October 9, 2001
Burgos- Hontanas (cold morning/clear warmer afternoon)
17.5m/28km - 176.2m/293.2km

This morning I wake up homesick, which takes the form of missing my 11 year old niece and my dog. I do not miss anyone else the way I miss them. I have been wondering why this is so and I think it is because they love me unconditional. I love them back in the same way. Why is unconditional love so easy with children and animals?

As we walk through the streets of Burgos, I am thinking about my dog and hear the sound of a dog barking above me. I look up at a balcony across the street and see my dog (same breed) standing up there looking straight at me. Her tail is wagging and she has a big smile on her face. The dog barks one more time and then disappears inside the building. I feel better.

Good walking today, gradual hills and then a mesa. Bleak in the morning but beautiful in the afternoon. J was walking behind us for a bit today and when he caught up with us he asked if we had seen the shepherd a little ways back. We said no but we had heard the sound of sheep bells from the hillside. J tells us he watched a lamb being born. The shepherd was saluting everyone who walked by with a drink to celebrate and since some other lambs had been born already, the guy was feeling pretty good when J got there.

We walk 12.5m/20km this morning and I am surprised by how fast the time and distance passed. We reach Hornillos de Camino at lunchtime and by then my feet are killing me. They were fine yesterday and I think that was because I walked without a pack most of the day. A very hospitable man runs the bar where we eat and we have a relaxing enjoyable lunch. The hour's rest plus the food and drink do me a world of good.

Three miles/5km outside Hornillos we come to Arroyo de San Bol, which has a hot springs that supposedly will cure any foot problems you have if you soak you feet in it, and a refugio. We detour to it but find the refugio closed and the spring to be a small nasty looking puddle in the ground. I am relieved by this because I have been leery about hot springs since my husband returned with a rash on the lower half of his body after taking a dip in one up in Wyoming.

Hontanas is a surprise. Really. It is below the mesa and you are on top of it before you see it. It is another one of those towns that look deserted. No people, dogs, cats, or cars. We make our way slowly down to it and walk a street of shuttered windows and closed doors until we reach the refugio. There the door is invitingly open and a few pilgrims are lounging on benches in front. There are two portable clothes drying racks near the benches and after I see them I decide this would be a good place to do a little laundry.

This place is great. It is an old building that has been renovated and has a kitchen, shower, pop machine, coffee machine, and (best of all) lots of hot water. A two story tall Plexiglas wall has been placed inside the building a few inches from one outer wall and through it you can see the original wall of the building. After taking showers and doing our laundry we join the other pilgrims sitting outside and watch the shadow from our building climb up the wall of the building across the street. We are sitting in the shade and I slowly get cold.

After about 20 minutes J asks if I want to take a walk around town. I'm in. First, because I know it will be warm me up and second, because now once I start walking it is hard to stop. Resting for a bit is OK but I now feel antsy when I am not walking. We wander through the empty village and find a large shallow pool that looks like it may have been used for clothes washing. It is beside a brick wall that has a stone ledge across the length of it and, above the ledge, there are sections of line attached to some of the bricks. I can see the village women gathering here to do their laundry in the past and gossiping on the ledge while the wet clothes they hang up dry. J and I sit on the ledge in the sun with our backs against the bricks and absorb the warmth radiating from them.

This refugio serves an evening meal. We join the other pilgrims on benches around two long tables and are served family style. Plates of food are put on the tables and passed around. I look at the people sitting at my table and wonder if I look as tired as they do, I hope not. After a couple of glasses of wine, I don't care whether I do or not.