Los Arcos to Logroño

Distance: 28km
Terrain: mostly flat, some pine groves, some vineyards, dry rocky paths. I feel like I'm walking through Temecula during a dry, hot time of year.
Weather: Hot. Very nice this morning, even cold, and I wore long pants and long sleeves from 6 - about 8:30. (Started my earliest ever, at about 6am, because it seemed like EVERYONE was getting up at 5!)

Got to Viana at 10 or 10:30, and I had been planning on staying there, but it was too early. It felt like a cute little city, and I had thought I'd enjoy getting started early and finishing early, but the hostels don't open until like 2, so it didn't feel right! I left there at 11 and arrived here around 2:00, 3 hrs to go 8km, but it was hot and I stopped several times. I've discovered that one of the secrets is stopping and taking off my socks and shoes every hour or two. And when it's hot and I'm really tired, that becomes like every 45 minutes. And eating often along the way helps too.

So on to Logroño. Met my first other Californians, two students from Sacramento. Lots of familiar faces every day, some since day 1, but no one that I'm really walking with 100% of the time. It's more like I walk with some people for a while, or I pass them and then they pass me, as we take breaks at different places. But the familiarity is great, like a whole little village picking up and moving each day.

My new shoes and socks seem to be good, so I'm going to send the others along home.

I'm now in La Rioja, the region in Spain famous for its wine. Oh, and I think I forgot to mention, yesterday I passed by the WINE FOUNTAIN for pilgrims in the side of a winery in Itache, Navarre. There's a water spigot and there's a wine spigot. Help yourself. Not top quality, and not so appetizing at 9am, but it says it's good luck to fortify you to reach Santiago, so you gotta do it. :)

My legs are stiff and sore today, but my feet and knees feel slightly better. I feel like an old woman. Every day there's a different complaint. It's easiER now than it was a week ago, but when does it get EASY??? But every single day I find that it's worth it. Beautiful countryside that you wouldn't see any other way, neat towns, great people.