James the Intrepid Pilgrim

Wednesday, April 26, 2023Walking from Riolobos to Carcaboso21.5 kilometers We are well into our third week walking the Via de la Plata Camino pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. We are feeling strong and getting stronger. My biggest concern has been the slow healing of the large blisters on the ball of my right foot. This is getting better every day. Yesterday was the first day that I did not feel pain with every step, […]

Tuesday, April 25, 2023Walking from Cañaveral to Riolobos20.3 kilometers We are now into our third week on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes. We are feeling strong, and best of all, my right foot is improving every day a little. I am certain that if I were not walking all day sometimes on rocky roads beating my feet up that the healing time would be very short. Today […]

Monday, April 24, 2023Walking from Casar de Cáceres to Cañaveral33.7 kilometers Today was our longest walking day on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela at over 33 kilometers. This is the first day of our third week on the Via de la Plata; we have completed two full weeks of walking in southern Spain. What started out brisk and cool turned into a quite […]

Sunday, April 23, 2023Walking from Valdesalor to Casar de Cáceres26.6 kilometers Today marks the end of two full weeks of walking on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. We started walking from Seville in southern Spain two weeks ago, and today completed our second week. Today’s walk led us from Valdesalor through Cáceres to Casar de Cáceres. Cáceres is a very old and historically […]

Saturday, April 22, 2023Walking from Alcuéscar to Valdesalor26.4 kilometers We are closing in on having completed two full weeks on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago collection of routes to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. It rained overnight, at times quite hard, so we are expecting a cooler morning and puddles of various sizes along the way today. There were many puddles, but the drainage on these secondary, dirt/gravel […]

Friday, April 21, 2023Walking from Aljucén to Alcuéscar21.2 kilometers Another day starting cool and brisk as we left Aljucén. We walked out of town at about 7:30 AM and the bar/cafe was already doing a good business, including with some pilgrims inside having breakfast. We walked by this old stone church, similar to many we have seen in southern Spain. Very quickly we were down in a broad river valley leaving Aljucén. The sign is […]

Thursday, April 20, 2023Walking from Mérida to Aljucén16.4 kilometers We left the dismal, uninspired albergue in Mérida at 8:00 AM, a little later than we had hoped. Finally on the road, our target was a town called El Carrascalejo. Since it was only 14 kilometers and the next town of Aljucén was only another 3 kilometers, we decided to see how we felt when we got to El Carrascalejo and if we could go another […]

Wednesday, April 19, 2023Walking from Torremejia to Mérida18.4 kilometers Today is another cool day in southern Spain. Cool in the morning, good for walking, and warming as morning progresses to almost hot in the afternoon. The hotness of the afternoon is not good for walking, we leave early to walk in the cool morning and arrive early in the afternoon. But after going through the daily routine of checking in, getting lunch, having a shower […]

Tuesday, April 18, 2023Walking from Villafranca de los Barros to Torremejia27.5 kilometers Today was a long, long day, and a very good day. The road from Villafranca de los Barros to Torremejia was almost completely straight north, off the main roads, and in lush and strikingly beautiful farmland. There is not much to report along the way, as the route was very straight and the farmland repetitive, making time for introspection and reflection. We started […]

Monday, April 17, 2023Walking from Zafra to Villafranca de los Barros20.2 kilometers Today marks the start of the second week of walking on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes. A note on Maps and Step Counts I’m not happy with some of the technology I am trying to use on this Camino pilgrimage walk. The maps Samsung Health provides are not satisfactory, and while the Google Fit maps […]

Sunday, April 16, 2023Walking from Fuente de Cantos to Zafra26.2 kilometers, 37,700 steps The end of the walk today marked one complete week on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago collection of pilgrimage routes leading to Santiago de Compostela. This was a day that started in a beautiful cool spring morning and ended with pain in my right foot and a dense fog of frustration in my mood. The walk […]

Saturday, April 15, 2023Walking from Monesterio to Fuente de Cantos22.5 kilometers, 23,400 steps The sixth day on the Via de la Plata route of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage paths started in very cool, but clear weather promising being quite warm by midday. My foot is continuing to heal albeit slower than I had hoped. As yesterday, our Taiwanese friend Sharon and I are again having our backpacks taken by taxi to our ending point […]