Burgos to Hontanas, 19.75 Miles

Left Burgos this morning at 7:00 in the pouring rain. Put my wonderful poncho on immediately and stayed dry for the next three hours of non-stop rain. It took about an hour to get out of Burgos and back onto the trail.

Today, instead of watching out for rocks, we were watching out for rain puddles. The trail was very muddy and slippery at times so it was slow going. Ahead and behind me it was a rainbow of ponchos. That's the thing about the Camino — you just keep going regardless of the weather.

I successfully walked for about two hours in much needed solitude and planned to spend the entire day that way. But the Camino had other plans. I stopped at a bar for a cup of tea, said hi and Buen Camino to a man sitting alone and was then on my way. Pretty soon though this same man, Tim from Seattle, came up to me along with Enrico from Milan. So the three of us walked together for quite some time. We had a lengthy discussion about AI and Tim was extremely knowledgeable about all things tech. It was an interesting conversation but most went over my head. They were stopping in a town before my destination so we parted ways.

No sooner did I leave them than along came Lorenzo from Roma. He did not speak English and I don't speak Italian but somehow we laughed and gestured our way into Hontanas where we are both spending the night.

Hontanas has a population of seventy people and, as many of the villages do, provide albergues and food for the pilgrims as their economy. Turns out Mary from Carmel is staying at the same place I am so we had dinner together.

It was overcast and raining off and on all day. My pants are muddy, my shoes are muddy, but it was still another wonderful day.

Not many pictures today because I didn't want to keep pulling my phone out in the rain but there was still plenty to see. I've stopped taking so many pictures of the landscape as it is all the same — beautiful, vivid, lush green hills all around you.

Once again, a church in every single village and town. The towns can be a mile apart but always have their own church. Every room I spend the night in, I can hear the bells tolls every hour. It is not annoying, it's actually rather soothing.

I am posting a couple of pictures of a church — if you look closely at the top of the bell tower there are huge bird nests. I caught the wing of one of the birds. I don't know what type of bird, although someone told me they were storks, but whatever they are, they are huge.

Buen Camino!