The Trouble Starts

October 4

As the sky lightens, we get back on the path. We pass this pilgrim monument sundial on the way out of Atapuerca.

Out here it seems you have to pay in one form or another for the wonders you encounter.  Following the perimeter of a military installation, we hit a steep, winding section of what our guide book calls “rolling boulders"--loose stones large enough to slip and slide on, or turn an ankle, or worse.

Our reward at the top is a flat area graced with a beautiful stark cross...

...a stone circle...

...and an inspirational passage.

We've heard so much about Burgos that this marker motivates our feet ever onward.

La Hutte

October 3

La Hutte sits behind the parish church and is a 20-bed converted barn. 

Lovely rafters but we can see sky through small holes and gaps.  

The view from the garden looks back toward a well-known archaeological site (closed for the season).

And there are blankets!  Perhaps most important, though, there is a washing machine.  Once we get our laundry hung on the line, we go to the plaza, where supposedly there is WiFi access.  It seems to be common for the villages and small towns to have an open network in a public area, usually the plaza.  The signal is also usually very weak--so weak that it takes about half an hour to upload two old posts waiting in my queue.  That's all I have time to do before dinner.

The dining room is crowded.  People waiting for the 7:00 sitting to finish mill about in the bar area.  The woman and her son who run the albergue appear to own and operate the connected small restaurant and hotel.  

The food is delicious and we meet a delightful British couple sitting at the table next to us (but we're so close we might as well be at the same table).  How ironic that they have to waste time so they don't reach Burgos (as far as they're going this time) too soon, while we're feeling the pressure to do as many kilometers a day as possible.

Total today: 30.4 km

Atapuerca

October 3
The road starts climbing right out of Belorado into gorgeous forested mountains.  When the path levels out, we trudge through kilometers of pine forest.  I say “trudge" because even a beautiful pine forest can become monotonous when it's all you can see for hours.  There is a slight break when we stop to watch a truck lift pine trunks into its bed in a logging area.

Finally, the path descends into San Juan de Ortega (pop. 20), noteworthy mostly because it has an albergue. Although we're not ready to stop for the day, we are more than ready for lunch.

Then we hike onward another 6.1 km into Atapuerca, where we choose the smaller of the two private albergues in town--because we don't have to wait in line for it to open.

Encounter with an Angel

October 2
Our albergue for the evening is a refurbished portion of the church Santa María y San Pedro.  The common room is large, includes a kitchen area, and has power strips for recharging electronics.  The beds are tucked tightly into any available space in the loft area.

Up in the bell tower, storks nest.

Note the various shells right at our entrance.

 

Before I head to bed, I plug my phone in to charge and some fellow peregrinos invite me to sit and have tea with them.  Sondra from Germany joins us. When she begins to ask questions, such as why people were walking, the other three pilgrims gradually slide down the benches to the other end of the table.  I find Sondra to be another angel in disguise.  She asks me gently probing questions, and quietly challenges some of my answers and statements (as my spiritual guide says, “I can tell what you think/feel by the words you use").  It is rather like having a therapy session (at her initiation--that's how I know she is an angel).  We talk about anything and everything; it is a nice release of some stress.  She is a beautiful soul.

The huge blister on my right heel (the result of the day we walked 33.3 km) stings enough to disrupt my sleep.  I hear the 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 church bells ring before I fall asleep again.

Belorado

October 2
Belorado...

...seems to be at siesta when we arrive because only one business around the plaza is open (a café) when we go looking for WiFi (there is none available in the plaza itself). We eat a light dinner of tapas and journal there until the town wakes up.

We buy new pens in a tienda that has an eclectic inventory.  We visit the peregrino library but have no success connecting to WiFi.

In the information center, there is a model of the church our albergue is connected to...

...and displays related to the Camino.

And I find shell bracelets--I had admired the collection the woman in the Logroño peregrino office wore--so, yes, Jim, I did buy souvenirs.

Just outside Belorado we come upon an “Irish traffic jam." I don't know what they call them in Spain, but the result is the same. From where we stand, the flock is close enough to touch.

 

The countryside today is like Iowa after the harvest. We walk for kilometers without encountering anything, living or otherwise. Suddenly, this monolith appears on the horizon. We wonder what could be out here in the middle of nowhere.

It turns out to be the marker designating the border as we cross into the next state, Castilla y Leon.

 

As we enter each town, there is a smaller version with a map of the town and services available.

After we pause for lunch in Castildelgado, there follows a lot of mind-numbing walking beside a highway that descends from Belorado.

Auberge Virgen de Guadalupe

October 1
The Albergue Virgen de Guadalupe.  Looks rather quaint, doesn't it?  In truth, it's the crooked house built by the crooked man.

 Note the “tea room"--a corner of the garage.

The floors are crooked, much of the house is in disrepair...

...and the owner is a bit looney (it would take way too long to explain).

On the other hand, Jerri and I have beds in a room to ourselves...

...and the host is also rather personable.  During dinner around his large kitchen table, he tells us that only 20-30 people are full-time residents (all those apartments are full in the summer) and most of them are senior citizens.  Perhaps it explains his bit of eccentricity.

Navarette to Cirueña

October 1
We walk through purely wine country.  Still, there's something very Colorado/Southwest about the mountains and mesas surrounding us.

In one small town area, we pass several bodegas (wineries).

As I bring the camera away from the horizon, I catch my shadow on the screen and snap it.

In Ventosa, we stop for late breakfast.  While we're eating, a woman comes in with a teddy bear on her backpack.  Paddington has made a friend!

Along the way, we pass a beehive hut with some very artful graffiti on the interior surface.

On the side of a building approaching Nájera, is a beautifully handwritten Pilgrim Poem (in Spanish): Pilgrim, Who Calls You?

In Nájera, we find the Information Center closed but the library open.  To be honest, this one wasn't worth more than a cursory look.  We visit the local parish and light candles in Carol's memory and for Beth's recovery before we realize we're out of 20-cent euros for donations.

We plod through empty countryside at the height of the sun, climbing and climbing.  In the distance, we see a town and think we are arriving in Cirueña, our stop for the day.  But it turns out we have almost another 10 km. to go.  We stop for a refreshing Aquarius, then press forward.

We continue climbing our way into Cirueña--a lot of empty modern apartment buildings.  After the golf club as you enter the town (how ironic that the course is right behind the pilgrim monument), there's not a soul to be seen.  We begin to wonder if there really is an albergue here.  When we're practically out of town, we find it, the Albergue Virgen de Guadalupe.

Walked 30.7 km today, and the last 7.5 were grueling.
Cat count to date: 38