Day 2 - Uterga to Cirauqui

We left Uterga at 7:30 to begin our walk. (We need to start earlier to take advantage of the cool mornings, but we are struggling with getting enough sleep. We still haven't totally adjusted to the time difference and find ourselves awake from 2am - 4am, then getting up around 6:30.)
We walked through fields of wheat for most of the morning. The trail’s edges are full of poppies, wild dill, wild roses, and other wild flowers. It is quite beautiful.
The mornings are cool until about 9:30. Our rhythm seems to be to walk about 2 hours, then stop for cafe con leche. Then we walk for 2-3 hours, then stop for lunch (bocadillos, chips, and fruit), then walk 1-3 more hours depending on energy. It is very hot in the sun, so we take breaks when we find shade.
This morning, we walked through two towns that basically looked like ghost towns. In Spain, businesses and schools do not open until 9am. You usually don't see local people out in the streets until 8:45.
Around 9:30, we reached Puente la Reina where we stopped for cafe con leche and tortilla (a quiche type wedge of potato and egg. We noticed huge stork nests built into the bell towers of the churches in town. We went into Iglesia de Santiago where we found The Pilgrim’s Prayer written in 4 languages under the statue of St. James. The altar area was completely covered in gold. It was dark and cool and beautiful.
As we left, we crossed a 6 arch Romanesque bridge and walked through fields again. Then we climbed up and up and up with almost no shade. After 5k, we arrived in Maneru and stopped for lunch. We sat on a shaded patio to cool off and rest. We then trekked another HOT 2.6 K to Cirauqui. There was no shade at all and this medieval town is built on a steep slope. We stopped on a large covered stone patio to rest. We soon decided we were too hot and tired to continue, so we booked in to the Maralotx where we found that most of the other people we had met so far had stopped here also. We had an amazing pasta dinner with three men from Italy and did fairly well communicating in Spanish and English. We are sharing a bunk room with the three Italians and a couple from Germany who are on their 6th Camino.
The sun stays up until 10pm, but we are going to try to get to sleep at 9 in hopes of waking up early to take advantage of the cool morning temps.
Buenos Noches!