Day 19, September 19, Camponaraya to Pereje– late post

We set off for Pereje early in the morning and walked through hills and hills and hills and hills of vineyards. It really was quite scenic, but after a while you just wonder where it will end. But the walk was quite pleasant, all rolling hills, and now and then you see families, including their children, tending to their grapes. 

 



















Then we got to Villafranca where we stopped to look for an ATM and have lunch. In Villafranca there were groups of tourist looking around. This was also one place where we saw the yellow arrow pointing to two opposite directions, which quite confused us, so we waited to see which way pilgrims went and followed. This led us to the town plaza where there were street side cafes, bakeries and more importantly, an ATM machine. 



After we got the money we needed and got supplies from a small bakery, we looked around for an interesting place to eat. Everyone offered a menu del dia anyway, so the average price was about the same. As there were a number of tourists, it was not easy to find a place but we looked at the different menus and chose one that had satisfied-looking diners. It was also such a beautiful day out so we  asked to be seated outside.

This was where we saw Nancy and Peter again. They got a table beside ours and we started chatting throughout the meal. They asked us where we planned to end the day and we mentioned Pereje to avoid big groups of pilgrims. Maybe they didn't have a plan at that point since they agreed that that was a good idea. 

It may have been that we enjoyed lunch too much because before we knew it, Anj and I finished the entire bottle of wine and it was already more than the hour we planned to pause for lunch. We also regretted that bottle of wine as soon as we started with the walk again, since it was a warm sunny day and we felt the heat of the sun even more intensely. 

We chose Pereje because it was a midway town. And being one, we thought that it was not a usual pilgrim stop with only 1 albergue and one restaurant/store in town. Much like Estelle, you wouldn’t know there was a town unless you are specifically looking for it. In fact, the entire town is one street block only and you had to go to the only restaurant to get a WiFi signal. But it was peaceful and we were able to do our laundry.  I quite liked that there were no bunk beds in this albergue, just a couple of rows of sturdy wooden beds lined against opposite walls. It was a welcome change and quite reminded me of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.' We ended up in that one albergue and had dinner together before calling it an early night.