis runs predominantly north/south, but the Santiago runs mostly east/west, meaning the sun stays on the same side of your body all day. Lots of big, asymmetrical tanning happening here, and this particular part of my arm, no matter how much sun block I slathered on, was not happy. The sock was sacrificed for my left arm.

We still have not walked in the rain, managing to avoid it even though we have been trailed by huge storms that eventually dumped torrential rains. Tomorrow, however, I suspect there will be much slip sliding around in mud on the trail.

See below for photos with captions.

©Theresa Elliott, All Rights Reserved

We bumped into this charming family of four, seen in the customary camino view, repeatedly. They were walking the entire camino staying in municipal hostels each night. Photo by Sandy Brown.

Building in Nájera, region of Rioja.

Not much longer now!

The gravity defying feeling of being sling-shotted forward when you take your 18 pound back pack off after 20km. Takes a few steps to reorient.

Seems almost blasphemous to call this typical, but typical, wide open, beautiful expanses.

It was a great day to get in early. This is the second big storm we have been indoors for.

It was an even better day to have a reservation in at one of Sandy’s favorite hotels, The Parador, instead of in an albergue, which just don’t have swell lobbies and bars.

Sandy working on his book. You could say we were under-dressed, but you get used to that. Sort of.

Terrific lobby and bar to listen to the buckets of water hammering the building.