Feasting

Santo Domingo to Belorado (Sunday, June 6th Feast of Corpus Christi)

I can´t wait to post pictures for today when I get a chance! This was a great day for a walk, though my feet are tired. Stella and I rose early, about 5:30, from our beds at the Cistercian alburgue in Santo Domingo. It was already raining lightly and there were a few ominous rumbles of thunder which, fortunately turned out to be nothing. Half of our bunkroom mates decided to sleep past the normal 6 am waking, probably because of the nice steady drip of rain outside the window, and even though we could have turned on the lights, we were trying to be nice. It certainly makes packing harder. One of the many things I´m grateful for and think of daily - is my dresser at home that I don´t have to pack and unpack everytime I turn around.

(These are a wayside chapel and the bridge as we leave Santo Domingo.) Anyway, we step out onto the street in our ponchos. Fortunately, it is just a mist that will continue most of the time we walk today.

We are going 23 km to Belorado, through about 4 smaller towns and mostly rural areas. The low-hanging clouds cover the tops of the local hills.

We are back into prettier countryside than we have been for the last couple of days. It is all agricultural, mostly wheat, some sheep. The varying shades of green in the mist are lovely. The wheat is still green here, but sort of a soft gray green. I love the way poppies grow so abundantly around the edges of the field but are mixed in everywhere.

In one of the small towns, they have even decorated the sewer covers in a scallop shell pattern!









We stop at a couple of local churches that are open. It is amazing how much beauty and stunning art work was created, even for these tiny villages, several hundred years ago. I take some pictures in one of them and then walk out only to see the ¨No fotographica!¨sign and feel very bad, but can´t take them back. There was a window in the church with the scallop shell.

I started the day walking with Stella, but then walked by myself for awhile before walking with a man at least 15 or 20 years my senior named Vincent from Turino (Turin) Italy. He walked at a fast, steady pace, with no breaks and my feet are tired! I should have taken some breaks; I do better when I do.

When I was talking about animals before, perhaps I mentioned how much Spaniards love their dogs. But they do not seem to love their cats. There are the most pathetic looking cats I have ever seen on the streets of these towns and cities. And then there are the snails, everywhere on these open country roads. Before I started walking with Vincent, outside one of the small towns today, because it was so damp, there was a man picking up the snails in big brown shells. He already had buckets full, so I suppose he was planning on taking them into town to sell them. I asked him if it was for escargot (I think the Spanish call it something similar). He responded with something I didn´t understand but I think included some form of "escargot." So I simply reiterated, "Comida? (Food?)" I speak Spanish on an extremely gifted level! He nodded yes. I have tried escargot and was not impressed. It's a texture thing, I suppose. Personally, I find garlic and butter just as gratifying, actually, much more so, on bread, or spaghetti. Or any number of other things. Especially now after having seen so many of these little guys crawling across my path. And I have pictures of them for you too, eventually.

So I arrive in Belorado. There are signs for a number of alburgues and I know nothing about any of them and just pick one to head towards. My first indication that something is either different or special about this town today is that I run into these two little boys dressed as they are. The Feast of Corpus Christi is not on the Episcopal calendar, and so I didn't remember why it should be such a special day. I briefly thought about my 'men in tights' with the cuckoo clock idea, but these two are clearly not large enough to be pushing a cuckoo clock all across Spain! So I am alert for more going on as I proceed towards the alburgue I've picked, and I begin to see others in medieval costume as well. It looks promising! I also begin to hear music from somewhere. I check in to the parish alburgue which is a strictly no frills alburgue. There´s barely space next to my bunk to set my backpack upright. I'm here early enough to have my choice of bunks, so I choose the one by the window so I can get some air. As a "young" person (it's all relative, isn't it? :)), I have been asked to climb up to a top bunk! Stella, who was behind me a few km, and doesn't know where I've checked in, ends up picking a better place, just around the corner.

We meet up on Plaza Mayor where the festival for the Feast of Corpus Christi is in full fling. I am having a few tapas (one is croquettes of something like ham salad and the other is fried thin buttered toast with crab salad on top) with a glass of the local white wine when I see Stella. I have just met a lovely couple from France. She is making her fourth Camino. She did her first on her 60th birthday in 2007. Her husband has done 7 and he is 73. She said, ¨He is like a steam engine to follow!¨ They reminded me of some couple I know, I think in the diocese. They were going on yet, another 6 km to Tosantos, where there is supposed to be a really nice alburgue - I guess when you do this a number of times, you really get to know where the good places are!

Stella and I explore all the wonderful booths. The whole Plaza is decorated with banners and such and many of the locals are dressed as if they were in medieval times. There is an especially festive service at the church next to where I am staying that starts with a small band procession. One little girl must be having first communion because she is dressed almost as a tiny bride in a long white dress with a wreath of white flowers in her hair.

Back in the town square, there are games for the kids, like walking on stilts, and big hay bales that they love jumping and playing in. There are also many booths vending the local wares of goat cheese, salamis and other cured meats, wines, olives, white asparagus, peppers, fresh vegetables, pastries and breads. Some have samples - yumm! I buy some lavendar soap to ward off any potential bed bug problems in my sleeping bag. There are 3 men in costume working as blacksmiths shooing a horse. There are also handmade jewelry and leathergoods, beeswax and pottery. Altogether a wonderful surprise to come upon this day.

Now back to the alburgue to put my feet up and meet Stella for dinner in a little while! We end up having dinner at Stella's alburgue and it is wonderful. They have a back dining room and there are several other guests that join us. Nothing fancy, just hearty fare with the local red wine. Good bread. Who could ask for more on the Feast of Corpus Christi than bread, wine and companions on the journey as we give thanks for the hands which have prepared it?