Day Twelve: Ventosa to Azofra. March 24, 2013

Distance: About 15.8 kilometers with perhaps 100 meters elevation gain (9.8 miles with around 350 or so feet elevation gain).

Happy birthday, Sage! We decorated her backpack with balloons before we left our room this morning.

The wonderful hospitaleros (am I spelling that right?) and a group of peregrinos sang Happy Birthday to Sage in Spanish and English when we went downstairs. Sage enjoyed and appreciated the attention, but she played her shy card and hid behind me and my backpack during most of the singing.

Reka, the friendly hospitalera (spelling?), gave Sage a Camino necklace as a present. That was very sweet and Sage appreciated the gift.

I know I spoke of this albergue yesterday, but I'd like to emphasize how much we enjoyed our stay at San Saturnino. The atmosphere was tranquil, everyone was super-friendly, and we were woken with music this morning. Two huge thumbs up.

Leaving Ventosa....

The door of San Saturnino

Heading toward Najera...

Approaching the "beehive," site of a mythical battle between Christian knights and Arab Moors...

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Through Najera and toward Azofra...

We entered Alzofra, our home for the evening; we stopped here instead of continuing onward since the next open albergue is 8 miles away and Sage preferred a 10-mile walking day (instead of 18) for her birthday. She had an enjoyable walk today, though she buried her face in my backpack every time anyone wished her a happy birthday (she can be incredibly shy).

The girls are playing in the patio of our albergue while Hugh readies himself for his next business trip. He will leave the Camino once again this evening. We'll see him again somewhere around Leon in early April.

Love tonight's albergue, by the way. It's the municipal albergue in Azofra. The beds are arranged in cubicles of two so peregrinos are guaranteed some privacy. There is a large patio with a fountain and there are kitchen/laundry facilities. Only seven Euros per bed. There's also a foot massage machine...one Euro per session...we may have to give that a try.

Today's thanks goes to The Styx Restaurant in Campton, NH. The owners allowed us to hold our charity raffle there last December (we raised over a thousand dollars for GirlVentures with that raffle)! Many thanks, guys! that raffle was a large part of our overall fundraising campaign for GirlVentures and Global Fund for Women.

I'll have updated totals on our fundraising campaign sometime next week, by the way. I think we've reached our goal for Global Fund for Women ($5000) and I think we are close to our goal ($5000) for GirlVentures. If you would like to donate to one or both of these worthy, female-empowering, nonprofit organizations, then please click on one of the tabs at the top of this page (thanks!).

--Trish

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