Carrion to Leon

From Carrion de los Condes, I Walked 17km to Calzadilla de la Cueza. This is probably going to be my longest day on this trip. Walked most of distance with two Australians, Peter and Hetty. He was a retired teacher, she was a mother who raised six girls. He was a year older than I am, but I noticed that he used a baggage service, so his pack was very small. The only other person who I have met, who is older than I, was not caring a sizable pack, either. I guess I am just a purist. I checked into a private room at the Hostal Camino Real. Had dinner at Hostal, ok.

Thursday I Walked to Moratinos. I visited Rebecca, someone who I had met years ago at a pilgrim meeting. She and her husband live there. Ended up staying at the Albergue with bunk beds, first time this trip. Had a small pilgrim dinner. Slept Ok

Friday I Walked 10km in substantial rain to Sahagun, where I had a reservation in the Benedictine Albergue, which is now run by the Marist priests. I attended a coffee for pilgrims with Mateo, a Marist priest from NZ. Attended the pilgrim mass, and the blessing after. For some reason I was really touched by the priest putting his hands on me for the blessing. We had a pilgrim dinner after.

Saturday morning I went to the laundromat. I walked only 10 km to Bercianos, as I could not find a private room in the next town on a Saturday night. I felt a few drops, so I put on my poncho, but it never rained seriously. I walked much of the day with Katharine, a German social worker. She was having trouble with her knee, so she was walking slowly, the same speed that I was. She was bemoaning the fact that even with two incomes, she and her boyfriend were not able to buy a house. 

Sunday I called a taxi to take me back to Sahagun for mass, and then back to Bercianos.   I walked the 7 km to Burgo Ranero, where I stayed at Piedra Blanca Hostal.

Monday I walked 13 km to Releigos, where I stayed in La Parada Albergue. Hung out a bit with a Basque from Spain who's a retired metal worker, Juan. I had dinner with Robert who's from Hamilton Ontario, recently retired.   The employees claimed that my Spanish was better than theirs! (probably just more formal and correct). A nice Albergue.

Tuesday, I was apparently the last person out of the Albergue, at 8:15. There's no one on the trail that I can see. The people come in waves. My boots failed. I was kind of expecting it, I even brought glue with me. It's not that far to Leon, so I will just use my shoes the rest of the trip. I stopped in Puente Villarente, at the Delfin Verde. Had lunch with a French lady, Anne, who I kept seeing on the route. This was the first time I spoke to her. A few years ago she walked from northern France to Santiago, about 2200 km, by herself! She spoke of the magic of the Camino, something I feel too. Apparently, Internet is down in the entire country. This also happened when they had the massive power failure a couple of weeks ago.

Wednesday, I walked about 12 km into Leon. I walked partway with an Italian lady Silveran, and walked into Leon with a young German man, Fabian. Stopped at the Cathedral, walked to Hotel Zentral. Somehow, my phone figured I walked 14 miles! That would include my walking around town. My hotel was well north of the center of town, so that probably contributed to the mileage. Anyway, I don't really believe I walked 14 miles.

Somehow, my Camino is over; not surprisingly, it was a little anti-climatic. But the last day was a good day walking, and I enjoyed talking to the Italian and the German. Mostly on this trip, I am walking slower than other people, so I did not have as much opportunity to chat as I walked as I might've preferred. At the moment I kind of feel done. Not exhausted, but happy to have completed. My Camino has been dragged out over many years with various health and other concerns, causing repeated delays. I have talked about possibly doing something else that's Camino related in the future, but no definite plans.

It will take some time to absorb the fact that I finished; I will probably publish some retrospective thoughts later.

I am having trouble with my editing tools on my phone. I will probably end up posting the text and the photos separately, at least till I get home and sit in front of a real computer

Fromista to Carrion

The amazing ceiling of the cloisters at Zolio.

A typical street in Carrion de Condes.

The German who bought my shell.

Many, probably most, pilgrims use a luggage transport service, 
and carry only a tiny daypack.  I am too much of a purist for that.....

Note that beer is cheaper than water or Coke!

Sunday was a rest day in Fromista, a modest town, but with local spirit. I walked the town a bit, and visited one of the other churches. I had dinner at the same restaurant as before, at the pilgrim's table.

I slept poorly, so I did not get on the trail until 11 AM on Monday. I arrived in Villalcazar de Sirga at 3 pm, later than I would prefer, especially since I did not have a reservation. I stayed in Las Cantigas bar/hotel. There was a festival in this town as well, they were playing ninepins in the square. Unfortunately, I did not sleep well that night either.

Tuesday I got on the trail at eight. As I was arriving in Carrion de los Condes, I saw an open door on a church, went and found Mass, and found that this was part of the convent, with the cloistered nuns behind a metal grill. I ended up staying in the convent Albergue; I had a private room with a bathroom down the hall, at a reasonable price. As I arrived in town early, I had time to explore the city a bit. The city is very cute, tidy, narrow streets, just has a good vibe. in the afternoon, I walked to the San Zolio monastery, which has an astounding cloister area with busts of religious and Old Testament figures covering a huge area of the ceiling. I had dinner with the Norwegian American couple.

Starting my Camino

A typical Camino scene, from the top of a hill.
In many places we walk on dirt roads.

My trip started with a Monday morning bus ride to the airport, then a flight to Atlanta. I had a long layover scheduled, which became a lot longer when there was an equipment problem with the plane. We left five hours late. When we got to Madrid, I headed for the hotel and crashed. I was tired.

On Wednesday. I did a little tourism, visited the folklore museum, (Arte y tradiciones) and then the the Prado art museum. the Prado had a Greco exhibit; I like Greco. Thursday was another travel day. I took the bus to Burgos, but was too tired for tourism. The local bus took me to Castrojeriz. The hotel/restaurant/bar was good; I perked up being able to talk to other pilgrims. I had my first good night of sleep, getting over jet lag, in a private room.

Friday I walked 12km through an agricultural area to Itero de la Vega. Everthing was green and pretty. Another nice place to stay; I had a private room, rather than a dorm. One of the workers, Polina, is from Ukraine; when I said that she was a long way from home, she said that she had no home, that this was now her home. Sad to hear. There was a nice communal pilgrim dinner.

Saturday I walked 13 km to Fromista. I was moving slowly. At one point I got off route, and I needed to cross a ditch to get back on route. I was working my way out of the ditch, when another pilgrim saw me and extended his stick. That's the spirit of the Camino.

I checked into the hotel San Pedro and attended an organ concert at the church, followed by Mass, and a men's choir. it is the festival of St. Telmo. i was beat, and decided to stay another night. I had breakfast at the bakery with a Swedish Lutheran priest who I had met at the previous stop; we talked church matters.

I had dinner again at the Chiringuito restaurant. I sat at the pilgrims table, and one of the other pilgrims admired my scallop shell necklace, so she bought one. Then, as I was leaving, someone else at the table bought one. The owner of the restaurant admired it also, and he traded me a meal for a scallop shell. Perhaps I should've brought more scallop shells with me. I was not too energetic today, clearly it was smart to stay put.

I hope to walk 12 km tomorrow.

My walking pilgrimage on the Camino a Santiago

The Camino to Santiago de Compostella has been a pilgrimage route for more than 1000 years.  It is still walked today by thousands of pilgrims.  People walked from all over Europe.

Richard has hiked three segments of the camino, starting in France and ending in Santiago de Compostela. He is trying to complete the Camino by walking from Castrojerez, where he left off in 2019, to Leon, where he started in 2002. The distance is 134 km, (83 miles). Richard hopes to walk 10 km per day.

Sandhill Cranes

 

On Friday the 14^th we drove to North Platte. We decided to leave early to have more time with the Sandhill Cranes. We stayed at the Husker Inn, as usual, and had dinner at the Cedar Room.

On Satuday the 15^th we had breakfast at the Espresso Room in North Platte, and then headed to Kearney, and checked into the Days Inn. We had lunch at Wendys. We went to the Crane Trust, changed clothes, and then went to meet the Nature Conservancy folks for our visit to their blind. Nick gave us a presentation on Cranes, and what the Nature Conservancy was doing. We ended up with 30 people in the blind, which was not ideal. The cranes ended up well downstream of us, also not ideal. The spectacle was still impressive, with more cranes than we could count. After it got dark, we headed back to the cars and our hotel room. Margaritas Mexican restaurant was still open, so we ate there.

Sandhills in the field.

On Sunday, we went to mass at St. James church in Kearney, and then has lunch at the Laughing Goat. We drove back roads to see cranes in the field, and then stopped at the Audobon Society Rose Sanctuary. We made it to the Crane Trust to hear Michael Forsberg talk about his years photographing Sandhill Cranes and Whooping Cranes. We enjoyed the presentation; the hall was packed. Sandi got a book signed. We continued to Omaha and checked into our Airbnb. We had dinner at Spezia with the family to celebrate Jack's birthday week.

Monday we slept in, and went for a walk at Memorial Park. We had lunch at El Basha, and then went to see our accountant. We had to wait an hour to see him, and then it took two more hours to go through our taxes. We were tired after all that, and bought dinner at HiVee supermarket. We also changed our Airbnb reservations, because of a forecast blizzard on Wednesday.

Tuesday we had brunch with family, and then went for a 3 mile walk on the Keystone trail. The day was beautiful, shirtsleeve weather. However, a winter storm is forecast to start tonight.

We did a little shopping in Dundee, and then picked up a grandkid at school, and had dinner with the grandkid at El Basha.

Wednesday was a blizzard day, with I-80 closed, and everyone told to stay home.  We read in our cozy Airbnb house.

Thursday we drove home.  The roads were snowpacked and bumpy between Lincoln and Kearney, but otherwise good.  We were tired when we got home.

Puerto Rico

Friday we drove to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Denver airport, as we had an early flight. We had dinner at our usual Pho 92 restaurant, where we learned that the owner has a handicapped daughter, and that most of her employees have some kind of issue, if not a physical handicap, “Everyone has a story”.

Saturday, we took the shuttle to the airport at 4 AM, and were near our gate by 5 am, for a 7 am flight. The flight to Orlando was full of families, taking kids to Disneyworld. The families got to board before we did, so we did not sit together, not unusual for us on Southwest. We had lunch in the Orlando airport, before a 3:45 PM flight to San Juan. We took a taxi to our Airbnb, where we had to search a bit to find the right door to get into the building, and then got confused about which door was which. We had a code for the building, which had an electronic lock, so we looked for an electronic lock on the door. However, there was a lock box to get our door key for the apartment. Not what you want to deal with after a long day of travel. Unfortunately, it was Saturday night, and there was a pop up nightclub blaring a block away. We are not impressed by our host; there was no hot water, and no response to our email.

Sunday, I slept in, and we made it to the long 11am mass at the San Francisco church. We had lunch at LA Madre restaurant, where our waitress was very helpful. We then walked up to the nearby fort San Christobal, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fort was in use for almost 500 years, by the Spaniards and then the USA. The fort is huge. 

 We noticed that the bricks paving the streets were blue; they were brought over in ships from Europe, used as ballast. The blue bricks were a byproduct of refining iron. We visited a good art studio and a real bookstore, which had some English books. We picked up groceries and hiked uphill to our apartment. Then we went to La Mezzanine, where we had very good tapas, including fresh hummus. The décor was mostly of art and newspaper clippings related to the drive for independence for Puerto Rico; our waiter also supports independence. We walked through the rain to Anita's Gelato, which was packed.

Monday I slept in. We headed for the El Morro fort, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is at the end of the island, with a large lawn area in front of it, part of the defensive design. The fort has mutiple levels connected by ramps, so that they could move cannon as needed. It is just huge, with six levels. The fort was started in the 1530s; it was repeatedly expanded and remodeled by the Spaniards and later the Americans. We had lunch at El Convento, a high end hotel. We had gelato at Anitas, and then took the ferry over and back to the mainland, letting us get a better view of the harbor. We stopped at Poet's passage, where we bought a print of one of the paintings by the owner, Nico. Nico is a very nice Frenchman who met a Puerto Rican woman, and never left. The blue bricks were prominent in the painting. We picked up a little from the supermarket and headed back to the apartment, having walked over four miles.

Tuesday we took an Uber to the airport, where we picked up a rental car and headed west. The first part was expressway, but then it was heavy traffic with stop lights. We stopped for lunch in Hatillo, at Marilyn's beach restaaurant. We had sandwiches, and watched people play in the water, very laid back. We continued to Ricon, where we found our Aitbnb, after driving around some. We visited the Econo supermarket, and Sandi cooked dinner.  We wandered down to the lighthouse nearby.

Wednesday we headed downtown, and had lunch at Cafe 413. We also bought a cable so we could charge our phones in the car, as the car uses USB-C connectors. Sandi bought a sundress at Ocean State of Mind, and T-shirts for gifts at Uncharted Studio. There was a health fair in the town plaza, with music.

Thursday we drove to Mayaguez, the second largest city in Puerto Rico. We admired the Cathedral and the town plaza, and had lunch at La Jibarita nearby. 

 We went to the boat dock in Rincon to go on our sunset sail. Unfortunately, we saw no whales. Richard enjoyed talking to the captain about boats. There was an art walk in the plaza, very popular, lots of beading work, but a little of everything.

Friday Richard slept in, and felt lousy when he woke up. He rested around the house, while Sandi knitted  We kept seeing Tsunami warning signs. We had dinner at the nearby Beach House, and heard a musician play. We headed to Domes beach, near the decommisioned nuclear powerplant, and watched the surfers and the sunset.

Saturday Richard slept in, we visited the Coqui bookstore, which we enjoyed. We had dinner at the Gylro Greek restaurant, and then went to mass downtown. Downtown was very busy

Sunday we drove to the Caguana Indigenous Ceremonial Park, which is the largest Taino ruin on the island. The Taino were the indians present when the Spaniards arrived. They were peaceful, and had women chiefs. The ruins were ballcourts, small versions of the Mesoamerican ball courts. We took our shoes off and walked in the mud. Some of the stones had petroglyphs, enhanced with black to be easily seen. The drive was on twisty narrow mountain roads, so slow and required concentration. We had dinner at the Beach House and then watched surfers at Domes.

Ceiba tree ar ruins

Monday we drove back to San Juan. We had a nice lunch at Mesa restaurant in Ponce. My phone kept routing us on very narrow twisty roads. We finally figured out that I had set my phone to avoid toll roads. After that we got on the toll roads, and made good time into San Juan. Our $300/night hotel was something of a disappointment; the room was small, there was no elevator, and no coffeemaker. We walked down the street to the Tryst hotel, where we had lunch overlooking the beach. The peoplewatching was great, including a large group of gay guys. We walked back to our hotel, stopping at Anita's gelato on the way.

Tuesday we got up at 5 AM, to leave the hotel at 6 AM for an 8 AM flight. No real breakfast opportunities at the airport that early. We flew to Orlando, had lunch there, and then flew to Denver. We got into Denver at 2 PM Denver time, but that was 5 PM Puerto Rico time. We picked up our car and headed home.

Puerto Rico has a very relaxing vibe. It was easy to move about the country. While it feels a bit like Mexico, Puerto Rico is clearly better off economically. Sandi was happy not to be constantly accosted by someone trying to sell something. We enjoyed hanging out on the beach. Sandi was happy to unplug in a hassle free environment It was easy to be there.

Paddling Canyonlands - Stillwater Canyon on the Green River

Mike and Tracy

Thursday night Mike came to my house to pick up the canoe, mostly to save time on Friday morning. Friday morning I drove to Mike’s house, and we loaded up gear and headed out. We went on to Boulder, where we picked up Steve. We continued south through Golden and drove west. We had lunch at blue Moon deli in Silverthorne, and bought gas in Grand Junction. We drove on to Moab, where we had to drive around a bit to find our group campsite, Datura C. 

We went down to Mike’s diner in Moab where we met Cathi and Dick from Arkansas. We had seen them on video conferences, but none of us had met them face-to-face. Craig joined us about the time we were finishing dinner. We walked over to get gelato at the food truck park, and drove back to our campsite. Ben and Dottie and Becky showed up about 9:30 pm.

We arrived at Tex’s about 7:15. We learned that one of the group was a no show, so our group will be 11 people. It was a crazy drive down to Mineral Bottom, with huge drop-offs. We saw some base jumpers jumping off cliffs with parachutes.  We got organized, and were on the water about noon. 

We had a muddy stop for lunch, and paddled until 5 o’clock, mostly because we were having trouble finding campsites, due to steep river banks and Tamarasks. Our camp was up a steep bank, but perfectly nice on the upper level.

Sunday was cloudy, but it cleared up.  We passed the Sphinx rock formation.  We traveled about 14 miles, and found a camp with a nice shade tree, where we all gathered.  It was continuing to be very hot.

Monday we got on the river at 9 AM. We paddled past various rock formations. Including two story ruin perched on a cliff; the access looked impossible. We had hoped to camp at a particular camp, but we found that there were people already camped there. We proceeded onto another camp at mile 9, and saw canoes there also. However, we realized that they had not unloaded their canoes; they were just taking a hike to see the ruins. We were glad to be able to stop, after 15 miles. The ruin was a grainary, near to camp.

Tuesday we got on the water around 9, as usual. It was only 9 miles to the confluence, so we were a bit lazy paddling. When we arrived at the Colorado River, we started looking for campsites. We tried one on the right, but there was not deep enough water for the jet boat. Then we checked the campsite on the left, and not only did there seem to be enough water, there was actually a jet boat mark on the riverbank. This became our campsite. We washed our muddy boats, per the request of Tex’s. In the afternoon we had cocktail hour, and people got fairly merry.

Wednesday we prepared to be picked up. The jet boat went by at about 10 AM, and went further down river to pick up some other parties, before returning to pick us up. The Tex's employees later complimented us on how organized we were, and how clean the boats were. The jet boat took us up the Colorado river to Potash, where they loaded the jet boat onto a trailer; we got on a bus to return to Tex’s. At Tex’s the employees handed us gear and boats, to be sorted and put with their respective owners. We had a nice dinner at Tapatio restaurant in Moab. Most of us returned to the same campsite that we had been in the previous week.

Our trip home on Thursday was uneventful, with Egg McMuffins in Moab, and sandwiches at Culver’s in Glenwood Springs. We returned to Boulder to drop off Steve and his gear, and proceeded on to Fort Collins.

All in all, it was a particularly great trip. Everybody was was very easy to get along with, and everybody knew what they needed to do. The weather cooperated by providing us no wind for the entire time, which was outstanding, and perhaps unprecedented. The group was predominantly composed of senior citizens, but that didn’t seem to keep us from enjoying ourselves. ;-)