Day 13

​Belorado to San Juan de Ortega

We left our hotel at 6:40 AM. The hotel had given us a picnic lunch since we would not be staying for breakfast. It included a sandwich, fruit, Oreos, and water. Nice! We wore our headlamps as we left Belorado as it was still dark outside. We walked through the city and there were a couple of peregrinos already on the Camino.

​The morning was foggy which came as a surprise as the temperature was expected to reach 90 degrees today.  We walked through a couple of small villages, but there was no place to stop for breakfast and coffee. At the third village, Villafranca Montes de Oca, we stopped and had coffee and a tortilla. It wasn’t the best tortilla we’ve had, but we ate it. As we left the village we started a pretty significant incline. I had not really read about what the day would entail, so it was a little surprising.  We continued to climb and the landscape changed from wheat fields to a forest of pine and oak with ferns lining the trail. Once we reached the peak elevation, the trail flattened and the skies cleared. It was lovely, but there were a lot of flies that would not stop pestering us.

We were hiking through the Oca Hills. During the medieval period, this area was known to be a dangerous route rife with thieves and ne’er-do-wells. Legend credits San Juan de Ortega (whose today’s town was named after) for clearing the path and making it safer to travel this piece of the Camino. He was a disciple of San Domingo (the guy who founded the town from a couple of days a go - the village with the German boy and chickens). See how this all fits together? Cool.

In the U.S. there is this notion of “trail angels,” who are folks that support hikers by providing food or anything else they might need. While walking through the forest, we came across the Camino version of trail angels. They were handing out slices of watermelon to each pilgrim passing by. Boy, was it delicious and appreciated!

Our hike today was 15.1 miles and it took us four hours and 52 minutes to complete. With the climb after breakfast, our elevation gain was 1,342 feet.

As this small village basically just serves pilgrims and has very few residents, dinner tonight starts at 7:00 pm. Hopefully we can get to bed early and get eight hours of sleep!

Tomorrow we head to Burgos and then have a much anticipated day of rest.