Day 8

Alarm went of at 5;15 and we were on the trail by 6;30 in the dark with headlights and a full moon .  We had bananas Yogurt and mut mix in our room before leaving.  It was up and down hills to get out of Estella    Our Korean roommate Miriam left just before us.  We only planned to go about 9 km today as we were all recovering from something or other, but we did the 9 km by about 9;30.  BUT at 7;30 we came upon the Irache´s Bodega where there was a free wine fountain coming out of the wall.....so we were totting up on red wine earlier than expected!!   As the day didn´t seem to be quite so hot and there were lots of puffy white clouds moving about, we thought there would be passing shade.  This turned out to be the way it was any although we were moving pretty slowly we wre moving! Eventually we did 21 km today and arrived in Los Arcos.  There were a lot of pilgrims stopping here and many had booked rooms ahead. Lots of places were full!  WQe did find pensione Mavi whre we got 2 double rooms for 50 Euros each room.....A bit more than we have paid so far but the rooms are nice....and hey we are not poor!  We dumpted our backpacks and went right back out to the main square for beer.  Lots of pilgrims doing same thng.  Irish Tom / Anne, Barry from Oz, and his friend Paul / and wife from Somerst England....We chatted to them a bit.  Joanie left to go have a nap nd the rest of us followed soon for showers and laundry.  Now resting till we go out for hopefully a decent meal.  We haven´t seen a vegetable unless you count the tomato on our burgers last night.  This morning at th bar (10am) I had two big glasses of gazpacho...so I guess thats how I will get my vegetables!  Dinner at Hotel Monaco = Pilgrims dinner was the best yet...wonderful gazpacho which we all had.  Lots of red wine and watr, main course and desserts.  After dinnr we visited the local church which was also the best on we have seen .  Joanie and Jan went off to bed ...Joanie still not feeling 100%...Sandy and I set of to find an english speaking person to phone a hotel for us in Viana where we plan to go tomorrow.  There was a weeet girl at th AUstrian aburgue ..only  he was off duty when we arrived.  Back we went to our pension Mavi where luck would have it our landlords were just about to leave . they helped us out securing a room with Sandy´ñs credit card.....Since it is harvst time 0 wine, festivals all over the Roja region rooms are very scarce. We finally go to bed about 10;30 and wake up was 5;15