Leon to Villadangos Del Pa'ramo

We hopped out of bed this morning, grabbed a quick cup of coffee and a croissant and headed down the Camino trail out of town. It felt great to be walking again. Leon is a big city so it takes a while to work your way out of town. The cities provide a nice distraction but I am more of a small village/countryside kind of guy. At the edge of town a local told us to look up as we passed by a church. I am glad he did. Otherwise we would have missed this beautiful sculpture on the end of the building.

The sculptures were very stylized so we didn't really know what they symbolized. Maybe saints or possibly pilgrims. If you look closely you will also see that the wall that they are against is stained glass. I bet that when the sun hits that wall it would be beautiful inside the church. 

After walking about 3 kilometers we passed through a small village and stopped at this bell tower that had storks nesting on top of it. I think that it was originally part of an old church but now this is all that remains. There was also a water tap there where we could top off our water bottles. We took a break along with several other pilgrims. One of our fellow travelers, an oriental guy, found a rope hanging down and started ringing the bells. Savanna and I decided we had better move on down the trail in case he just rang the bell to signal Sunday morning mass or possibly a fire alarm. 

Along the Camino path lately we have been seeing these fruit trees. They are not like the olive trees we have seen earlier in our trip. They also do not look like peach trees. I think they may be a type of fig according to my plant identifier.

At mid-morning we stopped at a trailside cafe/bar for a break and a cafe' con leche. While there we met Edwin from New York. He was originally from the Phillipines but imigrated with his parents as a youngster and is now a Professor of Management in an upstate New York university. He was amazed that Savanna was tackling the Camino at so young an age and insisted on taking a picture of with us. He is one of those professors that you know would not be a boring teacher. His excitement about everything was contagious and meeting him was a gift from the Camino. He also told us that we did not miss much by deciding to skip the Mesita portion of the Camino. Apparently it was very hot and trees were scarce. 

He has been teaching over 30 years and I asked him if the students that came to his classes have changed over the years. He said they definitely have. They seem to have a sense of entitlement and have a hard time grasping that if they want an A in his class that they have to work for it. I told Savanna that next semester when one of his students start whining about how hard the work in his class is he will whip out the picture above and tell them about the 17 year old girl he met who walked almost 500 miles on the Camino without complaining.

As we have been walking we have started noticing some lizards alongside the path. Most of them have been very small and quick. Then this big guy waddled across and into the grass. He is the biggest one we have seen so far. It looked like something had tried to have him for dinner because he only had a stub of a tail left.

Today was supposed to be a 21 kilometer day so we were surprised when we walked right into our stopping place for the night at noon. Most albergues and hotels do not let pilgrims check in until 2 pm so we settled into chairs on the front porch to relax and wait. One thing we have learned is to just take things as they come. If you have to wait for a couple of hours then just relax and wait. If it is raining just put on your poncho and keep walking. Complaining does nothing to change anything. It is all part of the journey.

Just when we were getting comfortable the owner came out and told us to come on in. He checked us in by handing us a key and telling us to settle up later. We dumped our gear and headed over next door to get some lunch. It ended up being one of the best lunches of the trip so far. The owner also told us to make sure and come back for the Pilgrim's Meal later.

This has been a short day for us but we are making the best of it. The sun is shining and we have a tiny balcony attached to our room so I rigged up my portable bungee clothesline and did some bathtub clothes washing. The technique is a lot like stomping grapes to make wine except you are stomping on your clothes while you are in the shower. Add some soap/shampoo, stomp well, rinse and wring. Works like a charm!

Well that about sums it up for the day. We are off again tomorrow. Until then Buen Camino!