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| Oak Savanna |
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| Goat, nosh nosh |
Again the walk was mostly through Holm oak savannas, and again it was hot. Early enough in the day that we were still interested in such things, we saw a bunny. It ran across the trail and crouched in some grass, motionless and hiding. After a few moments it realized we were watching -- trying to hide wasn't working -- so it gave a leap, crawled under a fence and bounded away. Like the Via Podensis and the Via Frances animal sightings have been rare (aside from cows. sheep, goats, dogs, and town cats) so watching the bunny was a nice little interlude.
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| Galisteo |
In the Bunny Region, for several kilometers we walked along a tall, extra heavy double fence with security cameras on tall poles. It was a private hunting preserve, but even with the fence the bunny managed to escape. We didn't see anything behind the fence, but with all the security I suspect it was an area for staged hunts of exotic animals (bunny hunts perhaps a free extra). Whatever it is it's a very exclusive area.
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| These were steeper than they look |
About 1pm we arrived at Galisteo which, with its wall, is an interesting village. The town dates to Roman times and the town wall is intact from the Moors in the 13th century. The ramparts are particularly interesting as they haven't had any new gates cut through them. They are as they were in the beginning. You can climb stone stairs and walk the ramparts, pretend you're going to repel the Christians or whoever needs repelling, or don't pretend, just enjoy the view and wonder how you're going to get down. The stairs are steep, narrow, straight, and 35 feet high with no railing We were hot, tired, and encumbered with packs and walking sticks, so the climb was sort of scary (hands were involved in the climb).
dw: "How are we going to get down?"
DJA: "Unless we find something better, I'm going to tie my sticks to my pack and back down. I'm sure not going to try to just walk down."
As we walked the wall we found a different staircase with a railing -- we were much relieved.
The town was very quiet, pleasant, and except for the wall undistinguished, but it does have a church sporting a weird steeple.
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| The pointy steeple is stuck on top of the square steeple |
This day was particularly hot (dw's bete noir), but sitting for awhile in shade allowed her to recover. One bar was open where dw asked the bartender to call a taxi for us. We had been told the next 7K to our stop for the night (Carcaboso) was along a very narrow shoulder less road -- As the taxi driver said: "Muy pelegroso!" and indeed it was. We felt a bit guilty about calling a cab as the VdlP is supposed to be a walk rather than a ride, but the cab's air-conditioning quickly put paid to such feelings, and besides, the ride was only 7K.
I conducted a small, informal survey concerning a favorite dessert: flan. The best to this point was at Aldea Del Cano, Bar Las Vegas -- I gave it a 4 out of 5, leaving room to go higher. Grimaldo: 2 out of 5, little caramel and watery -- it got a 2 only because I needed room to go lower. Carcaboso: 3 out of 5 -- good flavor and caramel but oddly lumpy.
The legs at the foot of the bed in Carcaboso's albergue were set back two feet. Good for not stubbing your toes, but when I forgot and sat on the foot, the head would spring up and hurl the pillows at the back of my head -- it was like a poltergeist attack.
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| Roman bridge |
Along with the granite-block trail markers, there are the common yellow arrows, and an occasional large (a ton or more) granite slab with information about the area and the trail. The info is usually (and unusually) translated into English. Extremadura went to a great deal of trouble to renovate, mark, and maintain the VdlP. This portion of the trail has little of the splendid natural scenery that other Caminos have but the trail is consistently interesting with a great deal of history on display and each day's scenery is subtly different. There are so many bits and pieces of ruins that the guide books only discuss the larger sites. ("Oh, that old thing? That's just a 2000 year old Roman bridge. See one, you've seen them all.")
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| Much of the facing has been lost, and the top is heavily eroded |
We arrived at Caparra, site of the symbol of the VdlP: a monumental four sided arch (c.100 A.D.) From photos we had seen, I expected the arch to be an isolated one off, but there are ruins of a significant Roman town. The site has been excavated and developed with walk-ways, large glass platforms elevated above the ruins and good information plaques. The whole thing is in the middle of nowhere which is possibly why it was abandoned.
(A couple of toga-clad Romans walking down a hot dusty street: "Man, why the hell did we build a town here?" "I dunno. Why don't we just leave?" So they did.)
Again we called for a ride. This time to the Asturias hostel -- a common pilgrim ploy as the hostel is several Ks off the camino (and the ride is free -- provided by the hostel). This particular ride didn't save any walking distance as the next day we needed to walk back to the camino. I was glad for the ride as I was sick. I put on my warmest clothes, wrapped myself in a blanket and shivered as dw was comfortable sitting in her skivvies and reading. I had no appetite and suffered greatly though bravely. I soaked the sheets with night sweats (the poor room maid) but the next day I felt better and with two subsequent short walking days recovered fully.
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| Hervas |
Further along we again left the camino proper (walking this time) to visit Hervas, the site of an ancient Jewish village. It proved to be one of the more interesting villages on the VdlP. The old town was built on rock outcroppings so buildings commonly have visible bed rock as part of their foundations. The streets have natural speed-bumps as the bed rock was only partly chipped away. Many of the streets are so narrow dw could spread her arms and touch buildings on both sides and the alleys were so narrow my shoulders touched both sides. Cramped quarters.
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| Hervas |
As we wandered around, we heard drumming so we headed for the sound and caught a parade in honor of Diane (some local thing, not dw). We arrived at a small square and watched the parade form up. A small band accompanied the drums, followed by a ten foot tall king and queen (big paper mache heads with a cloth body -- person inside) -- as they started to march, ten other men donned other large paper mache heads and a 10 year old boy in a red costume ran around (pleased with whatever role he played). It was a fun parade that left us clueless as we couldn't tell if it was in honor of Diane The Huntress, Ste. Diane (?), or some other Diane or Diann
e.
The same day we continued on to Banos de Montemayor where we stopped for the night. Banos has been a place to "take the waters" since Roman times. We didn't see anyplace that offered walk-in massages (particularly for our feet) so we didn't indulge but there were many older people wandering around with canes, walkers, or wheel chairs dressed in bathrobes so it seems there was opportunity for healthful massages and baths. Banos is an attractive town though there wasn't much going on if you weren't taking the waters. Many stores were closed when we did our paseo but still we could have bought a few tatty souvenirs ha
d we wanted, and we did find an open grocery and two open bars. Even though we were massage less we went to bed
happy.
TRIVIA: The name Spain derives from the Latin Hispania which in turn probably derives from the Phoenician "i-shephan-I'm" ; meaning "island, or coast of rabbits". Rabbits were endemic to the Iberian peninsula but weren't commonly found elsewhere until the Phoenicians began exporting them from Spain. Proof of Spain as Europe's first rabbit warren is a 2.5 million year old fossil of a rabbit found near Granada.
A WORD:
Spanghew -- to strike and cause to fly in the air, especially frogs and toads
ANIMALS: A beaver has such sharp teeth that American Indians once used them for knives (just the front teeth, not the whole animal), and a beaver's butt is supposed to smell like vanilla. I don't think I will ever check that out.
And so it goes. DJA
