Como Sapiens

Today I walked through the tiny town of Atapuerca, made famous by the nearby UNESCO World Heritage archeological site of the same name which chronicles the history of homo sapiens and earlier homo species and shows evidence of habitation for up to 600,000 years. That's a big number!!

Apart from a sign pointing right into this mornings mist, I found no evidence of the ability to drop in for a visit which several readers will find disappointing. I'm pretty sure that I could take a tour from Burgos back to the digs but I've decided to focus on visiting the Burgos Museum of Human Evolution which houses most of the artefacts. Of course, turns out the museum is shut on the one day of the week I'm here to see it, so Tuesday morning will have to do, followed by a afternoon stroll out of Burgos.

Burgos is the end of the Camino for many of the pilgrims I've met on the way since Santo Domingo, or alternatively it's the point where they catch the train to Leon, skip the Spanish Plains, and walk on to Santiago from there. This is one of many options for pilgrims with less time on there hands than me.

I've been passing by the Pink Ladies these last four days. They're easy to spot because they all have matching pink rain coats. They are Swiss and speak a Swiss dialect of German and don't speak much English. They smile and wave and say "Buenos dias" alot and one lady manages to understand me a bit, enough that they know I call them the Pink Ladies like the ones from Grease, The Musical.

There's also the German couple I first met at the border entering Castilla y Leon. They have being doing the pilgrimage for ten years. Each year they have two or three weeks holiday and they do the next section. They started from their home in Germany and when I spoke with them they had done 2,250km, still heading to Santiago. This year they finish in Burgos.

There are several groups I met the last two days that are skipping on to Leon before walking again. One was Darren from California who has 5 weeks away with his two boys, walking as much as they can. While there are lots of father and son, mother and daughter type combinations on the trail, mostly they are all adults. Kids are pretty rare except Spanish ones doing short stints. Today I watched the boys build a stone pilgrims arrow on top of the hill leading down to Burgos.

I meet another rare pilgrim today, one walking the other way, one that's doing what all the pilgrims of the past had to do, going home. There have been a few others going the wrong way but mostly I think they forgot something that morning or l haven't had a chance to ask. But this mornings pilgrim superhero was the mystic guide I needed today. As he breezed up the hills out of Burgos he was determined to tell every pilgrim to take the alternate route into Burgos along the river or to just get a bus once you hit the suburbs. "It is the worst tem kilometres of the whole walk" he said " industrial, ugly roadside. Don't do it." Even though the bus or a taxi was already my plan, its nice to have your decisions confirmed.

Since I told you the food wasn't that great, the foods been great. I must have cracked the secret. There are no menus but I'm getting better at looking for things that I like and asking for what that person has. Nailed a yummy bacon and egg roll, freshly cooked, in a average looking cafe with not much on display, no menu and no English. Nailed a fab dinner last night with the same issues by seeing good things other people had. Then I arrived in Burgos and found tapas bars open even in siesta and lots of amazing choices on display. More about Burgos tomorrow. It's pretty special. I've given you my first sighting of the amazing cathedral.

PS. Como means 'how are you?' in Spainish. I got asked asked Como? Buen? How are you? Good? a few times today. It was a rough slow uphill and I don't look the most elegant when my feet get tired.もっと詳しく