It's Sunday night and the students are nearly ready to hop into their bunks after two days of wet and muddy hiking.  They were all put to the challenge over the last two days.  Yesterday, it didn't just rain, it POURED.  Some of the students powered right through the worst of it and a few of us took refuge in an abandoned and very leaky manger to wait for it to pass.  Anna and John were at the rear and as hail the size of garbanzo beans fell from the skies, they ran back to a small church in a village where the woman attendant took them into her home to wait out the storm.  As we walked through one of the small towns on the way we came upon a local festival which included live music and folk dancing.  Lauren recognized one of the songs as something she has played on her violin.  We talked about the strong Celtic influence in northern Spain and why they would be playing an Irish tune.  We all arrived in Pamplona thankful that we had packed rain gear.  After hot showers and a rest, most of the students went into the center of Pamplona to see what was happening on a Saturday night.  Today, Sunday, we woke up to very gray skies but we all suited up and hit the trail.  We managed to stay dry for most of the day but the mud was incredible.  We slogged our way through the mud up the long, long climb to Alto del Perdon where we saw the row of windmills that supply Pamplona with electricity.  As we started our descent, the raindrops started to fall and stayed with us all the way into Puente la Reina.  It wasn't the downpour of yesterday, but it kept us moving at a quick pace.  We were all very happy to see our albergue that had not only hot showers but washers and dryers!  Several loads of wet, muddy socks and pants were washed this afternoon.  Tomorrow is promising better weather and we all look forward to some sunshine.