Oh how we've longed for Logrono

We left the Navarra region of Spain today and crossed over into the great wine-producing region of La Rioja. Most of our hike today was through farmlands, vineyards and pockets of pine trees.  We needed this shorter day (12.8 miles) to recover from yesterday and prepare for tomorrow's long day. We stopped at the small village of Viana, had lunch and visited the church of Santa Maria in the pictures below.  This church was built in the early 13th century, all by hand without all the modern machinery we have these days. Amazing!

As we climbed to our high point today, Alto del Payo we found an area where pilgrims built cairns and left all kinds of mementos.  Lee brought a few AA tokens to leave at different places along the route. She says if it weren't for AA she wouldn't be here today so she left her first one there on top of that mountain.

We met a young man in his twenties doing the Camino with his Mother.  They are from Denmark. He plans to move to Los Angeles when he finishes the Camino to promote his band.  He has such ambition and is determined to follow his dream.  We gave him one of the "California" caps and told him we hoped to see him on T.V. someday.  We nicked named him "Rock Star" and when ever we run across each other on the trail I say, "hello Rock Star" and he says "hello San Diego"! Peoples names are too hard to remember on the trail, but we tend to remember where they are from.  We have met people from: Canada, Italy, Germany, Korea, South Africa, Denmark, France, Palm Springs, Florida, Maryland and of course people from all over Spain.

Here are some pictures from today.  Send us good vibes for tomorrow's hike...the longest so far.