Hontanas

Hello, everyone.

We left Burgos early on Monday morning, after putting the room key on the table in the room. (We had asked the night before what they wanted us to do with it, "porque vamos muy temprano.") As usual there wasn't much going on at 6:30 or 7.
We got turned around while following yellow arrows on pavement at one point, and someone saw us and pointed the way. And we saw an old waymarker that was neat looking:

Waymarker on the way out of Burgos. Note the shells on the Cross of Santiago and the top of the pillar.

Shortly we were on the meseta. When I called it the Kansas of Spain a few weeks back, I wasn't joking. We had good weather for all the the meseta walking we did--sunshine, rain that restricted itself to after bedtime, moderate temperatures. (Actually the same temperatures that had been so cold in Pamplona--we had adapted to the 17C and 19C and as long as the sun shone we were fine.)

 The province has improved the pilgrim pathways. The surface is compressed caliche and there are very few rocks sticking up through the surface. I saw a lot of miffed comments in the guidebooks about this. The authors--I particularly noticed it with the Brierly guide--prefer "natural" paths. By which I guess they mean lumpy things with rocks sticking through every which way and unimproved mud surfaces that go to slop if there is rain. I had walked on their "natural paths" already and greatly preferred these. Not having to stress out about where to put my feet was a relief.Being able to stretch out my legs and go my natural pace also felt better than having to perch unsteadily on various rocks while going downhill.

The walk to Hontanas was about 20 miles.

On another subject, I am setting up a shop at Cafe Press so anyone that wants a copy of some of the pictures we took can get one. The Burgos waymarker above is one of the shots I used. The name of the shop is Texas Wanderer on the Camino, if anyone wants to look it up. (And I hope that it actually shows up on a search. I'm still new to all this stuff!)