We are definitely in the Meseta now and while I know the landscape will become flatter over the next several days, I’m still hearing people talk about the flat, boring Meseta.  It bugs me. So far, I find it beautiful.  One cool thing unique to the Meseta is that many of the towns here are in sunken hollows near a water source but practically invisible as we walk along the high plains.  An example of that is Hotanas, a gorgeous village that we didn’t see until it suddenly appeared when we got to the far edge of a meseta.  

Again today, it got fairly hot in the sun so we were thankful it was a short day.  I’m glad I wasn’t like the Irishman we met yesterday, “young” Michael (?!?).  He was planning a short day so he did not feel any pressure to get out of bed early.  He kept doing “busy stuff” and only started walking at 11:30am. He ended up walking through the hottest and sunniest part of the day and he regretted it greatly. 

There were two stops for us today and only the first one included a repeat breakfast. Our breakfast at the albergue this morning was confusing and crowded so we ate only a little and we deserved a second one.  That came at about the 11th kilometer for the day in gorgeous Hontanas. I really like that village and I should try harder to stay there one time.  It’s just that I really like Castrojeriz too and they are only 7-8kms apart.  Anyway, we walked to the second bar in town which was conveniently located next to the church (convenient to parishioners during endless sermons).  While we got a ham and cheese sandwich and some drinks, a 77 year old Japanese man sat with us. We had a great conversation with him – I thought – until he stopped me and said “Sorry, I don’t understand English”. Actually he was much better than that and he was too nice to say “Sorry, I don’t understand YOUR English”.  However, we did learn that he had walked 10 years ago from SJPdP to Logroño.  Then 7 years ago he walked from Logroño to Burgos and then this year, he will go as far as his legs will take him. 

Also while in the same bar, we noticed an overstocked caricature of a pilgrim walking close to us down the trail. The odd part was that there was a cameraman following closely behind her with a camera mounted on a large gimbal.  We couldn’t tell if she was rich or famous and just spending a ton of money on a personalized photo & video shoot of her va.cation. Or was she starring in a new Camino movie.  After about thirty steps thaugh, we had the answer. She stopped, looked at the playback and then reshot the scene. Moments later, they all got in a van and disappeared.  We might be discovered by Hollywood!!

The final thing that happened was less fun.  It’s a Camino tradition to bus your own dishes and not force the overworked bartender to clean the tables.  Most pilgrims do it but not one table of four Spanish-speaking pilgrims. The four men each had a coffee, a beer or wine and a sandwich. When they finished, they just grabbed their bags and left.  Melanie and I cleared their table as well as another table that just had glass on it.  The poor behavior of some pilgrims, reflects on all pilgrims. We do what we can to allow the Spanish hosts think better of us.

Another big stop on this stage was the Ruins of San Anton.  We have stopped there and explored the place before so we didn’t linger today but it is a lovely and fairly unique place on the Camino.  The best part of the ruins today though was that several of our faster friends stopped there for longer so we could see them again when they later caught up. 

Along the trail today, we met up with many people who we have seen often.  The person we spoke with the most was Poh.  She is the Malaysian girl carrying extra gear because this walk is a afterthought from a trip with friends to Iceland. She is half my age, half my size, carrying twice the backpack weight that I am and she easily climbs the hills faster than I can.  Not by much, mind you, but enough to put me to shame. as you would expect, when she and Melanie are talking, it always seems to be about food.  We also met up with Hong Kong James, French Alexa, and the Swiss girl from Burgos. 

Once in Castrojeriz, we quickly found our hostal and went in to have a drink and bite to eat before showering. There we met and chatted with the Argentinean couple Susana and Eduardo.  We had a lovely chat about the Camino but then Susana brought up a story about her grandmother.  She said that her grandmother was born in 1901 in Alsace, near Strassburg.  She had emigrated in the late 1930’s and before she could get citizenship, her German passport expired.  The problem was that she was trying to get that from the German embassy in the late 1940’s who pointed out the fact that if the grandmother was born in Alsace, and that was since surrendered to France, the grandmother needed to go to the French embassy to get a French Passport. That was devastating news.  She eventually qualified for a German passport because of her German husband but she has to go through an application for citizenship. That story lead to me drooling, thinking that my work on the family tree might be useful.  I mentioned that my great-great-grandfather was from that area too.  In fact, he was from a village just a couple of kilometers away from Susana’s grandmother. Eduardo reckoned that we were probably cousins.  Melanie felt left out and said that her maiden name was Rodrigues and Eduardo immediately said that Rodriguez was his mother’s maiden name. We were all cousins!

After that couple left, we sat with Chinese couple who have been living in Boston for thirty years. Imagine that accent. They had walked the Camino from Porto to Santiago, then to Finisterre and Muxia in June last year.  That is the same route we took last September. This is their second Camino and they have a particular issue that makes their Camino more challenging and much more impressive. The wife has Alzheimer’s disease.  I cannot fathom how they can complete the Camino but I still bet they can.

One last comment and I’ll leave out details in case they read this.  The Camino is personal and every pilgrim can walk it in their own way.  Walk long or short distances, forward your bag or carry it, take rest days or don’t, walk alone or in a group, skip stages or walk every step, etc.  But please, spending eight hours after the walk, drinking heavily, isn’t a great way to walk the Camino. Loud, crude, boorish behavior, not only disturbs other pilgrims, it reflects badly on all pilgrims in the eyes of our hosts.

Peace y’all. Goodnight George, Leo and Stella (you three can ignore that last paragraph, at least for now.)