Day 7 – Villatuerta

22km from Muruzabal at an alburgue called La Casa Magical. New-age hospitality operating in a medieval building. 

Poppies are a wildflower verging on invasive species this time of year.

Every village and town has a local taberna that sells coffee drinks, beer, wine, pastries, etc. 

The earliest use of Cohort   is “a unit of men within the Roman army” but now days it’s any group with a common characteristic.  The original  definition is not too far off from the  folks that you meet in the first few days on the Camino. They tend to show up again at various places on the trail, in cafes, and occasionally at the same alburgues.   We share our war stories in the current campaign, status of our foot blisters, and evolving plans for our Camino.  This seems like amazingly comfortable chatter given the brevity of our relationship.

This afternoon while hand washing my clothes outside the alburgue an older Spanish man was finishing his lunch at a table nearby.  I’d not met him before and he speaks no English but we established the fact that I am Jason and he is Seth. Then he offered me the last half of his bottle of wine and went off to take a nap.  Some things are universal.