trails on the road

To give you some idea of the kind of trails we traversed the first week I´ve attached a couple of pictures. Imagine this doubled, twice as rocky with a 6 inch coating of mud (never more than that or my Vasque boots would´ve been swamped) and treacherous snarly jungle vines that have razor sharp thorns and you´ve got half an idea of what the first week was like

By mistake we took the ´alpinist´ route a couple of times. OMG, I am fit but that thing kicked my ass and hauled it to hell. I was told later by an actual Everest summiter that that route was the hardest rock route in Spain. We wouldnt think anything of doing this for one long weekend in the mtns at home, but day in day out for a week and longer .....

Funny, we walked into a bar (sounds like a bad joke) and this guy saw my Tibetan bracelet with the symbols on it and proceeded to say hello in Nepali which I can understand thanks to a roommate in college who was from there. He belonged to a joint swiss-spanish team that did Everest in the 60´s

at times for the first week it was hand and toe holds that would get you up a slope. When we reached a village or a shepherds encampment they would look at us like we were insane - then when we said ´camino de santiago´then the beers would come out (and once, Veterano brandy ;) )