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.