Day 4 of the Camino de Santiago

What happened today: We walked 24.5km or 15 miles. Jess had the camera so more pictures of Jacqueline today. Today was a trudge. Especially the 12km walk from small unnamed mountain town to San Juan de Ortega, who was a disciple of Santo Domingo. We barely made it. Jess and I took two breaks along the 12km path and we both managed to sit in ant piles. However we made it to a traditional albergue that is attached to a church that was constructed in the 12 century, added on throughout the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. It is simple and Gothic.

 The landscape changed from wheat fields to mountainous, with lots of pine trees, and scrubby bushes. Some with flowers, some with brilliant green leaves. The path was either red dirt or white gravel.

Bunk beds in our albergue. 

 I think it is also worth mentioning that last night we ran into another ukulele player at our albergue. It was a mid-30s German man who works in Singapore, where apparently the ukulele is quite popular and they offer lessons in many music schools. The three of us put on a short concert for the other pilgrims, so now we are known for our ukulele by some of the pilgrims. Jess and I sang our classic: Unchained Melody and also Stand by Me. Also worth mentioning, last night was the first night that either of us slept properly for more than 5 hours. Jess picked our albergue and managed to choose the one with the least amount of snoring. Thankfully we both have earplugs, and the snoring was at just the right frequency to be blocked by our foam earplugs.  The snoring in most albergues is INTOLERABLE. Many of the pilgrims are large men and older women. They all snore, the men snore especially loudly and if you wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, then all bets are off when it comes to falling back to sleep because by 3am the snores are at their loudest and by 5:30am the most ambitious of the pilgrims are staring to wake, use the bathroom, pack their bags and hit the camino. Those pilgrims who wake up at 5:30am may think they are being quiet, but in a dorms style rooms the first people who wake up act as the alarm clock for all of us. Thus Jess and I have been waking up by 6am and start our walk between 6:30 or 7am.