Sunshine Makes Us Lazy

I’ve been taking it easy out of Burgos. Our walks the last few days have been miles and miles of the flat plains on the plateau of central Spain, known as the Meseta. There is very little shade, and we walk along dirt roads with crackled mud and geckos darting about. The usually cloudless horizon is met by endless grass fields. The repetitive scenery makes hard to feel like I am making any progress at all.

This morning we procrastinated the inevitable and didn’t leave town until 11. We only made it 3k before the shade and beer at a roadside albergue won us over for our first break. While savoring the shade a little black pup peeked out from the corner of the building and excitedly bounded over to us after we started cooing at her. I have been missing my own four-legged best friend the last couple days and I think this pup could pick up on that. She returned the belly scratches with loving licks and happily chased the stick I was throwing up and down the driveway. Nothing flips around moral like a good dose of pup. We continued on, passing more fields and hiding from the same sun until lunchtime when we stopped at an albergue that advertised “a paradise with no wifi”. The place was complete with hammocks, a slack line, free roaming donkeys, a pond and ducks, art covering every wall, and the tunes of Bob Marley coming from the bar. The host grinned and danced his way around the property, making conversation with the handful of pilgrims there and loving up the donkeys who were obviously fond of him as well. After eating lunch, taking a yoga break, and sipping beer in the hammocks, we realized that a few hours had snuck away from us. Off we went in the late afternoon heat. We took an alternate route that went along a small river so that we could avoid walking along the road. It was a little longer but completely worth it; we couldn’t resist the cool water. I was too excited running in that I slipped on the muddy, grassy riverbank and end up on my butt in the river. I swam up the stream and floated the current back down over and over while Harry, not fortunate enough to fall in, inched his way into the water. After our refreshing dip it was 5 pm and we still had 10k to go until the town we were aiming for. 10 hot, dry, roadside kilometers. We finally got into town around 7 and devoured bacon, egg, and beef hamburgers that felt as big as my face. A day that began with low moral turned out to be filled with smiles, and this unpredictability seems to be everywhere on the Camino.