Day 13 (Camino II): Belorado to San Juan de Ortega

The pension owners left for Madrid at 3am as she is visiting her native Nicaragua, so we are sent to the same restaurant for breakfast. The very simple 3.5 Euro meal has no protein. I am reminded of Ian's trouble with all-carb breakfast in Valcarlos. On our first day of walk, Chisoon gave him beef jerky while ascending the mountains, and out of appreciation he and Liz anointed her as the Beef Jerky Lady. I smile when I think of Ian's self-deprecating example about the Irish: if her new nickname passes through a few Irish people who are prone to negative embellishments, she will simply turn into a "jerk."

Heading out of Belorado, the air is crisp, although the scenery is nothing spectacular. The terrain is good to walk as there are no long stretches of small loose stones that are killers for the blisters. So I end up walking a lot faster than usual toward our rendezvous point today of Villafranca Montes de Oca. Sometimes walking alone makes the route more boring but I find the clickety clack of the hiking poles of people on my heels somewhat annoying.

View of Villambistia, one of the towns in the early part of the route today

Wounded soldiers again

On the edge of Villafranca, a car coming down honks at me - it is the driver who we arranged last night to drop Chisoon off and she is on her way back. So it looks like my arrival is perfectly timed. Looks like I did the first 12 km in two and a half hours! No facilities here so we buy enough provisions at the hotel which is at the site of a medieval hospital for pilgrims.

Ruins near Villafranca, where the founder of Burgos, Diego Porcelos, was buried.

Our rendezvous point: San Anton Abd, which used to be a pilgrim hospice in medieval times

Villafranca: Last pit stop before we reach San Juan. We see our French-Canadian couple again here at this restaurant

The next 12km are a walk through a forest with no towns.  I am a bit anxious to get to our destination early today, as I have heard that if you arrive too late, you may lose your reservation in a rural hotel like the one I have booked directly. But we still try to enjoy the scenery and we take break a few times. At the monument dedicated to victims of the Spanish Civil War, pilgrims are gathered at picnic tables. I tell the ladies from Switzerland who we had met at the Santo Domingo Parador that the only hostal in San Juan, the next town, is apparently booked up and they plan to walk further ahead.



Upon leaving Villafranca, we see these blue fruits on the ground. They are not grapes (they fell from tall trees). Wild plums? Blueberries on steroids?

Not a bad place to contemplate

Oak trees and ferns: Fortunately there is a lot of shade in this section.

 

Monument of the Fallen for the victims of Spanish civil war. It is a nice rest stop and many of the familiar comrades have stopped here.

Between the two altos: down and up again. I don't need any more of those altos - I live in Palo Alto!

A snake just a few feet from me. It moved fast, fortunately away from me.

San Juan de Ortega appears as the forest opens up. We are still at 1000m. This town of population 20, described as wild and isolated by Brierley, is dominated by the church square, a hotel, an albergue, and a bar, the last three apparently owned by the same family. They have indeed saved a room for us even though there are a number of people looking for a hotel room here. We catch the last part of the mass, which ends with the priest's friendly blessing of the small number of people that gathered. There are definitely a few items of note inside the cathedral, which we check out after everyone leaves but the atmospheric hymnal music continues on. As we walk out of the cathedral, it starts raining. The whole last half hour has been a memorable experience.
At the tiny restaurant, we have dinner with by now familiar people, including David and Richie from Georgia and a family of Scots ("if you remember one thing from the Camino, it should be that you never call Scots Scotch, which is a whiskey!")

San Juan Church and Square bathed in the afternoon sun: you arrive into such openness after walking three hours in the forest. The only place to gather in this tiny town, I would call it a scenic bottleneck on the Camino.

No illumination box to feed here. But I just caught the light before it was turned off after an intimate mass. The tomb of St Juan, which is much more modest than that of his teacher, Santo Domingo.

A column depicting the battle between Roland and Ferragut

This column is placed so that the setting sun lights up the Virgin Mary figure twice a year at an equinox - a Chichen Itza on the Camino!