What a difference a day makes...

Last time we wrote, our spirits were rather low. Its amazing how much of an effect the people around you can have on your mood. Our hosts that evening were rather rude and the room was small and stuffy, so we were pretty distressed and quite frankly, questioning this whole thing. Yesterday, however, the tables turned. We got a quick start and it was a beautiful hike in the early morning rain and mist. And mud. Lots of mud. We arrived in Arres, which apparently is one of the suburbs of Pamplona and stopped at ¨Cafeteria Paradise¨for a cafe con leche and a sandwich with chorizo, egg and cheese. Everyone was there, muddy and the mood was light. The day was looking up. As we traversed through the city of Pamplona, we were a little nervous around all the people. It has a reputation of mucho pickpocketing. However, we joined up with a group of 4 from Holland (they are on their 55th day of hiking!) and enjoyed the city sights. Our favorite occurence was when we were searching for a place to eat and an old man stopped us...¨hey pelegrino! the camino is that way!¨He was so worried that we were on the wrong track. We explained we were hungry, so he walked with us to a nice cafe where we got a great meal. The people here are so kind. We stayed the night in a town called Cizur Menor at a fabulous albergue...totally opposite fro mthe night before. Our hosts greeted us with enthusiasm, let us choose our beds, offered us food and informed us that they would make us cafe at 6am...music to a pilgrim´s ears! We had all afternoon to rest our weary bodies...5 blisters and a bunch of sore legs between us. After much confusion over dinner (it was sunday and almost everywhere was closed, but no one seemed to know what was going on, including the locals), we ended up eating with two ladies from Korea and had a great time. The night was great and this morning we got a VERY early wake up (pilgrims are not the most quiet beings...) and hiked. They followed through with the promise of coffee and away we went! We were planning on covering some extra ground today, however Mother Nature had different plans. We were caught in a torrential downpour...lightning, thunder and all. Our drenched clothes and boots kept us from going any further and we are now at a private albergue on a hill wringing our bodies out. Tomorrow we plan on covering some MAJOR ground...this is a competition after all! Please keep us in your prayers...we (or Catie) finds that this trip is a roller coaster of emotion and is very challenging, both mentally and physically. It is tough to not question our decision to do this at times, while at other times we don´t think life could get any better. We miss you all and would love to be sharing this experience with you! Buen Camino!!!!

Michael and Catie