Cizur Menor-Roncar July 25

Roncar: to snore. Evidently I snore. Loudly. But only when I am on my back.

I walked from Pamplona to Cizur Menor on a day when the temperature hit 106 degrees Farenheit. I only walked six miles, but I was really tired and I knew I had a hard day ahead of me over Alto de Perdon (the hill of forgiveness). I went to bed early and had my bag packed for the next morning. It was so hot in the hostel that I slept in a pool of sweat.

Somewhere during the night, a little Italian woman named Giulia tapped me on the shoulder to tell me to roll over so I would stop snoring. Obviously, my snoring has never bothered me, so I was a little surprised that it bothered Giulia enough to wake me up. At first I was irritated. Then, when I could not get back to sleep, I was mad.

Hostel

I was so hot that I quietly climbed down from my top bunk and started walking. Even though it was 4:30 a.m. I thought walking in the morning air would be better than sweating in the hostel or risking the wrath of Giulia if I snored again.

With my headlamp scaring every cat in town, I started walking. It was already about 85 degrees and the sun had not even thought about getting up.

As I reached the Alto de Perdon, the sun climbed above the hills and began it's brutal assault. By the time I reached the top of the hill, all of my carefully applied sunscreen had liquified and dripped off of me. Luckily there was a bench and some shade.

As I sat looking over the valley below, I thought about the times when I had failed to forgive and the times when I had failed to ask for forgiveness. I even thought about Giulia and how irritated I had been at her. I was really glad she had been asleep when I left the hostel. I did not want to have to speak with her.

Alto de Perdon

Temperatures over 100 degrees

At the Top of Alto de Perdon

But when you are sitting on the "Hill of Forgiveness", you can't move on if you are holding a grudge. So I said a prayer that Giulia would have a good day getting over the hill and that maybe she could forgive me for snoring.