The Canto La Tusa and Vista Artas ascents

Today we attempted to taxi into a small town with a Mercado to buy supplies for a dinner and trail food for the next couple of days. The taxi didn’t come after a half hour wait. We decided to just go with what we had and trust we would find something in Pajares. There is no market in Pajares and no dinner at our new reservation at the Posada Real pension. We managed to find some lunch at a road stop on the highway before descending 3 more miles on slippery steep trails into Pajares. We had accepted our fate of a trail mix dinner when just as we had walked past the church a mobile food service truck (Servdinos) stopped in front of us and locals began coming out to buy their groceries. Not your ordinary food truck, it had anything a small grocery store would have. We bought black beans, rice, green peppers, cheese, and sausage. We believed our reserved apartment room had a small kitchen for cooking up a meal. Wrong. But lo and behold God got right in the middle of our predicament again by bringing us together with the owner and her son who graciously offered their own kitchen for us to use. The son and daughter-in-law, who are expecting their first child in February, and mom and dad sat in an adjoining sun room while we cooked dinner and ate dinner in their dining room. To boot they gave us a bottle of their family produced wine. God is good.Read more