25 September 2017
Walking Day 13:
20.5 kilometers
28,356 steps

Wow! Another good day of walking on the Camino de Santiago on the meseta in my new shoes. My feet feel better than they have in a number of days. When my feet were at their worst, hurting with every step, my mood had become somewhat dark, and I was thinking that I may have to give up this pilgrimage and return home to let my feet heal. After an evaluation by a doctor in Burgos, taking a rest day, and getting better shoes, all has turned around. It is still not perfect, but I am back!

Again it is late, and as usual I am tired. So I shall post some pictures and add to the text tomorrow.

We are on the meseta, the plains. It is a rich farmland for grains, mainly wheat.

I am walking this morning with John and Kathy from Texas. You can just see their backs on the right as we walk up a long, gradual hill to Alto Meseta, the high point on the meseta today:

And here are John and Kathy squinting into the bright sun (they do have faces) with wind turbines in the background:

We started a descent to a small town of Hontanas (population 70), a good place for a late-morning break after 11 kilometers.

After Hontanas, we are back in the farmland. We caught up to Eddie and Esther from Las Vegas and their niece Tiffany from Hawaii. You can see Esther and Tiffany ahead of Kathy.

Here are Tiffany and Esther, and Eddie can be seen in the back row.

Soon we came upon the ruins of San Anton, a convent until the late 1700s, now under very slow restoration. The ruins currently house a “natural” albergue, with no power (electricity), no hot water, and dinner by candlelight.

I explored and met a volunteer at the albergue named John who grew up in La Crescenta, California. Small world.

The arches over the road are where the nuns would leave bread, water, and other provisions for pilgrimson their way to Santiago de Compostela.

We can see Castrojeriz farin the distance with the old castle ruins at the top of the  hill, from which defense was better. In the picture, Castrojeriz does not look too far off, but it was almost an hour before I arrived in the town.

The main church in the old city of Castrojeriz.

And the view from my window across the fields to the wind turbines on the distant hills.

Next: Crossing from the Province of Burgos to the Province of Palencia and on to Frómista along irrigation canals.