Today is a long journey and the walk will the Leon y Castilla region and I will enter Galicia’s mountain.

The walk today was 20.7 miles and a climb of 309 floors, about 2100 ft elevation change.

The initial part of the walk was very pleasant and I discovered the “Sound of Silence”. Let me describe this to you. I was walking on a narrow trail in the woods along the river. There wasn’t any pilgrim ahead or behind me, there was complete silent except for the sound of the river, the singing of birds all around me and a far away sound of a bell from a cow that was grassing. That is my sound of silence and I will never forget that moment.

Al llegar a Herrería, I had climbed about 300 ft of the 2100. I went to a restaurant to have lunch and after seen one of the mountains to climb, my body call an emergency board meeting. My feet made the motion to stop, which was second by my back however the motion was rejected by veto power from the brain on the basis that was too early to quit. So, we went.

During the climb, you are rewarded by amazing views. Here is a sample.

In the top of the mountains you cross to Galicia, where Octopus, calamari and muscle are kings.

Buen Camino

This blog today. Has the Spanish version first and the English version next.

El Blog de hoy tiene la versión en Español primero y luego Inglés.

Hoy fue una larga caminata de más de 29 Km. La ampolla del pie derecho muy bien. La del lado izquierdo como 3 centímetros de diámetro y dolorosa. Pero con todo y eso pude haze la jornada.

El. Lima estaba perfecto y El cielo despejado. Como vamos caminando hacia el Oeste, cuando el sol está presente nos pega en la espalda en la mañana. Hoy no fue exception, y vi mi sombra caminando en frente mío.

Reflexionando hoy en todas la Iglesias de los pequeños pueblos que he visto, estas son las estructuras the mayor altura en el pueblo. Debido a esto, las cigüeñas hacen sus nidos en la torre del campanario.

Reflecting on all the churches that I have seen, since they are typically the tallest structure in the village, the storks built their ness on the bell tower. This church today wasn’t the exception.

Hoy vi, viñero tras viñeros. Me encontré con unas personas trabajando uno de los viñeros y les pregunté del tipo de uva y la edad de las plantas que yo estaba viendo. Me dijo que la uva es Mencia y las plantas tenían más de 120 años. Bueno, plantas con más de 120 años no pueden producir mala uva. El sabor del Mencia es interesante.

Today, I saw vineyard after vineyard. At some point I found a couple of farmer tending the vineyard so I stop and asked them a couple of questions. I asked the type of grape and the age of the vines. He told me that the grape is Mencia (the local grape) and the vines that I was looking at have been in the ground are more than 120 years old. Well, if you are producing grapes with vines that old, your wine is going to be go not matter what!!

El pueblito de Villafranca es hermoso con un hermoso río atravesando el pueblo. Miren la calle Camino Santiago.

The village of Villafranca is a very pretty town with a nice river in the heart of the town. Look at this picture of the Camino Santiago street.

Después de hablar de los viñeros y la edad de las plantas, realmente quería comprar una botella de vino y disfrutarlo. El Albergue donde llegue tenía una buena cocina, así que decidí ir al mercado, comprar para cocinar y beber. Y este fue el resultado.

After talking about the vineyard and the age of the vines, I really wanted to try the wine. The Albergue that I checked in had a nice kitchen, so I decided to make my own dinner. When to the local market and got the essential, of course including the wine. This was the result.

Que les puedo decir, la cena excelente, el vino magnífico y la botella de acabo entre cocinando, comiendo y escribiendo este blog.

Well, what can I said, the dinner was great, the wine fantastic and yes, the bottle was gone by drinking while cooking, when eating and when writing this blog

Buen Camino

I walked this morning thinking that I was going to do a long walk. But the downhill was very challenging and it drain a lot of energy from my leg muscle. Compare the downhill today to the climbs, I’ll take the climbs.

Aside for the downhill, I was walking surrounded by nature the birds were singing and with the exception of the birds, it was silence. My morning prayers during the walk was very satisfying.

Again, this was the beautiful view when I started my walk.

This was such a beautiful day listening to the birds that it brought smile in my face after I finished my prayers

Approaching the city, one thing that I noticed was the color of the building and houses roof. In this town, 98% of the roof top is black.

Ponferrada is also the home of a 12 century Templar castle, it is so beautiful outside and inside. My hotel is next door and my room has the view of the castle.

A good place to stay if you are planning to do El Camino.

Buen Camino

My journey today was full of emotions and pain. I walked a crazy 24.4 miles and climbed to the highest point in El Camino, almost 5000 ft. When I walked out of the Albergue this was the view that welcomed me.

Having this view and knowing that today journey was going to allow me to accomplish a couple of my personal goals, brought a big smile on me that I want share with you, because is the smile that my mother always told me to never loose.

My long way crossed path with a self proclaimed descendant of the Templar, hey, I wasn’t going to argue so we took some pictures together.

At the beginning I said that the day day was emotional and painful. The pain came from along walk with 3 blister, the emotional part was because I was going to meet one of my very important goals. I brought with me two stones. One for my my mother in the name of my sister María and my brother Orlando to say thanks to God for blessing us the best mother in the world. The other rock was in representation of the freedom that all Venezuelan deserve. These rock for part of the Cruz of Ferro rock mountain that will stay there for ever and ever.

These are the rocks:

This is the resting place of the rocks at the base of the cruz and they are going to be there for ever and ever.

This is the mountain where the cruz stand.

After a day like this, finishing with some great wine and a sunset in the mountain is the right way to say good night and Buen Camino.

Hoy fue un día lleno de muchas emociones y dolor. Hoy caminé 38.6 Km. Nunca me imagine que podía caminar tanto, especialmente que hoy llegue al punto más alto del Camino, 1505 metros de altura.

Porque digo un día muy especial, bueno, primero cuando empezar a caminar, este fue el paisaje que me recibió.

La sonrisa que me dio mi madre fue mi compañía y la cual en este peregrinaje me ha permitido hacer muchos amigos.

Luego en el camino conocí a un descendente de los Templares que aceptó tomarse una foto conmigo.

Dije que la caminata de hoy era emocional y de dolores porque hizo toda esa trayectoria con tres ampollas en mis pies. Pero hoy yo quería llegar a La Cruz de Ferro y dejar dos piedras. Una piedra por todos los Venezolanos y la otra para honrar el nombre de mi madre y darle gracias a Dios en el nombre mío y de mi hermana Maria y mi hermano Orlando por habernos darnos la mejor madre que uno pueda desear.

Cuando llegue a la Cruz Estaba solo, pero como son las cosas en El Camino se apeteció otro Peregrino y se ofreció a tomarme fotos.

En este momento oré por los Venezolanos y por mi madre y deje depositada las piedras en la base De la Cruz.

Estas piedras ahora forman parte de este sitio y estarán ahí para toda la vida y los Venezolanos tienen un sitio donde nuestra voluntad de independencia está viva y para mi, mis hermanos, nietos y vis nietos de nuestra madre estara la presencia eterna de Rosa Bello.

Está es la Cruz del Ferro:

Aquí están las piedras que traje de mamá y la de todos los Venezolanos

Cuando escribo esto, estoy descansando, tomandome un vino y disfrutando el atardecer de un dia lleno de emociones, buenas noches y Buen Camino

Hoy caminé despacio tratando de suavizar el impacto a mis ampollas. Caminé 24.3 Km y me sentí bien.

Pase por varios pueblos y hoy fue el primer día que caminé 17 Km seguidos sin descansar.

En uno de esos pueblos, estaban empezando misa y decidir entrar para orar un poco. Estuve en la misa como diez minutos y salí De la Iglesia. Algo interesante de comentar era que en la iglesia solo había gente mayor y Segundo todos estaban lo más lego posible de padre. Cuando salí seguí escuchando el sermón del padre ya que en la torre De la Iglesia tenía megáfonos así que todo el pueblo podía escuchar la misa.

El clima estaba bueno, los pies cómodos y no quise parar hasta Astorga. Bella ciudad con mucho de mostrar. En esta foto desde lejos se ve la ciudad de Astorga

Como muchas ciudades en el camino, en Astorga han puesto al peregrino en estatuas en varios sitios de la ciudad.

Hoy me comí un buen plato paella Valenciana en Astorga mientras miraba la cathedral. Es increíble las estructuras que conseguí en Astorga una es la Cathedral la otra parece un palacio de Disney Land.

Hoy me reuní con amigos de USA que conocí en el camino y pensamos caminar una larga distancia. Veré como se sienten mis ampollas mañana.

Mañana, es un día emocional porque se cumple uno de mis objetivos en la Cruz de Ferro ( Mañana les cuento más detalles de esto).

Buen Camino

Today was another 18.3 miles enjoying new pain. This time it came from the blisters in my two feet. The pain of my feet took over my consciousness, so any other pain disappeared.

There are a lot of storks in the are of Castilla y León. I have observed many ness before Leon and after Leon.

Interesting enough, I also ran into the biggest concentration of Crow ness that I have ever seen, there were at least 200 ness. Now, image how noisy was this area.

The entrance to the village of Hospital de Órbigo is a beautiful ancient Roman Bridge that was built on top of another even older Roman Bridge. I have walked through so many Roman bridges or a Roman built road that I lost count. This in particular is very interesting and has a great ancient story. This bridge is very famous, not only for its age but because the famous jousting tournament that took place here in 1434. A noble knight from Leon, Don Suero de Quiñones threw down a challenge to any knight who dared to pass as he took to defend the bridge. Knight from every where came and Don Suero successfully defended the bridge for a month until the required 300 lances had been broke. He then went to Santiago to offer thanks.

Hoy, caminé muy poco, solo 17 Km. Estoy tratando de aliviar el impacto de las ampollas que tengo en ambos pies. Compre nuevas plantillas para mis botas esta mañana. Con toda las caminatas, me comí el talón de las plantillas lo que ayudó a la formación de las ampollas.

Leon es una ciudad bella con mucha comida, especialmente tapas. Ayer me conseguí con el grupo de amigos que conocí al principio del camino. Comimos callos, caracoles, ancas de rana, lengua, etc, etc. La cathedral de Leon es increíble.

Fui al museo y vi muchas reliquias incluyendo una biblia del año 920, muchas estatuas de l virgen María de más de 800 años de su construction.

En una capilla de la catedral oré por largo tiempo. Me recordé de la oración del padre Roberto Sipols. Oré para que todos los Venezolanos volvamos hacer hermanos y se acabe la violencia, oré para que se establezca un nuevo gobierno, oré para que el nuevo vivieron se enfoque en lo que es importante para el pais y su gente y que dejen aún lado sus objectives personales y venganzas, oré para que la prosperidad regrese a Venezuela y su gente.

Today, I nursed my blisters and I only walked 12 miles to a village outside Leon.

Before leaving Leon I visited the Cathedral and the museum. It is an amazing cathedral dated from the 1200.

In a chapel in the cathedral I was able to pray this morning before leaving Leon. I prayed remembering a prayer from father Roberto Sipols that a friend from my time at the university shared with me a couple of days ago.

Father Sipols encouraging everyone to pray for the unity of all Venezuelan and eliminate all the negative that exist today. I prayed that Venezuela gets a change that is needed in a peaceful way and that the new government focus on the priorities on the country and its people rather than their personal agendas. I prayed for all The kids of Venezuela abroad for a quick return to help rebuild the country. I prayed to eliminate the violence in the country and to help the prosperity for the country and its people.

This chapel was very special with a Virgin Mary in the middle of the altar holding the dead body of Jesus.

Today I took a long walk with my sandal to nurse my well earned blister. One of the pilgrim at the Albergue gave me Compeet which is an European type bandage to help with blister. I can say that it does wonders. I will buy more to have with me in the future.

During the walk to Leon today, I had the mountain range to my right side (north) all day, they seem to proud to display their snow cap.

It was another day for reflection and to pray for friends and family in need.

I was able to meet Steve and the other lads in Leon and we did what the local do, drink beers and eat tapas. We had some interesting tapas like “caracoles” (Spanish version of escargot), callos (cow stomach bits), piernas de rana ( frog legs) and other exotic food.

I am now in Leon, check in a hotel with a bath and I am getting ready to take a deep bath

Buen camino