Day 16: Carrión de los Condes - Terradillos de los Templarios

To our surprise, we woke up to a white scenery: there were 1-2cm of snow outside and it was snowing! And it snowed for most of the way.

Because of all the snowing we couldn't take many photos, so most of these were taken with Fiona's camera (thanks Fiona!). Also, the strong wind was blowing the snow right to our faces, so we couldn't even look much elsewhere than down.. Yep, when snowflakes hit your eyes it really hurts!

After about 17km of this we finally reached a small village were we could have a rest at a bar. Some really hot café con leche and colacao makes wonders. By that time Fiona was soaked so she decided to call it a day. We were tired, but carried on until Terradilla de los Templarios, 9km ahead.

When we left the bar the weather had turned to better. No more wind, no more snow, just some raindrops here and there.





At Terradillos a hot shower and a warm meal latter that day revitalized us.

Day 15: Boadilla del Camino - Carrión de los Condes

This was an almost uneventful day today. We started by walking next to a big canal until Frómista.







Later, in Población de Campos, we found Fiona seating at a bar. Basically the Ucieza river had flooded following all the rain and snow of the night before, making it impossible to continue our walking. But the locals seemed quite confident that the water level would lower in a couple of hours, so we sat, ate some bocadillos with colacao and waited. And after an hour or so after our arrival at the bar, we were able to continue.





And so our day carried on until Carrión de los Condes.

Day 14: Hontanas - Boadilla del Camino

After a well rested night, we left the albergue on empty stomachs, as there was nothing open in Hontanas at 8:15 and we hadn't bought anything for breakfast on the day before. So we headed to Castrojeriz, 9km away.





Fortunately, the only open place we found at Castrojeriz, La Taberna, was great. We had the best hot chocolate we have ever had, some toast and, to finish it off, the owner offered us some caldo de morcilla on the house. He was very friendly and said that the caldo would give us the energy we needed to face the camino (as if the thick hot chocolate wasn't enough already!).



After Castrojeriz we ascended to another high plateau. The view from up there was indescribable. Seriously, my knowledge of the English vocabulary doesn't suffice to express what I felt looking down from that spot. I think even in my native Portuguese language I would have trouble doing it, if I tried.


Then we descended on the other side of the plain (to an equally fabulous view), walking through an infinity of fields until the next village

Luckily, today we didn't find much mud on the way, as Fiona gladly pointed out (she was walking about 10km ahead of us).


After about 28km we arrived at Boadilla del Camino. We preferred the municipal albergue (without heating) to the private one due to the price (4€ instead of 10€ each), but since it started snowing a few hours later in the afternoon, we weren't really sure on how wise that choice was.

We ended up sleeping with three blankets on top of our sleeping bags.. It wasn't very comfortable, but at least we saved some money!

Day 13: Rabé de las Calzadas - Hontanas

We started the day with a great breakfast at the albergue with Fiona. The weather forecast was scary: wind, rain, a fair share of cold. Luckily the rain didn't show up while we were walking.




Not many kms from our starting point, we had an awesome sighting. I was looking at some vultures in the distance when I saw some motion in the hills below them: it was a group of deers that had spotted us and were running way to the other side of the hill! They were like two kms away, but I was still able to capture them on camera. A few kms afterwards Luís spotted a red fox on a hill not too far away, but I wasn't able to take its photo.



It was the first day of the Meseta, a huge plain in altitude, extending for hundreds of kms. That means walking almost always straight ahead, with not much to distract you from the constant walking, so it can become really mentally tiring. And to add to that, we also crossed some of the worst mud paths so far. It was awfully sticky, and no matter how many times we tried to get it off, our feet would weight a ton again after walking another 20 meters.



So when we arrived at Hontanas, only about 18km away from Rabé, we felt we needed a decent rest from the mud and the wind. We ate the best bocadillos de tortilla so far, freshly made, and then a hot shower and a nap at the albergue.

Day 12: Cardeñuela Riopico - Rabé de las Calzadas

With only 1,94€ in our pocket, we left for Burgos with not much in our stomachs. We fought a bit of mud as we were approaching the airport, but nothing we're not used to by now.



First stop in Burgos.. ATM!! I think now we both give much more value to the money we carry. Next stop: someplace to eat. I don't know why, but we crossed the entire city while looking for the right place to stop. Almost out of choices, we entered a little "panadería" that really didn't got much to choose from, but luckily we found a "Mercadona" a few hundred meters away. And lastly we entered a municipal library were we warmed up and accessed the internet for a moment.






When we left the library and started walking again, surprise surprise: we found Fiona! For those of you wondering, Fiona is an Australian girl that I met on the forums a few months ago and that is walking to León. She started in Logroño one day ahead of us, but we caught up with her.


Resuming: we found her! So we talked for a bit and then we went our separate ways, but only to get together again in the albergue at Rabé de las Calzadas. In between we also met an American guy who was going to Finisterra on his bike.


Arriving at the albergue there was already another guy checking-in. He caught my attention when he said to the hospitalera that he was Portuguese. Actually, Higino is Luso-Angolan but has been living in Spain for quite a few time, teaching at an university in León.

The albergue was great, it had a little room with a fireplace where we could hang out. We even played a bit of dominoes (I won, by the way)! The internet connection was awful though, slow to the point of non-existent, so we got down to the bar which was much better.



We had been with Fiona in the bar for an hour or so when Higino arrived and started ordering drinks and food for everyone. It was almost unbelievable. We had red wine, cheese, chorizo, olives, pickles, crisps.. We stayed in the bar for hours, talking, eating and drinking too much for our own good! And Higino insisted in paying for it all. We'll get the next round!