21km Aljucen to Alcuescar

We passed from the province of Badajoz to the province of Caceres today, and in so doing, we passed the quarter-way mark. Sevilla is 259 km behind us, and Santiago de Compostela 741 km ahead.

The terrain today was beautiful, even moreso because it was shrouded in fog until noon. Once we left Aljucen,the path was along a dirt track through wooded pastures. Cows and sheep all over the place.

Our lodging tonight is in a home for the destitute run by the Hermanos Esclavos de Maria y Pobres. (The Slave Brothers of Mary and the Poor) They don't charge anything for dinner and lodging, but I'm happy to make a generous donation.

We're near Caceres, at which point we've decided to take a break for a few days.

17 km Merida to Aljucen

Another short day, another late start. Truth be known, I wish all days were this length. No need to hit the trail till 10:30. Pretty easy to be in by 3:30pm with leisurely breaks. Lots of sun time remaining to rinse out dirty clothes and hang them out to dry. Time enough to scout around for a store or bar and buy provisions for the next day. This town, though, is so small it doesn't have either or store or a bar. But praise be to Santiago, it does have a vending machine right in the refugio amply stocked with cold Amstel Malt for only 1 euro per can. And fortunately for me, I've got a pocket full of coins. Everyone else has left on other errands, so its up to me to sit out in the courtyard and keep an eye on the clothes while they dry and line the pockets of the vending machine operator. This refugio is a bit expensive at 10 euros, but its a nice setup. The grounds could use some attention. Its clean and well appointed inside. The kitchen, however, lacks a stove. But sinc!
e the town lacks a store, that isn't a huge problem.

I'm looking over the wall at the obviously vacant, and perhaps abandoned, building next door. It is the largest estate on the street, and was once obviously a showpiece. Its built as a fully enclosed estate, with turrrets on two corners, a huge interior courtyard and a coat of arms on the entry gate. The window glass is mostly broken out and the shutters are flung open. Doves are flying freely in and out of the second floor windows. The vegetation has grown quite thick on the tile roof. I'd love to know the story behind it.

The French couple have invited the group to the RV for dinner. "The group" has dwindled since the last entry. The diaspora had already started, unbeknownst to me, while I was composing the last report. The Vascos decided yesterday that 16 km to Merida was too wimpy, so they pushed on through to here yesterday and are now a day ahead of us. Cristof had previously planned to end in Merida, and leaves tomorrow for Lucern. Werner left early this morning to walk two stages, so he likely caught up with the Vascos. So we're down to six; 5 walkers and one driver.

About a km out of Merida this morning, we saw Michael emerge from a car and head toward us. Turns out he'd left town with both sets of keys to the RV. Fortunately, both he and Danielle have cell phones, and she was able to call him before he got out of range. Even still, he walks so fast that it wasn't long before he caught up to us, and we walked together for about an hour until Conchi and I simply had to stop to refuel.

It is now 7pm and the sun has disappeared below the roof line. Since the altitude here is about 240 meters, its cooling off quickly. We started climbing right out of Sevilla, which is practically at sea level (12 meters) and hit our peak of 752 meters at Monesterio. We've dropped some, but we're still at 270 M. The evenings have been chilly.

16 km Torremegia to Merida

Being a relatively short day, we didn't hit the trail until 10:30 and still arrived around 3 with breaks and lunch along the way. The trail, though keeping true to the buried Roman calzada, didn't pass through any interesting terrain. In fact, it was kind of a "get the job done" walk. A lot of it was either on or very close to a major highway, and then passed through the typical industrial/claptrap neighborhoods one finds coming into just about any large city. But it was all worth it to enter the town via the old Roman arch bridge that spans the Guadiana River.

The Romans originally settled here in 23 BC to provide a place for the veterans of the Iberian wars and named it Augusta Emerita, later shortened and corrupted to Merida. It contains the largest number of intact roman structures in all of Spain. We considered a layover day here to give my leg some time to heal. But it is doing quite a bit better, and the next four days are relatively short, so I hate to squander this stretch of good walking weather on a layover day. I'd prefer to continue for the next 4 days to Caceres where we have a friend who has offered lodging. Not only that, we're enjoying the company of the other peregrinos we've met up with and hate to leave the pack. About half of them are only going as far as Caceres, so we may stick with them until then.

27 Km Villafranca to Torremegia

Rather than characterize today's walk as monotonous, I'll call it meditative. A very large portion of the camino was on top of an impressively straight an flat section of the old roman calzada to Merida. It was big sky country planted in vineyards and olive groves. The entire route was on gravel road or dirt track. On the upside, we saw fewer than 10 cars all day. We left at 9:20 am and got into Torremegia at 5:20 pm. We took short breaks (for us - 20 min) and a short lunch (for us - 50 min) so it was just a long day of walking. I wrapped my foot, ankle and shin and it gave me very little trouble. I was careful with each footfall so as to place it on level ground, and paid closer attention to the path. The walk a few days ago was over very rocky, rutted irregular farm roads and I wasn't attentive enough to the terrain, which is what I think caused this problem. Inattention can be devasating. Helga glanced at her guide book the other day while walking, tripped and augered !
into the trail. The whole left sideof her face is now a multi-colored bruise, poor thing, but at least she's still walking. Could have sprained an ankle.

The rest of the group ended up at the alberge touristico last night. When we got to town, we used our cell phone to call Felix on his cell phone and got the scoop. He said it was a low-end dorm arrangement for 15 euros each. We opted for the hostal in town with private bath, clean sheets and towels and a restaurant below, all for 35. Best 5 euros I've spent.

20 km Zafra to Villafranca de los Barros

I woke up a few times last night to what sounded like rain, but hoped was just a noisy radiator. It was rain. At breakfast it was raining steadily, so we lingered over breakfast and by 10 am it had passed. Never saw another drop and the temperature was just right for walking.

Last night my right shin just at the top of my boot felt sore,as though it was bruised. It bothered me all day today, so I'm trying to stay off it tonight. Tomorrow's walk is 27 km, and I'm hoping it heals some overnight.

We're all in the same hotel again tonight. The lack of cheap refugios has a few people on edge. All of them have walked the Camino Frances that enters from France and traverses northern Spain to Santiago. I guess they assumed the lodging would be the same. That route has gotten quite popular over the last 25 years and there is a much more extensive system of refugios. Some towns have a few to choose from, and they only cost a few euros per night. Plus, there are more towns along the route so it is easier to taylor stages to ones liking. The Via de la Plata, though equally ancient, has only recently been revived. That is part of the reason we chose this route. The camino frances has become, as they say here, massificado or saturado. At high season, its neessary to rise before daybreak to get to your destination in time to find room at the inn. And you're competing against "Pilgrim Lites" who travel in groups and send one person ahead in a taxi with all the luggage to stake!
claims for beds. Felix said that at one departure point last year, 400 people left in a single day. I'm sure there are people in front and behind us, but there are only 9 people in our cohort. My guess is that the Via de la Plata will rise in popularity as more people flee the crowds up north. I fear the VDLP will also suffer from its own success eventually, but in the short run, a bit more traffic would spur some needed development.

26 km Fuente de Cantos to Zafra

It was a bit nippy when we set out this morning just a bit before 9. I've got photographic proof that the sun was shining when we left, but within minutes we were shrouded in a cold fog. Promises from the refuge operators of hot coffee and toast proved unfounded, so we hit the trail with the intention of eating breakfast in a bar on the way. Being Sunday, nothing was open in Fuente, so we pushed on. The next town was 6.5 km down a dirt road, which covers an old section of the Roman via. Fortunately, we found a bar opened in Calzadilla de los Barros.

At various times along the trail we crossed paths with everyone we'd dined with the night before. Cristof and Verner, from Lucern it turns out, accepted the offer of a ride in the French RV, due to blisters and knee problems. Nice weather for walking, all on quiet dirt tracks through various crop fields and vineyards.

We all ended up at the same hostal and dined together. The alberges and refuges are turning out to be either closed or as expensive as the better appointed hostals. For the same price, why sleep in a dorm and share a bath? But it does dramatically raise the overall cost of the trip. Oh, well.

22 km Monesterio to Fuente de Cantos

Another great day ofwalking. We started out in shaded rock-walled lanes and by lunchtime we'd moved into treeless wheat fields. The alberge here is a semi-restored convent. The price is high relative to pilgrim standards but otherwise reasonable.

There were 10 of us at the inn. The aforementioned Vascos, French and Germans, and two new guys from Austria. We all sat together at one table for dinner. A polyglot crowd, but the conversation never veered into english.

Someone poured a ton of money into restoring this convent, but I don't think it is meeting their income expectations. We 10 pilgrims were the only guests, and we got a discounted rate of 15 euros each. Dinner was 9 each, which was more than we've paid before. There was only one person to attend to us. The grounds had gone to seed. Pity, because it was an impressive setting.

12 Km La Jara to Monesteio (kinda)

Today's walk should have been 20 km, the distance between the two towns. The first 12 km were without a doubt the most scenic yet, winding along a dirt road between stone walls. Penned inside were the famous black Iberian hogs, grazing and munching on acorns, blissfully igorant of their destiny to hang in bars throughout Spain as Jamon Serrano. Other pastures, blanketed in miniature daisies and dandelions, held flocks of sheep with bells clanging. We saw more castles in the first 2 hours than we saw cars, and we only saw 2 castles. Other than birdsong, it was quiet most of the time.

We knew it had to end. We'd been warned that road construction had obliterated the last 8 km of trail heading into Monesterio. The trail parallels the main north-south road through the region, and a new freeway is under construction that has buried the trail. The construction crew instructed us to walk the shoulder of the existing highway for the last 8 km to town. We walked it for less than 50 yards before we realized we'd likely be killed. There was at best a 3 foot shoulder, at times shrinking to nothing. Huge trucks passed one after the other within a few feet of us at 60 mph. We found a bar nearby and started asking if anyone could give us a lift into town. We got a ride with two locals who were heading into town with a basket of eggs to sell. We climbed into the back seat with the eggs on Conchi's lap and the floorboards covered in straw. I kept glancing at the continually disappearing shoulder that we'd been spared from walking and didn't feel bad at all about fudging on this short stretch. In addition to the already heavy traffic, there was a constant stream of motorbikes heading to the cup races this weekend in Jerez de la Frontera. When they ride in packs like that, they're a menace.

Felix and Paxti got to town about the same time we did. They'd ignored the construction crew and climbed up onto the new freeway and walked in that way. Barbara and Helga did the same, but it took them considerably longer, and stragled into town just before dark.

Today marked a few important milestones. We crossed the 100 km mark. We also left the autonomous region of Andalucia and the province of Sevilla and entered the autonomous region of Extremadura and the province of Badajoz.

17 km Almaden to El Real de la Jarra

We didn't hit the road until about 10 am, but still made it to La Jarra by 2:30 pm. The refugio here is very close to where the trail enters town, but it is necessary to go all the way across town to the city hall to get a key. But city hall closes at mid-day like everything else, so we were stuck. We ended up in a private "pension" that only cost 2 euros more and was closer to the center of town as well. We washed out our socks and underwear, hung them out in the sun and headed out for lunch.

At lunch we ran into another French couple, Michele and Danielle, that we've seen off and on the past few days. He is walking the route and she is driving their motor home. He's a retired engineer and she's a retired banker. She used to walk as well, and did the Camino Frances in 2005 from their house near Nantes, about 1600 km. She's developed heart problems, though, and can't walk much anymore. He's continuing to do about 1800 km per year with her providing support. They invited us over to their motor home for a tour and a glass of wine. Frere Pierre, I almost called you to put you on speaker phone and translate. Between charades and an electronic dictionary, we managed to have a very interesting afternoon. We traded phone numbers, but then laughed at the prospect of attempting a conversation over the phone.

The route today was supposed to have been through a private estate, but it has recently been closed to the public. Michele walked it anyway, alone. I think he was lucky not to run into a herd of toros or guard dogs. We walked along the road, which was nearly deserted and very scenic as well. The weather continues sunny but cool, perfect for walking.

Conchi developed the firs blister of the trek. Came out of nowhere yesterday, even though she had covered the hotspot with moleskin. Today, she walked the last 4 km in her chacos, and wished she'd put them on earlier.

32+km Castilblanco to Almaden de la Plata

This was supposed to be a 29 km day, but we missed the turn to El Cerro del Calvario - Calvary Hill. Too bad, because I hear the view is great from there. And that is not a reference to the joke (Peter, I can see your house from here). Instead we stumbled on a luncheon of Provincial officials at the visitors center, who offered us a drink and told us how to get to our destination without backtracking. Turned out to be the nicest stretch of walking all day, but it added 4-5 km to the day.

The first 16km was a pretty constant climb on a lightly travelled back road. The trail then entered a provincial park. It was sunny but cool all day, with a stiff breeze that bordered on uncomfortable. The upside of the detour, in addition to the scenery, was that it gave us a respite from the wind.

It is funny how these little towns go to the trouble of sponsoring a pilgrim refuge, then do nothing to indicate how to find it. The guide book we are using tells what street its on, but the streets themselves are rarely marked. We ended up asking six different people before we finally homed in on it. Not a bad deal, either. Six euros each and we had hot water, a toilet seat AND toilet paper. There were 8 of us in one large dorm - a French couple that we spoke to only intermittently because of the language barrier; Helga and Barbara from Germany; Pache and Felix from San Sebastian, Spain; and the two of us. Barbara is the mother of 9 and looks to be in her late 60's, as does Helga. They've both done the Camino Frances, as have Pache and Felix. Pache looks to be well into his 70's and Felix perhaps mid 60's. So Conchi and I are the "Camino Virgins" in this crowd.

19 Km Guillena to Castilblanco de los Arroyos

We were on the road 2 hours earlier than yesterday but still an hour behind all of the other trekkers.  Clearly we need some work in this area.  Tomorrow I'll have to set the alarm.  A fairly long day tomorrow - 29 km - so we need an earlier start.

Today's walk was very nice, mostly through a nature reserve.  The weather the past 2 days has been perfect for walking.  Sunny with a refreshing breeze.  Almost all points north of us have been getting rain; snow in the far north and highlands.  We climbed from about sea level this morning to almost 400 meters. ( This would be a good time to talk about units of measurement.  Everything I see here is metric, so I'm going to leave the math up to you).  Its noticeably cooler up here.  The city put in a pilgrim refuge above one of the municipal buildings and that is where we're staying.  It is a dorm setup with shared bathrooms.  But we do have a seat on the toilet, although we gave up hot water.  Its supposed to work, but... so is a lot of stuff.  No complaints though, for 2 € per night per person.  No complaints from me anyway.  Conchi refused to shower.  I would have too had I known the water was cold.

Anyway, they also provide this blazingly fast internet access for free.  On balance, I'd stay a few nights here if we had the time.  The town itself is small, but has most everything you'd need.  Fairly quiet, too.  Not congested.  There's a lot going on in Sevilla, but I prefer the pace in these pueblos.

23 km Sevilla to Guillena

Fortunately we had a short day planned, because we got an 11AM start. Not too bad considering the teary goodbyes and delivery of luggage to storage. That put us into Santiponce/Italica at 1:30 for lunch and Guillena at 6:30.

We got a little bit of everything today. Busy city streets till we got out of Sevilla, and then mostly dirt track roads and paths through fields and pastures. At one point we had to shed our boots for sandals, convert our long pants to shorts and ford a small river.

We found a roasted chicken shop near our hotel, which was a welcome break from deep-fried everything. Plus we've got lunch for tomorrow.

The refugio here is "roof and floor" only, so we checked into the only hotel in town. A hostel, really, and overpriced at 40 euros with a bathroom down the hall, (no seat on the toilet). Spain is fun, but its no bargain.

We didn't see any others on the trail, but there were 4 other peregrinos at the hostal.

The First Waymark of the Via de la Plata

 

This tile on the wall of the building just across the street from the Cathedral marks the beginning of the route. The scallop shell, the ubiquitous symbol of El Camino, is stylized to indicate the direction of the route. The head of the shell points out a left turn here. I´m sure I have walked past these tiles hundreds of times without noticing them. As they started popping off the walls along the route, I felt like I'd been initiated into a secret society.

Waymark in the sidewalk

 

Before long, these waymarks were appearing everywhere. It felt like clues materializing in The DaVinci Code. This pointed the way across the bridge of Isabel II that crosses the Guadalquivir river into Triana.

My First Wrong Turn

 
If you look carefully at the edge of the wall on either side of the top of the stairs, you´ll notice yellow arrows pointing out el camino. I was still lookin for the very cool tiles on the wall. The yellow arrows blended in with all the other grafiti. I walked on for about 10 minutes before I figured out something was wrong, and retraced my steps.

Monasterio de San Isidro

You can do a lot of walking in the USA, but you won´t come around a bend to a view like this. The Monasterio de San Isidro is in the town of Santiponce, the site of the former Roman settlement of Italica which was founded in 206 BC.

Italica was the birthplace of Roman Emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Hadrian was generous to his home town, which he made a colonia; he added temples, including a Trajaneum venerating Trajan, and rebuilt public buildings. Italica’s amphitheater seated 25,000 spectators—half as many as the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome— and was the third largest in the Roman Empire. The city's Roman population at the time is estimated to have been only 80,000. For photos and a more detailed description of Italica,click here.

Getting Settled in Sevilla

We arrived in Sevilla ten minutes earlier than anticipated after literally spending the previous 24 hours in trains, planes and automobiles. Conchi´s sister Selene picked us up at the train station and we went straight to an outdoor bar for tapas and a few beers. It was Saturday afternoon, the weather was perfect and the bars were overflowing. This never ceases to amaze me. Life happens "in the street" here. For some reason it was necessary to eat at 2 different bars before we finally headed to Selene's apartment late in the afternoon. I was starting to fade, but was determined to stay awake until at least sundown to try to power through jet lag. We dropped off the luggage and within a few hours we were back out "en la calle" for dinner, along with substantially larger crowds. Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, but with an earlier start. Selene took us to a restaurant outside of town, across from the Roman ruins of Italica. Our first choice was full, so we settled for the place next door. It too was so full we had to wrangle our own table and umbrella and put it on the sidewalk. As we took our seats, I noticed a yellow arrow painted on the lamp post behind Conchi. A waymark. Without realizing it, we'd planted ourselves right on the Camino de Santiago, the very same Via de la Plata. Spooky.

The previous day, while in a taxi between the Madrid airport and the train station, our driver told us of his commitment to walk El Camino. He said he´d made a promise to St James, the very same Santiago and patron saint of Spain. If his brother recovered from cancer, he'd walk El Camino from the French border to Santiago de Compostela. His brother went through various treatments and had 20 centimeters of his lower intestine removed and now he's better, so in 4 years he's going to make his pilgrimage as promised. This is not a young guy. In fact, in four years he may no longer be in his 60's, so Conchi and I were a bit surprised by his determination until he added that he's got a special plan. He and another brother are going to walk with a friend they call the "andarín" or "the walker". Since the taxi driver admitted to having a 10-kilometer limit, he and his brother are going to tag team "the walker" using their car. He's convinced that St James will understand this and his promise will be considered fulfilled. OK, I guess so. But I also guess I would have given a little bit more credit to the oncologist and surgeon who saved his brother's life.

Between the time we left Portland and our train's arrival in Sevilla, the landscape of this trip had shifted beneath us. Conchi's mother had gone into the hospital for some yet undetermined heart ailment. Selene arrived at the train station to pick us up with her third sister in tow. Maria Jose had arrived that morning from Zaragoza and she and Selene had committed to a pilgrimage of their own to the Canary Islands, where their mother is hospitalized. By default, Conchi was drafted into that project. So I took them to the airport last night and I'm cooling my heels in Sevilla until they return this Saturday. Before Conchi left yesterday, we had time to walk to the Cathedral, the official start of the Via de la Plata, and obtain our pilgrim
credentials. This passport gets stamped along the way and allows us to stay in the "refugios" or refuges provided to pilgrims for free or for donations. So we're officially in the registry of "peregrinos". I asked the guy who issued them how many he had dispensed so far this year, thinking we were starting early and way ahead of the game. "Muchos" he guffawed. "I've already given out about 15 this morning. Lets see, some Germans, some Japanese. Muchos". Yikes.

This morning I put on my boots for the first time since arriving and did the first leg of el camino on my own. I walked the 8 miles out to Italica where we'd sat in the middle of the trail for lunch on Sunday.

Bienvenidos!

Conchi and I have a mission: To walk the ancient pilgrimage route from Conchi's hometown of Sevilla to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain, a distance of approximately 1000 kilometers. (620 miles). Start Date: Mid-March 2007. Estimated time required: Seven weeks.

For those interested in following our progress, we'll be posting to a discussion list and to this blog along the way. You can follow us either way. We'll be making the same posts to both the list and the blog. The advantage to the list is that you can automatically receive a summary email on any day new material is posted to the list. You can unsubscribe from the list at any time by following the link at the bottom of each message. To protect your privacy, your name and email address will not be viewable by anyone else. To keep things simple, the list is ANNOUNCE ONLY.

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We leave for Sevilla on March 9, 2007. I probably won't be posting again until we arrive, so until then....