Day 16 - Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz

Our thoughts and prayers today are with Carol and Jeannie as they prepare to start their lay ministry training. Best wishes and Godspeed.

On our walk out of Burgos yesterday we passed a large mercado (supermarket) with a bank compatible to our bank card right across the street. You need cash pretty exclusively in the small towns and we now have eight more days walking to the next big city, Leon. More importantly, although the Camino is all about letting go of vain things like make-up and fancy clothes, to Lynn that doesn't include being content with lots of grey roots! Hence the need for a large mercado. Last night's supper was perigrino ala Supermercado.  A lovely carrot soup to start, caesar salad with chicken and fresh bread as a main, and neopolitan with cream for dessert. All accompanied with dyeing hair in a marriott hotel room. The entire evening of dinner and entertainment (including all supplies) actually cost less than the peregrino special at the local alberque. We have truly learned how to live frugally now.

On that theme we have now formally dispensed with gathering lunch from the breakfast buffet. Instead we are supporting the local economy and buying lunch at the bar restaurant as we get to them or shopping in advance at the tiendas and mercados. Prices are very reasonable and the end result tastier.

Today started at 6am as we arranged for our cab driver to pick us up at 7:30 instead of the prearranged 9am to take us back to Hornillos.  It is discouraging to think what little distance you cover in one day of hiking, but as you drive past the places you hiked and see how  far it actually was, it is very encouraging.

The cab passed a Danish fellow we have met along the Way coming into Hornillos. We very defensively explained to him that we had walked there yesterday. He was satisfied with the explanation.

He said it was 5 degrees  C when we set out at 8am in our shorts and t-shirts. At that temperature Lynn's nose drips non stop and her hands were so cold she couldn't grip the kleenex. She had gloves but didn't want to take the time to stop and get them out of her backpack. By 9:15am we were already too hot.

Leaving the village we found ourselves in the middle of a completely uninhabited landscape, going up and down hills (mainly up) on a long and windy road. This is apparently one of the most typical landscapes of inland Spain - the paramo (bleak moorland). High flat land with barely any vegetation.

We could see a familiar row of wind turbines in the distance. This is where you become acquainted with the distortion of distance on the mesa. We walked and walked but the wind turbines never seemed to come any closer. Then all of a sudden we came to a steep descent down to the alberque at San Bol. The wind turbines very quickly fell out of sight. Then we ascended up a steep slope back to the plain again, and actually passed by the row of the wind turbines before reaching another steep descent to Hontanas, also almost hidden among the slopes of the paramo.

Hontanas was a lovely town and very welcoming to peregrinos. We stopped for our daily cafe con leche and met some friendly and interesting peregrino's from England. They initially mistook us for Americans, and after several more minutes of conversation, one fellow said 'it must be a real curse to be constantly mistaken for Americans'. We laughed, but thinking about it it has never really bothered us - not that we don't make sure to point out we are Canadian. I think people tend to be jealous of the Americans. As George said, they're 'the police of the world'.

We have also figured out that one reason we are meeting so many people we've never seen before is because a lot of them started in Burgos. There are a lot more pilgrims on the Way now than when we first started. Plus, most people seem to know better than starting the Camino in August. Although, the weather has been very favorable so far.

The next landmark was the ruins of the covento de San Anton, where we met up with a tour bus of tourists. They looked at us  peregrinos as a novelty, almost with a look of disbelief, as if we were weirdos or something. One person even took Russ' picture.

From there we could see today's destination and we walked along a tree lined, busy, paved road to get there.

The hike was very pleasant, I know that is not what the books say, but being flat-landers, we found it much like the prairies.  Maybe it will get worse, but today we had definite distant objects we could focus on and look forward to reaching. The trails went past fields of harvested grain, through treed areas, actually very nice, with only gentle hills. There were still magnificent views all around.

Again we found that while the guide books fairly accurately show what is available in the towns, they do not give you the sense of how much the locals do their best to accomodate the peregrinos' needs.

Mind you, today the distance of 20km only included two towns, and only one of them had services for peregrino's passing through! This excludes the fact that there were several places you could fill your water bottle. Very important on 30 degree C days like today with no shade. Of course there is no escaping the fact that the Camino is big business in Spain.

Again today there were additional ruins to be seen, if one only walked 250 metres off the track.  No, sorry, 250m was just too far.  So many ruins, so many churches.

The view of Castrojeriz coming into town is dominated by the beautiful Colegiata de la Virgen del Manzano on your right and the ruins of a castle high on the hill over the town.

High fives, into town today in record time.  We barely even gave any thought to the condition of our feet and legs. I think we have reached the point of being physically fit for the Camino. Now to the hotel, which is right along the Camino, just follow the map.  Forty five minutes later we found ourselves on the Camino trail leading out of the town. Several inquiries of the locals later and we find the hotel.  The street number is not as indicated, the owner also runs a bar and he is there rather than in the hotel, the hotel is locked up and has no sign, and every street in town is marked as being the Camino.  They also seem to hate street signs in small towns (or, we don't know how to find them).

Summary - a nice day hiking, more great views. If this is what the mesa is all about, no problem.

Distance today - 20.5km
Distance total - 335.5k