I don’t know you at all. And with our very limited interaction the only deductions I may conclude is that you are a carbon based life form and you own a computing device, either hand or lap. So you might hate the town of Estella-Lizarra, and it’s okay if you do. I just want to be clear I’m not selling you on the town, only describing my experience with it.

Stacy had taken a car ahead to Estella, which was a blissfully easy thing to do. It’s one of the safety catches of the Camino. If you get tired or hurt, call a cab. A whole lot of people do luggage transport, that is send their bags ahead by Taxi/Van to their next albergue; the modern version of having the Iconic Medieval Camino Donkey carrying your pack. After the bags are dropped, there are a lot of Tax/Vans with time on their hands. The few times we used the service we had no trouble getting a car—But, LEARN YOUR SPANISH!

Being an insecure male with no real accomplishments other than self-committed long bouts of repetitive and strenuous activity, I walked ahead alone, singing my ass off when I found myself in a place where i could Hippocraticaly harm no-one. But I had a burr up my butt this day and wanted not just to walk 20k, but to walk it so fast Stacy would be shocked when I arrived. That was the actual picture in my mind I was trying to achieve: a wide-eyed-open-jawed Stacy. I think I was feeling competitive towards the Camino Power Hikers. These groovy cats get up at 3am, walk 30k every day and they all look like a Healthier version of Chris Hemsworth or a Happier version of Scarlett Johansson. And as I was still dumb enough to be living under the illusion that I was young, I figured I could power walk a 20k. Hell yeah!

I’m not young. I’m old. I walked my ass off and it hurt.

Also, this was the day of my one Camino regret. As I was powering down the trail there was a small area by an ancient bridge where several Caministos I knew from up the road were lounging and rinsing their feet in the cool water of the river. I wanted to stop, but I decided to stick to my resolution and power on! I wish I had stopped. The shade looked nice.

That was the last time I made a decision based on goals. No, Mrs. Picayune, food and shelter aren’t goals– those are life. A Goal is nothing but Now trying to look like Forever. It isn’t. Neither are we.

Can you dig it?

The town of Estrella-Lizarra was wonderful to my eyes! It was a perfect blend of familiar and foreign, old and new. It’s a Camino town with lots of alburgues, hostels and apartments. With only 14,000 people, it still boasted four amazing churches, a royal palace museum and the Ega river running right through the town. A real river, not like the somewhat fabricated canal in my Step-Hometown of San Antonio (The Riverwalk is absolutely gorgeous, a Must see). Stacy was able to find an apartment in a 500 year old building with huge wooden beams that had a balcony which opened up to this beautiful river peacefully gurgling by our windows. Bliss.

The city was tucked in along a winding series of roads through the hillsides, resembling the type of old European cityscape Tom Cruise would use for a motorcycle chase. The Medieval heritage was fiercely preserved here, but nothing I saw was quaint, forced or gussied up into a Pantomime of the past. Estella Lizarra was a 900 year living town and I loved it.

And, because we are different, you might hate it.

After crashing hard, we got up and had a rest day, lounging about and devouring our first Spanish tomato, purchased ripe from the farmer’s market. Ohmigawd! There is a thing that happens when you walk your butt off everyday and have no access to the processed food of your Native Tongue. Actual food starts to taste amazing! Granted, this was high-quality produce grown right next door by talented people, so it was undoubtably a fantastic tomato, but anything even moderately good is going to taste great after a Camino kind of day. This is called the Eddie Murphy Cracker Principle…

….Don’t worry, there’s no swearing!

The takeaway is that the local Farmer’s markets were the best source for tasty, fresh food which your body will be craving. Seek them out!

Another thing that happens on the Camino, well, it happened to me…are the dreams.

So we are all extra different on this one, with tons of perspectives and experiences with and about dreams. For me, the longer I was on the Camino and the more I stayed away from TV screens and their ilk, the bigger and brighter my dreams got. And in Estella, I actually had a lucid dream.

Ever had one of those?

I was dreaming, and I knew I was dreaming. So, I flew. I did this by flapping my arms and filling my hands with air, thereby pushing me off the ground, more and more, bit by bit, higher and higher.

The next morning I got cross at Stacy for something, and remembered the dream, in particular being able to create my entire reality in the dream. Suddenly, I was able to make up my mind not to be cross. And I wasn’t.

Those were pretty good tomatoes.

Buen Camino.