Remy’s 2023 Travel Notebook

The day started out early again to walk through the mist and rain this morning. It was the first day with weather other than just hot. We put on our rain gear and backpack covers and walked into the fog. For me, rain gear looks like a poncho, not a jacket and pants because it’s lighter (and I already have luxury items like my ukelele).

We walk through forests and over a pass to find the other side clear of clouds and rain. The sunrise with the moon is great.

We arrive to a little Camino oasis. The distance between towns is quite big in this section so a kind man from Burgos sets up a cafe every day in the same spot. He is drinking a coffee and smoking his morning joint, and we talk to him while buying some bananas and biscuits. Gabriel, my Swedish friend, asks if he can paint a shell with the Swedish flag. He happily did this and sent Gabriel on his way. this man is quite generous and runs his oasis by “donativo”, meaning donations that you make help him get supplies for the next day’s pilgrims.

Today was a short walk relatively speaking. We did 15 miles in total and took the day quite slowly. We enjoyed each others company and had some deep conversations during the walk. We stopped at 9:30am at a bar and shared a bunch of pizzas, which we all thought was hilarious. The man running the bar served us well and played American oldies music on the TV. I engage him in a Spanish conversation and he is happy to see I am enthusiastic to speak his language.

After some more walking we reached our beautiful albergue and had a nice long afternoon ahead for relaxing and enjoying. I took a good long nap because I didn’t sleep very well last night (other snoring pilgrims). I relax until 5:00 when I wake up, shower, and play ukelele songs on the terrace with the group. Michaela always loves and requests me to play, and I happily oblige. She will likely be leaving our group when we enter the meseta tomorrow because her antibiotics (for the dog bite) and the extreme weather might be a combination for disaster. We have some drinks and go to dinner in the albergue.

Dinner is quite good. Soup, salad, chicken and French fries all homemade. We feel like we are still hungry and not sure we can do much about it. After dinner, we hear music coming from the town square. We decide we should go investigate. In this part of Spain they have been serving wine in a decanter that has two openings – one for pouring into glasses and a smaller spout for pouring into your mouth. At dinner, we controlled ourselves and poured it into glasses like civilized humans. When we got to the town square to find a cultural fiesta, things were a little different.

The locals were holding a fiesta for no other apparent reason than “just because.” We join in on the fun and they serve us wine, traditional meats, breads and soup. Just as we said we weren’t fully satisfied by our dinner, we are yet again shown that the Camino always provides.

After the eating and talking things get a little more fun and we start to drink wine from the small spout, bypassing any kind of glasses. Lots of dancing, yelling and laughing followed. The cooks and locals join in with the pilgrims for shameless dancing. We wanted to donate to the town for their generosity but nobody would accept. I think they are simply happy to have people here enjoying and embracing their culture. Today we could have walked an extra 12km to Burgos (quite a large city) but decided to once again stay in a small town where we may find these real Camino experiences. It sure did not disappoint.

I am feeling quite recovered after only walking about 25k today. We will do a bit more tomorrow. We will walk past Burgos, maybe stopping for breakfast and a view of the cathedral, looking for another small town to call home for the night.