21st April 2024 Obanos to Puente la Reina

We should have known breakfast would be a high standard after last night’s dinner and we had food coming at us for a while.  Our female host did all the cooking again and her husband was, once again, our waiter.

There were containers of yoghurt, toast, scrambled eggs done the traditional local way with small pieces of ham, a mini croissant with ham and cheese (toasted) and pound cake.  We ended up having the scrambled eggs with some toast, the mini croissant and coffee before packing our bags and heading downstairs to put on our boots and head out the door.

We headed to the church and the arch to exit the town then turned around and back-tracked down another road to meet the main road where we headed left for about a kilometre or so before heading off towards the church of La Ermita Santa Maria de Eunate (an Ermita is like a hermitage) – often just referred to as Eunate). It was cool but sunny and we had a lovely walk along a stream (where I had taken my boots off last time and soaked my feet in the freezing water) before Eunate came into sight.

Nothing quite prepares you for this beautiful building and I could see that Steve was a little gob-smacked.  Such a simple structure among the fields with so much meaning and I was itching to get there. Last Camino I did the deviation from Muruzábal with a young French girl, Sabrina, who I met and we managed to get there at 1355H (it closes for siesta at 1400H). The visit was very rushed and we had heard of the tradition of walking around the church three times and being absolved of all your sins.  He was hurrying us up as he wanted to lock the church – we were happy with that but then he said he was also locking up the area where you walk around the church. We almost begged him to walk around but he said “No” – we asked if we could run instead.  He actually laughed and allowed us to do that before we left.

Steve and I paid our €3, got our Pilgrims’ stamp and headed over to the church.  As the sun was behind the church I headed around to the patch of clear ground to get some photos of the sunny side before heading into the enclosure and walked around three times with Steve before heading inside. We had seen a man walking in with a musical instrument case and we were a little disappointed that we wouldn’t have the place to ourselves but wow! what a wonderful addition he was to the atmosphere.

For a bit of history: The church of La Ermita Santa Maria de Eunate was built in the 12th century. Its location in open country and close to the meeting of two Caminos suggests it was intended primarily as a pilgrim church, however little is known for certain about its history. It is octagonal in shape and surrounded by an external gallery of 33 arches. Its shape, similar to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, has provoked speculations about a connection with the Knights Templar. The presence of stairs giving access to the roof suggests it may have been a funeral chapel because of the tradition of placing a lantern there during the funeral. However, many features of the architecture and décor of this church, such as its shape, the external arches, some of the carvings, etc., continue to bemuse historians. The stonemasons who worked on the church left carved symbols to identify their handiwork.

Steve and I sat and absorbed the atmosphere before the man started playing a traditional guitar and singing – but not normal singing – turns out it is called polyphonic singing where a vocalist is able to manipulate the natural resonances of their vocal tract. Multiple notes are possible when the singer sustains a low note while simultaneously singing a high-pitched one. Quite a captivating and somewhat haunting sound and we felt very privileged to have been there to witness it.

This link shows an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9Qh709gas

We stayed at the Ermita for about an hour before heading off – back through Obanos and then on through fields of wheat into the outskirts of Puente la Reina (Bridge of the Queen) where there were individual plots with eggplants, onions, peppers, and all sorts of herbs being grown.  I was reminded of my last Camino where I saw a lovely old man picking artichokes and he said he was taking them home to have for lunch.  Such a simple life.

Through the streets of Puente la Reina and on to our lodging for the night – the same place I stayed last time – a street parallel to and one street away from the main street that leads down to the bridge.  We had showers, washed our clothes, put on our spare pair of clothes and our crocs and headed out to do some exploring as it was still quite early. 

Down the little laneway to our left we ended up at the Parroquia de Santiago – a church built in the 12th Century with a magnificent Romanesque entrance.  This was closed last time I came through and I finally had an opportunity to see the magnificence inside with Steve – including a famous Gothic wooden statue known as Beltza (the black Santiago). This beautiful statue was made in the 14th Century and he carries a staff, a book and has a hat with scallops on it.  This statue was the symbol of the church apparently from 1348 – 1643 when it went missing and was only rediscovered in 1945 when they were doing repair work on the temple floor.  The sheer magnificence of this church was a little overwhelming and we headed outside and along Calle Mayor stopping at Restaurante la Torreta for lunch.  Steve chose a ham bocadillo and I had a brilliant cheese salad.  We thoroughly enjoyed this little break before heading off towards the bridge.

We loved the little laneways and exploring them but we stayed on Calle Mayor – enjoying the vast number of ancient, decorative front doors and the magnificent carvings on the buildings and the ornately patterned wooden eaves. It is quite a long street but only about 8m wide and we finally got to the bridge.  Instead of going up and over we headed down to the river and watched the bridge from the water level.  The bridge was built in the 11th Century to provide a way for pilgrims to cross the River Arga safely and they did a brilliant job – the beautiful arches with spear shaped buttresses (I suppose to help break the flow of the water during flood time – we saw a few tree trunks in the river) is a very pretty one.  We headed over to the other side and then headed towards another bridge so we could take photos of the bridge from the side before heading back to our room to catch up on our blogs etc and try to take a nap.  The nap didn’t happen but the blogs did!

We headed back to our little lunch restaurant about 1930H and had a lovely meal of steak for Steve and chicken for me – once again served with a delicious salad.  Back to the room to get organised for tomorrow and complete the blog for today.  We have a 22km or so day tomorrow so we want to head off about 0700H.  Let’s hope we have a good sleep tonight.