Our Half-Speed Camino
Charlie and Wynette. We were hanging around by this bar this morning and Wynette took the above picture. The man had been clowning for our camera, then he came over and pretty much grabbed Charlie’s phone and insisted on taking our picture. A town worker was walking by and the guy insisted he be in the picture, too. He thought the man worthy to be in the picture because he worked for the ayuntamiento, the city government. Everyone knows everyone in Atapuerca.
The people are so great here.
Wynette. Our friend Rebecca commented on our DAY 15 post photo of above beautiful golden/labrador(?), but, before we saw the comment, we deleted the post because it was a duplicate. (Sometimes WordPress does strange things. We changed picture for that post to use it here.) Rebecca had commented OMG, what a beautiful sad-looking dog. Do you see many of them along the way? Do any pilgrims bring along dogs for the journey? She’s just gorgeous & very majestic.
Yes, Rebecca, isn’t she beautiful? Very sweet. We were having a snack on a park bench and it was clear she would gladly accept some of our food (we resisted). But her begging was low-key. She lay at our feet for a while while we ate. We’ve seen lots of family dogs along the way. Most are off-leash and muy tranquilo. Sometimes we pass a dog on leash or behind a fence barking at us. We’ve never felt threatened.
Charlie saw a couple who were doing the pilgrimage with their dog. They appeared to be having a hard time finding a place to stay. I imagine they are prepared to sleep outdoors for the times there is no place that will welcome their dog. We haven’t seen any others doing the Camino with their dog.
The dog in photo below (can you spot him?) lived at our last night’s albergue. I bet he was aware of us, but he didn’t move or open his eyes when we put our backpacks on the bench. So many strangers pass through his world.
Wynette. It was a few days ago but I wanted to post this before too much time passes. We stayed in a beautiful, peaceful, pretty much perfect hotel in Ventosa named Las Aguedas. The owner cooked a dinner for her guests. There were 4 couples. In above photo, front to back, they were from Seattle, Albuquerque, Plymouth, England, and Albuquerque! The other Albuquerque couple had been hearing about another Albuquerque couple and vice versa. The photo was taken after the simple, delicious meal of salad and paella and tangerine ice cream, made by a local ice cream maker. The Seattle couple asked the owner to join us for dinner but she graciously turned down the invitation. She said she couldn’t eat at 7:00, when our dinner was starting. She had to wait till at least 10:00. We were grateful she didn’t make us wait till 10:00. Well I’m sure she knew she wouldn’t get many takers for such a late dinner, at least from North American peregrinos. (Actually I don’t think any other country eats as late as the Spanish.)
Charlie relaxing in living room of Hotel Las Aguedas:
The three are so different.
We have started seeing this symbol on markers, always in the opposite direction of the yellow arrows.
This made me think about the sheriff pondering the painted cattle guards in the Milagro Beanfield War.
