September 19th, 2013

Every grocery store and cafe sells Cornettos and I vow that before I leave Spain I´m going to eat one in honor of ¨The Cornetto Trilogy".  (You non-fine film buffs can google "The Cornetto Trilogy").  But I can´t help but wonder if there´s a relationship between the plentitude of Cornettos and the plentitude of zombies and robots (as per "The Cornetto Trilogy) along the Camino today.  Zombies and robots with backpacks, hiking boots and walking sticks.  And I must admit I´m in their number, though at this point I ´m not sure whether I´m a zombie or a robot.  I feel like a robot zombie.  But we met a German pilgrim who is on his third Camino and he says that in another week or so we´ll be doing much better.  He says that there are three parts to the Camino:  the first part is the physical part, where you struggle with the physical challenge of climbing up and down rugged mountains mile after mile, day after day; the second part is the mental part, when you walk across the Meseta, the desert land, and have to cope with the mental struggle of walking for miles across seemingly endless empty spaces (It´ll be a heck of a  mental struggle for me if I can´t find a tree or bush to go behind every now and then!); and the third part is the spiritual part ,when you start to find  spiritual meaning on the Camino.  I think I should wait  until the third part of the Camino to eat my Cornetto as a victory celebration for having made it across the first two parts.  On the other hand, maybe I should eat my Cornetto today to celbrate having made it over the 20 km hike  from Villava through Pamplona again then up and down a steep, windy, rocky mountain to the town of Uterga.  But we struck gold again with the albergue here, it´s the cutest little place, 10 euros a night, and has only 18 pilgrim beds.  We also ran into our little friend Maria and her daughter Clara here, it was a happy reunion - and it turns out she had the camera charger  adapter that I left behind in the albergue in Espinal!  So now I have an extra one to lose.  Anyway , the meal in the Uterga albergues was  phenominal.  There are always options for every course, but I chose to start with a huge bowl of spahgetti with a delicious sauce which I scarfed down,  next I went for a plate of also delicious beef stew with french fries which I also polished off, then an ice cream sundae for dessert, which, of course, I finished to the last spoonful. Then there was the standard basket of bread and the wine (though I always opt for the water, but Tom and the other pilgrims did great justice to the wine!).  As I ploughed through each course I kept saying, "I can´t believe I´m eating all this!"  One thing for sure, even with all this walking I´m not going to lose a pound!  In fact, I feel like I could go for that Cornetto now!  A happy day to all!