Villaescusa de Palositos

I’m writing this in an albergue where we hadn’t planned to stay, having finished a dinner of two cans of tuna and two apricots. Population here is under 20 so there are no shops or restaurants. But a very nice albergue. With a heater in the bedroom!

Today’s total was about 29 Km with 700 m elevation. All off road. Brilliant. As soon as we left Salmeron, we had about a 300 m ascent on dark red glommy clay mud. I have decided that it makes no sense to stop and take the mud off with my poles because it comes right back and just slows me down. My unscientific observation this morning was that my shoes have a maximum mud-carrying weight and when it gets to that point, big chunks will just fall off.

From the top we had a long (10 Km?) walk along the top, including a detour to avoid going on the property of the man who bought up the whole abandoned town of Villaescusa de Los Palositos. This issue has been tied up in court for years. Pilgrims and the public should be able to cross his land. He has even barred access to the Romanesque church and the cemetery where the loved ones of many former villagers are buried. There is a protest march to the church every year, and the legal experts say there’s no doubt that his acts are illegal, but he has kept it going in court for years.

Then the downhill started, with the last few kms into Viana on narrow rocky goat paths. We were not sure whether to carry on for 8 more kms to Trillo or to just stay here. When a local told me that the hike up to the Tetas de Viana would take about an hour each way, I thought the best thing to do would be to drop our packs and then hike up and back. That seemed better than starting out tomorrow with the ascent and then continuing on.

The walk up to the top of Teta Redonda was about 2.5 kms. At the end there were chains to hold onto and even one steep metal staircase but nothing scary. The association in Cuenca had told us the path was shut because of a rockslide. There was one section where the handrails had been knocked down and a lot of rocky debris made it a bit tricky, but not dangerous. The views from the top were fabulosas, maybe with the exception of the nuclear power plant.

So here we are in Viana. I have no “cobertura” (cell phone/data) and we’ve had a pretty skimpy dinner, but we’re clean and warm and have had a great day. I took two packs of Ghirardelli hot cocoa from the lounge in Chicago, and had been saving them for something like this!Read more