Day 3: Zubiri to Pamplona

The Choreographer was at work today. We left our warm, dry albergue in Zubiri and were soon climbing the hills along the Rio Arga. I visited an old Abbey. In walks Kate Jenkins, Director of the Institute for Pilgrimage Studies at William and Mary College. We stood in awe as the new owner told the story of how two Brits came to own a old church on the Camino. Walking out, we talked for several kilometers about how my work in environmental studies and this Camino would make a good paper at the next conference.

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Then I met up with Susan who is an environmental lawyer from Oregon and doing work in water ethics with the World Council of Churches. We watched for birds along the river and tottered comfortably at a slow but pleasant pace.  The river valley is laced with Medieval villages, each with its church and bells clanging the hours. Then MORE PONIES FOALING! We were entranced by a herd of Castilian ponies that had given birth the night before, guarding their babies. The foals are born brown then turn to sports as they grow up.

Susan and Ardi ponies with newborn foals.

Then we found church! A beautiful cafe along the river. I inhaled mushroom quiche and started down a bag of frigates. We were joined by Linda, a Camino historian and presenter at the American Pilgrims on the Camino conference. It's amazing how friendships form on the Camino, all the people who show up at just the right time. It was invigorating conversation and good food!

Susan, Linda, and me having lunch by the Rio Arga. 

It was great fun watching hikers come into the village and discover food and friends waiting. My Camino family continues to grow.

Pilgrim art.

The next section of this 15 kilometer day took us to Iglesias de San Pedro on a hill overlooking the valley. We were invited in by a sweet sister of the Order of the Sacred Heart. She sent us up a narrow winding staircase to ring the oldest bell in Navarra! It was LOUD but magical.

A rickety floor and loud bell!

The Crucifix and pilgrims intentions.

St. James and St. Francis appear!

One of four nuns remaining at St. Pedro's 

Sister told us about the "language of the bells" - how bell towers were like the cell phone towers of their day during and beyond the Middle Ages. Each church in each village had its own combination of bells, certain "voices" that people could recognize as far downriver as Pamplona, ten miles away. "These bells warned of Charlemagne and Napoleon, forest fires, and extra hands needed to get the harvest in before the first frost. Of course, they called people out of the fields to pray, by more importantly the church bellmen are relaying information to the village an village up ad down the valley. The bells spoke to us."

The oldest bell in Navarra, 1190.

What an amazing story that was! But we had so many more miles to go till Pamplona. Down the river valley we went, reminded often that this was still Basque Country!