Persistent drizzle came in on a northerly wind. There had been no less than 111 in my bedroom in the Jesus y Maria Aubergue in Pamplona.
A man, called Kim, from Korea was on the top bunk over me. He had heard of Hemingway but had not read him. One clown rose at 5am and started strobing his light around the huge ling hall of a open two-story dormitory.
On the Way It rained and there were gaps with droplets and then heavier rain. It was five degrees centigrade when we left Jesus y Maria Aubergue. We stopped at a small bakery which opened at 7 am and I had a doughnut filled with custard and a pequenia baguette. I waited out in the misty dawn light and got talking to three retired Frenchmen, one from Savoie and another from Bordeaux. Then it was a march through the rain to
Puente la Reina over the Alta Perdon.
Puente la Reine is a beautful old stone town with about 3,000 people on the Arca River. The green Arca River is twice its suze compared to when we first saw it in Zubiri. The Santago Apostle Auberge can give beds to 100 hungry, soaked and tired pelegrinos in an indstrial building on the west end of town on a rise across the stone bridgeacross the Arca as you leave he town it but did not turn on any heat until 6pm. Many very noisy Koreans again rising at 5am. I would guess that Koreans make up about 20% of the pilgrims st this time. Apparently they only do the Camino Frances andd no other Camino. I was told by Pieter, a Dutch retired physiotherapist that “The Way” was made ever more popular in Korean by a celebrity chef who had a mystical experience. I must start stopping in smaller hostels between the main stops.
