June 14 Day 02 to La Espina

Day 01 evening recap, Met Jacque from France on Day 01, caught up to him at 3/4 mark of 1st day. Pleasant gentleman, limited English but enough to hold a conversation for our 5 min exchange. I forged on ahead and checked into my hotel, quick little nap then a couple of beers while watching a Rally Car “show and drive” at a cafe.

In Spain, they don’t start the dinner menus till after 7 or 8 pm. I was tired after only getting a few hours sleep the night before. Ended up getting some croissants and deli meat for my dinner and breakfast in the morning. In bed by 8:30pm

In the morning, after re-packing the backpack and eating breakfast I stepped out of the hotel and there was Jacque!, 2 steps behind me. We reunited and started walking and talking. I didn’t plan on staying with him, but we had made a connection. His pace was what I was looking for and his experiences on the Caminos was priceless. And he was a really nice guy.

I thought I had prepared enough, but after talking with Jacque he made me realize I didn’t. My idea of winging it on places to sleep was way off. If I didn’t book at least 1 day in advance I would find it hard to find a place to sleep in an albergue (hostel). Hotels at 60euros were prevalent but didn’t want to spend $100 CDN per night, cheap FF remember. 🤷

He educated me in very broken English about “the way”. Helped me book my next 2 nights, and had a huge “pilgrim menu” lunch when we arrived at La Espina.

Today we did 30km in 6:15. It was more up and down than yesterday, with a long ascent to La Elaina. The weather was for light rain but it held off and just stayed overcast.

We will do the next 2 days together for sure as next one is an easy 22km to the base of a steeper ascent. Then together we will do the 30km, no cities in between mountain climb to 1600m to the next stop.

yes, that’s a vending machine 😂….but empty

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