Spending tonight in Logrono

[Rozan Gautier]

Hello All!
    My husband Brad and I started our walk from St. Jean seven days ago and are
having a wonderful experience!  This part of Spain was in the middle of a heat
wave and for our first five days the weather was well into the 90s even a
couple of days over 100.  Imagine the descent into Zubidri in 100 degree
temperatures! We have been gratified to learn that we are capable of far more
physically than we ever gave ourselves credit for, a good thing to know.  We
are holding to the promise from more seasoned pilgrims that it gets easier
after the first week.  We have been fortunate-no blisters or foot problems and
almost everyone we see has serious blisters.  The only thing I can think of is
that we have lightweight well fitting hiking shoes, not boots, custom
orthotics, smartwool socks and have used vaseline and lambswool lavishly.
Every time I feel a hot spot on my toes I wrap them with lambswool...incredible
stuff.  We also broke our shoes in before we left home and did a fair amount of
hiking in the weeks leading up to our trip.

We have met wonderful people from all over the world.  Camino friendships
develop quickly.  We don´t speak Spanish but are learning to communicate
quickly. We speak French and to my surprise we use it several times daily. Just
a few minutes ago while sticking my tired feet in the wonderful little foot
soaking pool on the patio here I carried on a three way conversation with a
Dutch man speaking English, a French couple and me translating between.
  This part of Spain reminds me of our home of Northern California but then I
look more closely and see that the golden hills are wheat not grass and that
there is a medieval village on the next hill and I am walking past vineyards
and olive trees. The vegetable gardens along the Camino are marvels of
perfection. I would love to transport any one of them to my own backyard.
 I am grateful to say that all of the Americans we have met, and there have
probably been 20 or so in the last few days, have been wonderful
representations of the U.S., no "ugly Americans" so far.
Well, I´d better get off of the computer, one of two here in the Alberque so
others can use it. This is a really nice one by the way.  I´ll try to write
again if I get near a computer.  On to Santiago in time for July 26th (I do
have a hotel room!)
Rozan Gautier