Day 16

We arrived in Leon this morning having spent a rather weird night in Sahagun. The town itself is extremely interesting, an old eclesiastical centre that has fallen on hard times and is now a necropolis of tumbling monastaries and convents. We visited one church in particular, named San Lorenzo, where they had a display showing the procession they hold every Easter week through the town.

(From here)

The local men dress up in black and purple robes and carry enormous wodden statues showing scenes from the life of Christ through the streets. They pride themselves on how life-like the statues are, ensuring that they are made to perfect scale.

(From here)

(From here)

Here are a couple of pictures of past parades.

(From here)

In the above photo note the crazed expressions on the statues in the background. That seemed to be par for the course; part KKK rally, part zombie freak show.

Unfortunately we arrived too late in the weirdo season for this year´s parade but the promo poster for 2009 looks great!

From here

Just to add to the atmosphere we spent the night at the Santa Cruz convent of the Benedictine nuns. The convent itself is in a beautiful 17th century building next to the crumbling San Tirso church.

(From here)

In order to stay at convents and monasteries along the route you must be walking or cycling to Santiago and you must be in possession of a document called a credencial. Thus you usually share accomodation with like minded people; religous zelets, rosy cheeked backpackers etcetera etcetera. So you can imagine our surprise when we returned to the convent from a trip to the store to find the dodgiest, meanest, scariest looking druggie you have ever seen greet us at the door.

Druggie: Welcome pilgrims!

Us: Gulp.

(File photo)

(From here)

As welcoming and hospitable as the nuns are, they aren´t getting any younger. In fact, the median age for the convent was 82 (including Anna and I). Thus one of them had granted admittance to this savory character who could not produce a credential, nor passport, nor ID of any form and as it turned out, couldn´t tell us where he had stayed the previous night or indeed where he was going. The only sense that we could make from his ramblings was that the church is evil and the Knights Templar protected a great secret. At first we thought he may have been a latter day prophet but then we realised he was just recounting the plot of The DaVinci Code.

Needless to say we all had a pleasant nights sleep, holding our valuables under our pillows and keeping one eye on the nutjob.

I´ll keep an eye on the Interpol webiste for the next couple of weeks.

Hasta luego.

Day 13.

By our calculations we are nearly half way to Sanitago today. We are on the outskirts of Sahagun about 70km from Leon. We have been making good time and have covered between 20 - 30km daily.

(From here)

We spent last night in a 13th century convent in Carrion de los Condes. It was a fantastic place except that Anna got bitten by bed bugs again, just when her previous bites were beginning to heal! Her allergic reaction to the bites is quite severe and causes blisters and blood and combined with a stomach bug I picked up yesterday, today we will only travel about 15km to Sahagun and take a rest this afternoon.

(From here)

Apart from those few setbacks, everything is going really well. The walking is quite easy, no major injuries and the countryside is very pretty. The food is quite varied, ranging from inedible to passable. How we both long for some kimchi!



We will take a rest on September 1st for my birthday and hopefully be either in Leon or Astorga.

After that we should be able to finish by about the 14th/15th of September and fly back to Ireland on the 16th.


Hasta luego!

4 days in.

After 4 days and about 100km we have arrived in Logrono in La Rioja.



When we first arrived in Pamplona on the 14th we were really surprised by how bloody cold it was (about 15 degrees). Also we hadnt prepared for the fact that the 15th was the Feast of the Assumption so everything was closed. Finding an open shop in Spain is difficult at the best of times, but during a holiday only Chinese 1 Euro stores and Pakistani run convenience stores are open. Thus on our first day, we feasted on chocolate bars and kept warm with Asian made scarves. Welcome to a religious holiday in Spain in August!



The next morning we started hiking early, about 5.30am and knocked off 22km at a fairly brisk pace, mainly because we were so cold but also due to our first day enthusiasm. We arrived at our destination at about 11am, had a look around the lovely old town and checked into our hostel. Being a private hostel, it cost slightly more (E8) than the municipal hostel but it did have a swimming pool which provided a nice respite for tired muscles.



Day 2 saw us do about another 22km this time and brought us to Estella. On the route we passed through many beautiful hilltop villages whose appearances haven´t changed much over the last 5oo years. Unfortunately at about 1am that night, I was awoken by Anna who had spotted about a dozen bed bugs crawling over my body. While this is disturbing on it´s own, what is worse is the fact that Anna is highly allergic to bed bugs, having had a nasty experience with them in Paris. However, considering the time and the place (municipal hostel, no other beds available) we killed as many as we could (great fun) and tried to get back to sleep. The next morning we counted over 20 bites on Anna which swelled and blistered over the coming day leaving her looking more like a 14th century leaper than a 21st century hiker.



On day 3 we picked up some antihistamine cream and tablets for Anna´s sore which at this stage had festered blistered and left her in quite a lot of pain. Added to this were blisters on her feet and when we arrived in the town of Los Arcos both of us were starting to feel the strain on our bodies. We were fortunate enough to arrive in Los Arcos during the annual festival. We got to eat some regional specialities with the locals and even participate in some bull running!



Day 4 was the longest so far, totalling about 30km. The first 20 went smoothly enough but by the last 10 were hard going. Anna´s blisters were aching and my thighs started to cramp up and the final 6km to Logrono were some of the most painful I´ve ever experienced. Even with stretching and isotonic drinks the cramps got worse causing me to put more weight and pressure on my lower legs, which in turn caused more cramps and pain. Arriving in the Logrono we decided to check into a small hotel just to have hot showers and a decent nights sleep. It worked a treat and today Anna´s blisters and bites are receding and I can feel something from my waist down!



Day 5, today is our designated rest day. Rather than trying to go two 30km days in a row we decided to stop here and get Anna´s sores cleaned by a doctor. This morning however, they are looking much better so we have spent the day wandering around the historical town centre.



So far the food outside the major towns has been pretty dire. Fruit and veg is scarce and evening meals of greasy meats and chips don´t provide the substance needed for a 800km hike. We have on occasion cooked for ourselves (some but not all hostels have a basic kitchen), dishing up huge plates of carbohydrates and desserts of fresh fruit, if available.



In general though we are enjoying ourselves immensely. No serious injuries to report although Anna´s encounter with the bed bugs was pretty harsh. Tomorrow is a long day but we will be fine after our days rest.



Internet cafes are scarce on the ground. This post is being made in some kind of immigrant welfare centre so I better sign off as Bedatura from Eritrea wants to use the computer.



Hasta luego.