We are now more than half way to Santiago, at least by the book. We have walked 362.5km so far and the guide book says that we have 358.7km left to walk.  The problem is that the guidebook doesn’t know exactly how many times we have to go off trail to find a toilet or a “lava-tree”.  It also isn’t aware that I sometimes walk the wrong path and have to double back.  We also have to walk around the available bars to find the best place to have a short break.  Actually, we have a good amount of extra steps for lots of reasons that we will be doing over the next two weeks so maybe this isn’t the halfway point yet. 

I can’t say that today’s walk was hilly but the trail did undulate a bit.  We only had 280m of total altitude gain but that was about three times yesterday’s total. We will still have another two or three days that are mostly flat trails but hills are now definitely part of the landscape, if not the trails. 

One thing about the Meseta trails that is factual is that a lot of the trails provide no shade from the sun. That it understandable as we are often walking next to farms.  Every time we walk this path though, we notice more and more trees being planted along side of the trail. That would be very helpful but I wonder why most of the trees are on the north side of the trail, instead of the south side.  That way, they could give shade to the pilgrims instead of the pilgrims casting a shadow on the trees.  Today, for a long stretch along a road, the trees were on the correct side of the trail but the autumn sun is at such a low angle already, the trail gets periodic shade from the tree trunks as you pass them but the street gets constant shade from the branches and leaves.  This is what I pondered about all day.  

We met up with Malaysian Poh and Dutch Jo-Jo again today and also had breakfast #2 with Mexican Jose who we had not met before.  We also met a Canadian Roger in Moritinos and had breakfast #1 with him before going outside to get our credentials stamped with an individually crafted wax seal by a real, live, fake grouchy artist. Finally, we were also surprised while leaving breakfast #2 to bump into Brazilian Roger who was sitting comfortably in an outdoor cafe, in his after walk clothes on already and having a beer with several other Brazilians as well as Poh. How did that happen?  He had walked a short day out of Carrión de Los Condes and was at least a half day behind us.  He explained though… he met another Brazilian woman in the albergue in Calzadilla de la Cueza and her leg was in very bad condition. She could barely walk and she was even more upset about missing her Camino family. Roger said that God will forgive him because he is doing His work.  Roger offered to accompany the lady by taxi to Calzadilla de la Cueza so she could meet up with her friends. He is a true gentleman. By the way, that Brazilian woman was the same woman many days ago who sang the whole song for me when I started a Brazilian football song. 

We just had a nice pilgrim meal with Canadian Roger who is staying in the same hostal. Melanie and I both were thrilled to hear that spaghetti bolognese was one of the choices for a first course. We both jumped on that option because the few times we have had pasta this trip, the plate was too small to share.  Not today though. There was enough spaghetti on each of our plates to allow us to share just one of them for our main course.  Wow! For the first time in two weeks Melanie could not finish her meal. I didn’t mind too much because I’m carbo-loading. 

That’s it for today. We have two more days of 25km+ coming so I need my sleep.

Peace y’all. Goodnight George, Leo and Stella. We love you all.

“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again”

   ~Stephen Grellet