{"id":1040,"date":"2025-09-25T19:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/makena.org\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2025-09-25T19:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:07:06","slug":"september-24-pomplona-to-marazabul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/makena.org\/?p=1040","title":{"rendered":"September 24, Pomplona to Marazabul"},"content":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t take long to start our day right today, that is right after a very, very cold morning with a heavy breeze and low temperatures!<\/p>\n

We started the day, preparing for rain and wearing four upper layers of clothes, plus a hooded poncho to protect us from the rain that never came!<\/p>\n

Within the 1st mile, we chanced to meet Jen, an American who guides tours in the spring and fall each year, spending the balance of her time with three months a year in Colorado and three months a year in Costa Rica and Panama.<\/p>\n

As we walked a couple of miles together, she explained to us that she worked in corporate America for years, and then decided her life needed to change. Being multilingual and a hiker, she decided to look for something that would give her the opportunity to do the things that she loved and be where she wanted to be.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long before a friend of a friend gave her a referral, which has \u00a0now become her vocation for the last eight years.<\/p>\n

as we approached a bench alongside the road, Jen indicated that it was there. She had to wait for her charges to come by and ensure that everyone was safe and properly on the trail. We said our goodbyes and moved on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jen<\/p><\/div>\n

As we approached, the peak of today\u2019s summit, there was a solid, steel monument representing pilgrims on the trail. There you could stand between those cold, iron pilgrims, and have your picture taken as though you were a member of their group. We did so and then a young lady, \u00a0Danielle, \u00a0asked Brenda if she would take her (Danielle\u2019s) photo with me! Neither of us was quite sure of the reason for the request, but Brenda being easy to get along with said it\u2019s OK with me and thus the photo was taken.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The photo Danielle took of me and Brenda after Brenda took a picture of me and Danielle<\/p><\/div>\n

although the climb to the top was quite the slog, the path down was equally troublesome.<\/p>\n

Like many of the peaks we\u2019ve climbed in this process the angle of descent combined with the huge rocks that you\u2019re walking on during the descent can create a painful and uncomfortable experience<\/p>\n

The rocks, boulders and gravelthat create the path are so torturous and plentiful that pilgrims have begun to pick them up as they go and pile them periodically along the path with the hopes at some point enough people will pick up enough stones that the path will become passable without pain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>As we navigated this path, we ran into a gentleman, Aaron, Who, when asked where he was from, explained , essentially everywhere!<\/p>\n

EX US military he spent time in both the Coast Guard and the Navy in the medical core in both branches and had seen duty literally all over the world.
\nAlthough he loved the hike and did so with a service member friend he met \u00a0years ago, His legs were bad and his pace was slow and he was happy to have someone to chat with as he walked.<\/p>\n

He told us his stories of his time in the medical corps , his ex-wife and the reasons that he hiked all over the world . Together the three of us hiked for well over 3 miles as we kept him company on the downside of the mountain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Aaron<\/p><\/div>\n

AsBrenda and I accompanied him safely to the bottom of the mountain and said our farewell he asked for a photo that he could add to his memories, of course we complied, gave him one of our Camino cards and fond wishes that we would see him again in the future.<\/p>\n

Buen Camino<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t take long to start our day right today, that is right after a very, very cold morning with a heavy breeze and low temperatures! We started the day,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1048,"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makena.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}