A little bit more about Merida, and leaving the city

 Hello, everyone.

Earlier posts about the day of the very long walk talked about the church in Aljucen, and a bit about the monks in Alcuescar.

The very beginning of the day was very different from both of those subjects, and we enjoyed the things we saw and learned.

At right, a detail of the aqueduct at Merida. The storks have nests atop the stone construction.

At left, a photo of more of it. The sun was just coming up.

The information sign about the over-2,000-year-old dam. This dam was built to supply, via the aqueduct pictured above, the city of Augusta Merita. Which is now called Merida. The dam still holds water, but the aqueduct is a ruin, so the water doesn't go to the municipal water system anymore.

A view of the waters of the Embalse de Proserpina. There are pretty walking trails along the edge, some of them being sorta-kinda beach accesses. For beaches that are just the native soil of the area, not the sort of artificial sand piles that St. Thomas, USVI, has.

About mid-morning, we passed through El Carrascalejo. The village's community-center bar was just opening, so we stopped and had a bit of rest and cafe con leche.

We did notice that the village seems to be trying to have an albergue for pilgrims to shelter in. If someone had spent the night in Torremejia, and didn't decide to stay at Merida (I don't know why, but some people aren't interested in the historical aspects of the Camino) they might find that El Carrascalejo falls just at the time of day they would like to stop for the night. Though I'm not sure what food availability the village has. Probably someone thinking of that would want to find out, in case they need to pack a picnic dinner from the grocery store in Merida.

If they did stop at El Carrascalejo like that, they would find that the next day, while long, would probably be less than 30 kilometers of walking. They could breakfast at Aljucen and be fresh when walking the Via Pecuaria through the long dimension of the nature area.