Belorado to Ages

The stirring of other pilgrims kept me awake for most of the night, and woke me early in the morning. Both of the neighboring bunk beds were already empty when I finally got up at 6am. I hopped down from the bed, and saw that Crissi had also left for the day. She must left very early in the morning with the first wave of pilgrims. I was bummed out that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

My shoes were still soaked with water as I took out all of the newspaper that I had stuffed in there yesterday. I had made plans last night to meet up with Tania and Shelby in the morning so, with no one to wait on nor to wait on me, I saddled up the bag, put on my shoes, and headed their way. The other half of the group (Amy, Martha, Dom, Luigi, and Leon) had stayed at the first Albergue outside of town.

I met up with Tania, Shelby, and a new pilgrim named Steve (USA) just as they were finishing up breakfast, and by 7am we were on the way to Agés.

A constant light drizzle of rain decided to hang out with us as we headed towards Tosantos. Steve didn't have a rain coat, so they improvised one from some gas station garbage bags for him. Nothing quite like being warm and dry in the rain!

After Tosantos the others needed to rest. I decided to pull ahead of everyone else in order to keep going, and told them I'd see them at the stage ender.

The rains from yesterday had left numerous water-filled landmines, and the clouds threatened to unload more rain upon me as I passed through Villambistia and Espinosa del Camino. There were tons of fountains, but no places for food. Luckily I had the rain-soaked peanuts still in my coat pocket from yesterday. But as soon as I took them out and had a few, I threw them away. They tasted nasty.

The views were very similar to yesterday, and the constant drizzle made it an unpleasant and boring walk. I arrived in Villafranca Montes de Oca (which was once a Roman city named Auca) and saw a truck-stop style diner. Food! I threw down my gear outside, and rushed in before the other pilgrims behind me could arrive. Needless to say, I was starving. The sandwiches here were massive! I could only finish half of mine, but now had lunch for later. I really need to get better at this thing called "planning ahead".

With a full stomach I returned to the trail. The way out of town took me up above the church and through a steep and muddy mess. It was a lonely uphill walk through the mud-soaked woods. Few pilgrims were ahead or behind me.

Up and down it went. Through forests, across rivers, past momuments, and onto super wide mud paths. It was here that a local trail angle had carved out a nice spot for herself and her dogs just before San Juan de Ortega. The puppers were chasing each other through the woods, and watching them warmed me up as I ate my snacks on a tree stump.

The monastery at San Juan in the next town offered some amazing damp wood smells that you can only find in old buildings. This place had a barebones Albergue for pilgrims without any amenities, and while the thought tickled my brain for a brief moment, I wanted to push further.

One beer later, and after eating the rest of my breakfast sandwich at a bar next to the monastery, I was back to slugging it through the woods towards Agés. I was grateful that most of the trail today was on soft earthen ground and not that nasty hard pavement.

I emerged from the woods and saw a tree standing like a solitary guard, protecting the town behind it, with a yellow arrow painted across its trunk. It was like something out of a fairytale, and as soon as I took a picture of it a fast wind picked up and the clouds began to break apart.

What I saw stretched out ahead of me made my jaw drop, literally. I had never seen such a wonderful view. Sure, Los Arcos was a beautiful walk, but I had no idea that it was just one of many amazing places on The Way.

Remember how I said I could see myself living in Pamplona, well…if nearly every Spanish village was going to be surrounded by fields like this, it was going to be hard to choose one.

I sat outside in the warm sun, letting the breeze dry my laundry, snacking on my chocolate as Tania, Shelby, and Steve arrived.

In the hills behind the village there was an excavation site for pre-historic animals, and humans, at Atapuerca. For five euros a local bus picked us up from the town fountain and took us to the museum built near the site. From there another one took us up to the actual dig.

They apparently found this cave by accident on the Matagrande Plain, so it’s not hard to imagine how many hidden gems are beneath your feet at this very moment. Steve (who is a Spanish teacher back in the states) translated everything that the guide told us about the areas history and how ancient humans had used the cave, how they had found it, and the things that they excavated.

I will say this though: as fun as that was, it felt weird riding on a bus on the way back as we passed fellow pilgrims walking on the road. As if being in a motorized vehicle was wrong.

All-in-all it was a great day filled with good walking, good weather, picture perfect scenery, and enjoying a home-cooked meal from the hospitalarios. Some of us even got a little (ok a lot) drunk on the wine, and they were hilarious at dinner. Tomorrow was the next big city on our trek: Burgos. It was also possibly the last time that I would be seeing all of the people that I had met so far.