2012-09-25 Tuesday

2012-09-25 Tuesday

Leon / Villar de Mazarife

Camino day 18. We woke up at 0730. Paulo and I went out at 0800 to have breakfast and to go to the Bank's branch to see if we could get any of the staff that must arrive before the branch opens to the public at 0900 to retrieve his ATM card. We finished our breakfast of coffee and croissant and were at the branch by 0830; there were some employees in there and they opened the door for us. Paulo explained the situation to a clerk, and she quickly retrieved Paulo's card. We went back to our hostal and all left at 0900, to catch a taxi to the outskirts of the town. 

The taxi left us at La Virgen del Camino, a point were the trail bifurcates for the next 2 segments, the main trail one follows a major highway and the other one, a bit longer, goes thorough dirt or single lane roads in the country side. We took the less travelled road. 

A light rain started to fall, we donned our rain gear and started walking at 0930. It was cold and windy, we had to walk briskly to keep warm.  Very few pilgrims on this trail, but soon we met a pilgrim from Barcelona, he was walking with a thin, light poncho, he's name is Toni. We kept bumping into him for the next several days, and we all became good Camino friends. 

Two hours later we arrived at the first village with a bar open, we took a longer than usual break to warm up our tired and cold bodies. It's astonishing how the cold drains your energy. I had to drink two large lattes before I started feeling warm again. The rain stopped, and I took my rain pants off but kept the wind breaker on to protect against the cold and the strong wind (20-30 km/hr) that continued unabatedly. The two large lattes and the cold took their toll, forcing me to frequent pit stops to pee.

It started raining heavily again with even stronger winds when we were about 30 minutes to the destination, and my leg pants got thoroughly wet. I felt cold as a Popsicle, but did not want to stop to put the rain pants on, just accelerated the pace to try to regain some warm. Luckily, the rain stopped in about 20 minutes and, in the short remaining time it took us to arrive at the village, the strong wind dried up my pants. 

We arrived at Villar de Mazarife at 1330. Paulo and I were walking faster than Terry and Nancy, when we got there before them. Our hostal, Pension Tio Pepe is a few blocks off the trail that cuts the village, I stayed there at the trail waiting for Terry and Nancy to arrive while Paulo went to the hostel to check us in. The Honeymooners (we refer to them when making reservations as "novios") are staying in the only room with a private bath, while Paulo and I share a room with the two beds. All the other rooms in the hostel are for multiple people, with bunk beds. 

Erico, arriving in Villar de Mazarife

The Pension Tio Pepe was jam packed, but the warm, noisy, and crowded bar was welcoming. We dropped our packs in our rooms and went down to the bar to eat. First we had to squeeze in a table with some other folks, but then a table for four opened up and we got our own table. x

The Pilgrim's menu (9 Euros) was basic, but tasty, and appropriate for this cold, rainy and windy day: white bean soup with chorizo and bits of ox tail and chicken, cooked in white wine, with fries. Add to that bottled water and a bottle of wine for the four of us. We got an extra bottle, we needed it after this wet and cold day.