Camino Day 16: SanBol to Itero dela Vega

Total Distance: 27.8km
Step Count: 38k
Blisters to date: 2
Tortillas to date: 16

From Arroyo de San Bol, it was a long and very fun day to our destination as there was so much entertainment along the way!

We walked like 6km to our breakfast stop in the cute little village of Hontanas and from there, another 5km to the ruins of San Anton. When we got to the ruins, there was a couple volunteers who started to talk to me in Spanish. When I told them I was from Venezuela, they asked if I would dance. They said someone was going to sing so I told them if someone would sing that I’d happily dance but the music was opera! 🙃

A Russian pilgrim ended up putting on a 20min show in the ruins for donativos and it was so beautiful we stayed until the end and chatted to him for a while. Everyone else in our group had moved on and missed it!

From there we kept walking to Castrojeriz where we visited a church turned museum that projected a short film about the camino on the ceiling. After a quick bite in town, we started the climb up to Alto de Mostelares, the highest point in the plains offering spectacular views all round.

We were going to meet up with David and stay at a small chapel 3km from the top that only had 8 beds and no electricity but half way through the climb, he called to let us know that there were only 2 beds left and there was 3 of us 🤷🏻‍♀️

We had to walk an extra 3km to the following town to a donativo hostel that didn’t have the greatest reviews but ended up being another lovely place with one of the most generous communal dinners! The Camino always provides ✨

All of the Aussies on the Camino were there that night! But I spent most of the time talking to the French lady sitting in front of me on the dinner table. She couldn’t speak English so with my basic French (and a lil help from google translate at times) we talked and talked. I found out she has cancer and had already undergone like 6 surgeries, with another one coming up soon. She was also advised against doing the Camino but she was determined to show her cancer who’s the boss! She had also started her walk in France so she’d been going way longer than me. We talked about life, and love and so many beautiful things, I hope wherever she is on her journey now, she’s patting herself on the back for not giving up! I will always remember her 🥹Baca selengkapnya