Day 12: Burgos to Hontanas, Our First Taste of the Meseta

Yesterday afternoon in Burgos, we saw a young German couple looking quizzically at their guidebooks.  We showed them the detailed map we had received from the Tourist Office and helped them find their way to the Municipal Albergue.  Their names were Mary and Jonas, and they had just completed the same long walk we did the day before--only they looked a lot better than we did.

This morning, we left our hotel at 5:15 AM and walked alone through the streets of Burgos to rejoin the path of the Camino.  Following the Camino in a big city can be challenging because of the visual clutter.  Doing it in the dark can be even more challenging.  Today was no exception.  The good news: we didn't get lost.

Leaving a big city, we expected to run into other pilgrims or at least to see them ahead of us.  For some reason, we didn't see any for the longest time.  The sun rose at 6:30 as we were near the highways surrounding the city, and we couldn't spot anyone ahead of us or behind us.  It was weird.

A Stork Nest on top of the church steeple in Rabé de las Calzadas. The stork is sitting in the nest.

We stopped for coffee and tortilla Española (potato and onion omelet) in the town of Rabé de las Calzadas, a very cute and well maintained little town.  When we were getting ready to resume walking, lots of pilgrims started arriving.  We spoke to one and heard the most amazing story:  they had all stayed in the Municipal Albergue for the night.  In the morning, the staff didn't let anybody leave until 6:00 AM!  Some of them had gotten up at 4:00 to beat the heat.  We had a 45 minute head start--that's why we saw nobody.

Among the arriving pilgrims, were Mary and Jonas.

We pushed on.  The heavy rains the night before had cooled things off and left puddles in the normally dusty countryside.

The Meseta is beautiful, but vast.

 The Meseta isn't totally flat.  The terrain is between 800 and 900 meters above sea level. (2,600 to 3,000 feet.)  It's covered with... drum roll.... wheat.  As with some of the previous places we walked through, we noticed that the fields themselves were just as rocky as our path.  Check out this newly plowed field:

That's what I call rocky soil.  You could call it soily rocks.

 We stopped in a second town, Hornillos del Camino,  for the usual Coca Cola stop.  I'm no expert, but I think that the name means "little ovens".  I'm probably wrong.  It was 11:30 and they were calling people to mass by ringing the church bells.  I don't think anybody came, so they repeated this two more times.

Today's walk was 32 kilometers, 20 miles.  We felt good for most of it because of the effect of the rain and because of some refreshing breezes.  Towards the end, Tina's feet started  cramping, probably a residual effect of our preposterously long trip to Burgos.

Can you see the windmills in the background?

The final approach to Hontanas.

We finally got to our destination, the little town of Hontanas, at about 1 PM.  It was finally getting hot.  We'd picked an albergue at the entrance of the town, and were really pleased with the quality of the amenities.  (We each get an electrical outlet and a reading light!)

So they give us a room number and numbered bunk beds, and who do we find in the next two bunks?  Mary and Jonas.  That's what the Camino is like.


Hontanas is a classic pilgrim village.  Spaniards can't find it.  It exists to serve the Camino and has for hundreds of years.  The parish church is from the 14th century.

We showered, did laundry and then went out to lunch elsewhere in this little town, and something didn't agree with Tina,  so I get to write the blog today!  To tell you the truth, something we ate didn't agree with me either, but I wanted to write this!