September 14, 2022 Day 3 Camino de Santiago

We arose before dawn at 630 and packed up. A little bar, Bar Luis, was open since 6 am. What’s called a bar here is similar to the US, but much broader. It exists for modest priced casual fare and any kind of drink at all hours of the day. It’s often the place people stop in quickly in the morning for a shot of espresso, or in the afternoon for a small glass of wine. After our breakfast of croissant and cafe cortado, we headed out into the early dawn light and headed for the hills west of San Sebastian, climbing up Monte Igueldo and onward. A last dawn light view of the city was a sweet good-bye. We continued to climb through forest and farmland. It was more populated than the preious day, and possible to obtain water if necessary. We came upon a stand put up by The Twelve Tribes, a communal group that is an offshoot of the Jesus People that started in the US in the 1970s. They offer free drinks and cookies to pilgrims passing by on a donation basis. That that break at the 3 hour mark gave us a big boost to get into the town of Orio at 11:45 for an early lunch. We sat in a beautiful courtyard overlooking a river and medieval looking buildings around us. The Basque architectural style looks like a mixture of gothic and heavy rural German style with exposed beams and large building stones, and are built very close together.

We finished lunch, paid the friendly Nicaraguan guy tending the bar, and headed off across the river and up the next set of hills. Miraculously, the 6 km went by very fast and we were in Zarautz, our final destination by 1:30, and our hotel let us have our rooms immediately.

I made a near fatal mistake with my cellphone, forgetting the PIN number of my Spanish SIM card, meaning that suddenly I could not even turn on the phone! I walked around town and found at little cell phone store that sold SIM cards with data and minutes — thankfully! However, as I tried to express what I was there for, the dark complected young man did not seem to be understanding me. Is the word I use for ”data” in Spanish incorrect here? It often happens that Latin American and Iberian Spanish have different vocabulary or expressions. Finally, a man called from the back of the store, ” Do you speak English?” I smiled and said YES! It turned out that the young man was Pakistani and spoke English well, but his Spanish was poor as he had only been livng here for 6 weeks. Then our conversation went well and I quickly got a new SIM card, and carefully saved the PIN number.

After a nice dinner of pintxos, raciones and beer we relaxed in the hotel, and I went walking and doing a little street photography. It was a fantastic day.