Fuente de Vino

When Catherine was deciding if she would join me on the first week of the trip or the last it was something of a toss up. The last week would feature, warmer weather, warmer showers, actually getting to see Santiago, etc. The first week would feature cold, snow, cold nights, cold showers, etc. --a dilemma?--Well yes, because I think she was lured by the promise of the famed wine fountain. I cannot even believe that I didn´t mention this yesterday, but yes, at the festive wine drinking hour of 8:23 a.m., I passed by the wine makers, Bodegas Irache. The have kindly set up a wine fountain for passersby on the camino. It´s not manned by anyone, you just take your cup, bottle, or what have you and turn on the tap. I had a wee bit and toasted to happiness as instructed on the sign. Then I filled up on water which they also graciously supply. They apparently have a webcam that shows pilgrims hiking up to the fountain and filling up.
Let´s see, after I checked in, Ina arrived and new friend, Sang Kyoung, from South Korea. She is kind of like a Korean Dana B.--very outgoing, lively, energetic, etc. Unlike young Dana, she is 31 but didn´t want her parents to worry about her walking across Spain on her own so she told them that she was traveling in Europe, which is true. They have no idea she is doing this though and her friend was all in on an elaborate rouse of meeting her at the airport to take her large suitcases home with her and replacing them with her light weight backpack. She says she will tell them when she gets back. She feels she should be more religious on the trip and has brought a small bible and has vowed to read ¨ten chapters¨each day--alas she claims that it makes her very sleepy.
Rodrigo, a guy from Argentina also arrived. He is walking from Santiago to Rome. Evidently while working at the plant center he fell from an 18 foot palm tree and his head landed on a rock. The rock reportedly split in half but he was fine so he feels he owes thanks to a higher power. Shortly after my entry yesterday he came running into the room with an armload of vending machine sandwiches. Some of these villages are really small and it is hard to find food so the some of the hostels have vending machines. The vending machine guy was there to reload it and these sandwiches were expiring that day so he gave them to us (about 10 or so). Rodrigo bought about a 2 dollar bottle of wine from the hostel proprietor. The proprietor gave us some almonds which she had salted and roasted and we had a little party--they sandwiches were the worst part.
I have gathered some fame(well among 3 people) on the Camino as the ¨orange artist¨. When I was walking with Ina we would always see orange peels and wonder if they belonged to someone we knew who was walking ahead. So, yesterday when I knew I would be ahead of her, after eating my orange I made an arrow shape out of little pieces of peel and layed it out on the camino. She guessed that I had done it. The Korean girl was like, "You're the one who did that?", "I took a picture of it¨ and then showed me the picture. Today I left orange peel in a peace sign design.
I´m still having quite a bit of trouble sleeping. I lay awake for 2-3 hours usually thinking about my spelling errors and what would have been a better story to write.
I can´t bother to re-read all of these entries but I don´t think that I ever mentioned the funniest thing about young Juan. His mother is Scottish and his father Spanish and he grew up in Spain. His English is perplexing. Sometimes he sounds like a full on Scottish person and at other times just like a Spanish person speaking English. I asked him about this and he said,¨yeah, I think that when I have no idea what I am talking about, I sound like a Spanish person speaking English.¨¨
Today´s walk, so far, was pretty good. I left the region of Navarra and entered La Rioja--you wouldn´t think you´d notice a change but even after a few miles you can notice that it is not nearly as green here--seems a lot more dry. Less green fields, more dry shrubby looking stuff. Another LOVELY day though. Wow, I feel fortunate.
The other day I was in a very tiny village and stopped to look at my book to see if there was mention of any food and a guy walked by and I yelled after him in Spanish to ask if there was any place to eat. It turns out he is Irish and is working at the albergue. He looked Spanish though and it reminded me of when I saw Irish actor Gabriel Byrne interviewed. He said when he was young he had worked in a small town in Spain teaching. Because he looked Spanish, people asumed that he was and couldn´t work out why his Spanish was so bad. Evidently they just thought he was the village idiot.
Lisa L. --I am in Logroño now at the library and am just about to go have some tapas before moving on to Navarette. You would be having so much fun. When I arrived in Pamplona on day 1 I went to a cafe and got a tortilla de patatas and they were playing that song, ¨No me importa nada¨ on the radio--remember, it was popular around the same time as ¨Basta ya de tanta tonteria¨which we performed with Marisol at the Palencia talent show. It was like I never left--really. It´s great everyday, the old men in their berets, the lovable Spanish busybody ladies with their "maja" this and "hija" that. I even enjoy seeing the piping hot coffee served in juice glasses. I think maybe we should walk this together when we are 60. Oh, there is an El Submarino in the main square in Logroño . I have not donned a Minnie Mouse costume and danced on a box as it wouldn´t be the same without you, Fidel, and for good measure I´ll throw in the Happy Swede. You asked about the Catholic thing--I guess I¨m Catholic like you, John, and Rand (?) and Pepe are.
Off to eat and then walk about 10 more miles ( think I have done about 10 this morning) to Navarette. Not so exciting today--very tired. Sorry these are rambling but otherwise, I guess, you wouldn´t know that I was the one writing them.