The next day... We had heard that the refugio in Zubiri was poor, so we skipped it. We did stop in the town for a bite to eat and met up with Michael and Jocelyn again.

One problem with being a pilgrim is that you are so out of sync with the everyday life of the people who live in Spain. Most refugios kick you out by 8am, but most bars (a bar serves coffee, alcohol and food) don't open until later. So if you need food in the morning (as I do) or coffee (as Tim does) you need to acquire your food the night before. We usually ate yoghurt, croissants, and fruit for breakfast. Some refugios had kitchens so Tim could make an instant cappuccino - if not, we had to walk for a while until Tim could satisfy his craving.

I grew to love the cafe con leche (coffee with milk) in Spain. It is strong and hot and delicious, with lots of caffeine packed into a small volume! We can't seem to get anything like it in Canada, so we are seriously thinking of buying ourselves a cappuccino machine.

Anyway, we continued on to Larrasoana, making it another long day. It looked like a lot of people had the same idea as us (skipping Zubiri) as when we got to the refugio, it was full. People were sleeping in the overflow area on mattresses crowded against each other on the floor. Since it had been another long day, we were very hot and tired, and I wasn't properly acclimatized yet (did I ever get as relaxed about these things as I should? nah!) , I was very relieved not to stay there. The fellow running the place rang a woman running a private pension to pick up Michael and Jocelyn to ferry them to her place - Tim quickly stepped in and acquired beds for us there too - whew! Her home was beautiful and I didn't mind at all paying the 32 euro for us to sleep in one of her bedrooms.