A Day of Surprises

We decided to skip our planned rest day in Leon and keep walking today. The hotel last night was very nice and in the middle of all the action in the old city. There is a festival going on in the city this week and there were stages and bands playing all over town. The place was packed. 

This is great but most of the action seemed to be taking place outside of our hotel. It went on all night. I could hear the partiers at 5:00 this morning. I'll post a video on Facebook of the street scene. 

The walk out of Leon this morning was very nice for the most part. We walked by the San Marcos Paradore, the famous hotel from "The Way" (we didn't stay there). 

Therese rested for a few minutes with another weary pilgrim. 

We had a dreary section through an industrial area on the outskirts of Leon. Along a very busy road, we came upon a local cafe and we needed our first coffee for the day. The proprietor was out front hustling business from the peregrinos passing by. Unlike most of the cafes, she quickly took our orders, upsold a couple of things to us, and quickly had our food in front of us. She was much more like a hustling American entrepreneur than Spanish.  It was a very unexpected delight on such a bad stretch of road. 

Fortunately, we quickly turned off the highway and onto a quiet country path. Within a few hundred meters, we left the big city behind and were back onto the traditional Camino. About 1K later, we ran into a traffic jam, Camino style. Another wonderful surprise. 

A couple of kilometers later, we came across a vendor selling fruits and drinks to the peregrinos. He was a delightful and friendly chap, so we had to buy a couple of bananas from him. 

The Camino route is easy to follow with yellow arrows painted on the roads, sign posts, rocks or any stationary surface. There are also helpful directions to other services along the way. 

You see these quite a bit. 

But bars here are all purpose. They open early to serve coffee and breakfast (they all have industrial strength expresso machines), lunches and dinners. And, of course, beer all day long. It nothing to see the locals and the peregrinos hydrating with beer at 8:00 in the morning. I haven't had an 8:00 beer (yet) but I did enjoy one at 11:00 today when Therese needed another cafe con leche. 

The bar (cafe) was in this tiny, tiny village but it was very relaxing. I could have stayed all afternoon but we had 5K to go to our stopping point for the day. 

Our ending village for the day was Villar de Mazarife, a small burg of about 50 people. We had planned to stay in the small albergue in town, one of three. But Therese saw a sign for the Albergue Jesus which advertised a pool!  We turned down a dirt path, past broken down farm equipment and decaying buildings, and into a walled courtyard of an old, but renovated, hacienda. It was a very quirky place, but really nice. The young owner and her son checked us in. Another place with no English spoken. 

As we were given the grand tour, the owner showed us our room -- a room with two beds. No bunk beds or sharing tonight. We hit the jackpot for €5 each.  Therese quickly made for the pool with a friend. 

They also have a very nice kitchen where we will prepare dinner tonight. No peregrino menu today. 

The final surprise of the day was the local tienda, or food shop, that we found to pick up groceries for dinner. In these small villages, these places are usually quite sketchy. This place was great -- fresh produce, a good selection of canned goods for marinara sauce, small containers of olive oil and vinegar for cooking and salad dressing, and even spices (oregano) for my sauce. The shopkeeper was very friendly and helpful. She spoke no English but with our slightly improving Spanish, we got everything we needed. 

All in all it was a delightfully surprising day when we expected nothing. 

Today's good intentions are for our good friend Grandison and her great family hubby Mark and children Matthew, Lilly and Hayes. Therese and Grandison are like two peas in a pod and Grandison has become my intrepid trail running buddy. Who else would run with me at 6:00 am on a cold December morning to kick off my 60th birthday? You and your family are precious to us.