Hi,

Since I last wrote I have travelled through many towns and had lots of great experiences. From Estella I went to to Los Arcos, from there to Viana then to Navarrette and now to Afroza.

Where to begin... Well grape vines are as numerous along the Spanish countryside as the product they yield is on the dinner table. Every dinner comes with aa bottle of wine, from the region that you are dining in. So far we have gone through one region and are into our second, we went through the Navarra region and now are in the Rojia region. As we were leaving Estella on our fifth day of walking we encountered an arduous if not long uphill climb, as we were walking we came upon the Bodega Irache, a winery that has been bottling world famous wine since 1891. Now I am sure you are saying what is the big deal about coming across a winery in Spain. The big deal though you see is that this winery had a free wine spicket for pelegrinos (pilgrims), free wine is sure to make any uphill climb a bit easier. Well, needless to say 9:00 am is much to early for wine so we did what any good pilgrims would do not wanting to offend anyone but not taking what was offered to us, we dumped our water bottles and filled them up with wine to drink with our lunch. The hill seemed a much smaller climb after that.

The next evening we had the opportunity to stay in a church, and be hosted by nuns it was a wonderful experience, as we were there with a group of French people the we have befriended. Before dinner my friend and I wnet outside to the town square and found some kids playing soccer, these kids could not have been much older then 8. My friend asked in Spanish if we could play, they had fun for a bit letting us be goalkeepers and shooting the ball at us . Then they wanted to play real soccer. My friend got picked first for one team then the kids went on picking players and then it came down to me. You know your soccer carrier in Spain is doomed when an eight-year old looks you over, measures you for height against him, and tells his mate that he doesn´t want you. Yeah, I got sized up by a kid and nobody wanted me on there team, especially when my friend told them I didn´t speak Spanish. In the end I got on a team, showed those eight year olds a thing or to about soccer, and we all had a great time.

Well I have plenty more to say but it will have to wait the clock is running out, maybe I will post again later. Hope this finds everyone well.

Amanda