Two weeks in!

Another chilly morning… but we started with a steep climb out of Villafranca Montes de Oca, headed up and over the mountain toward Atapuerca. With the immediate uphill climb, we quickly heated up. After a brief steep climb, we had a more gentle ascent through an oak forest, and we’re lulled along by the chirping of a cuckoo bird. Never heard one before and sadly did not see it, but I appreciated its music.

As we reached the first summit, we came out of the oak forest and into a thick pine forest. It is said that during the Middle Ages, thieves would hide in the trees here and rob the innocent pilgrims as they passed through. It is easy to see how they could hide in the thick, dark and spooky stands of pine trees.

After another downhill and uphill, we came to another summit where we found the makeshift “Oasis del Camino,” run out of a van by a man named Angel who sets up a table with coffee, fruit, eggs, pastries, and a complete art gallery of hand-painted shells and tree stumps. Super friendly and loves to chat up the pilgrims. He was a welcome sight because there are no services of any kind for 12km.

Coming into a little village called San Juan de Ortega, we were greeted by a couple of cows. One of them reminded me of Cocoa, because he was very vocal and seemed to be trying to tell me something important. We stopped there at a great little cafe, El Descanso de San Juan, where they were playing a lot of 80’s American music and had a nice grassy patio with picnic tables and umbrellas. We took our shoes off, ordered a pizza for lunch, and I broke out dancing and singing along to “YMCA.” Apologies to my fellow Americans for any embarrassment this incident may have brought upon you. Totally worth it!

Coming out of San Juan de Ortega, we noticed a forest of pine trees on the left side of the trail, and a forest of dead looking oak trees on the right. Apparently some kind of fungus on the oak trees, but it made for a very strange sight.

As we descended the mountain and into Atapuerca, our stop for the night, the landscape changed back again to rolling hills. Atapuerca is best know for its prehistoric caves that were declared a UNESCO world heritage site due to the discovery of human remains/activity dating back 1.5 million years ago - the oldest in Europe. We tried to visit the site here, but it was closed. There is a big museum in Burgos about this site, however, that we hope to visit.

We are staying in a quaint little hotel called La Papasol, and our hostess is a lovely woman named Maria who has two adorable border collies - a mama and daughter - named Aida and Yuna. I am dutifully giving them many scratches. (I am getting my doggie fix.)