Day 10: Santo Domingo to Belorado - 22.9km

Chapel on the way out of Santo Domingo

From my mom:
One note from yesterday's Camino. In the church of Santo Domingo there is a chicken coop with a live hen and rooster. You need to read the legend as to why, but as you walk around the cathedral you hear a "cock-a-doodle-doo". Really funny.

Today we left the Paradore at 7:45. I really didn't want to leave because it was so beautiful, but the Camino came calling. Once I get started all is good, but I must admit there was a day or two when I could've slept in! Today we wound our way into the region of Castille y Leon, passing several sweet villages along the route. Population between 20 and 50. Not a whole lot happening to say the least, but beautiful nonetheless. Coming out of Santo Domingo, we met Kelly, originally from the Midwest, now residing in DC. Really nice person and as we walked further we discovered she is a chaplain and worked for many years as a Georgetown chaplain for the college students. She is Catholic, but went through the Protestant seminary. Really fascinating as I never even knew there were Catholic chaplains. Maybe someday the Catholic church will see the light and beautiful women like Kelly will be able to be ordained. Hiking yesterday we met John from the Netherlands and he told me he's been with his husband for 24 years and married for ten in the Protestant church. He said it made his family and his husband's family so happy to have a Christian marriage. So special! Again, I pray along The Way for Catholics to be more accepting. You can not hike out here with any judgment. There is no place for it on the Camino. I'm hopeful that both Steve and I are able to bring this back home with us.


Beautiful sunrise

While walking today we had some trails along the freeway. It was so awesome as so many truckers gave us the toot toot and waved to help us on our way. Steve and I had planned to stop in a little village and get water before entering Belorado, but we missed the spot and were getting hot and tired. We had some nice warm coca cola light and that was about it. We looked at each  other and said we are going to have to grind out these last couple of miles. As we were walking along a truck pulled up next to us and handed out ice cold bottles of water. Steve tried to give him money and he said no. God was with us. It's unbelievable out here. We've decided whether you're hiking 15 miles or 20 miles, the last few are really tough. It starts getting hotter and your legs start getting heavier, but you push through and you make it to the next town.

Steve is thrilled because I am unable to shop out here because there's no way I'm carrying anything more on my back. I did make my first purchase yesterday of a cute little bracelet with two pilgrims. It brought me so much happiness (plus it's really light!).

We arrived at our darling Casa Rural for the night. I think it's about 40Euro/night. The casas are a great bargain when you can find them. We spent the afternoon in front of our Casa visiting with new and old friends. Met a lovely guy from the UK named Richard and another named Phil. Very fun to talk to. Many Europeans do the Camino in sections as its difficult to get so much time from work. Tonight, we really wanted to share a meal with other peregrinos so we went to a local Albergue and met four of the nicest people. A young couple from Ireland and a gal from Australia and one from London. Fun company. We also had time to visit the local church and say some prayers for all of our friends back home
Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!
Steve and Sue

Cruces

Cruces
 

Sheep farm

Friend, Kelly, from DC

Jim lost hit hat!

Freshly baked chocolate croissant

We pounded out the 14 miles today

Gorgeous

This is what we'll be looking at for a few days

 

Belorado Casa para esta noche

Ready for a shower!

 

Church by our casa

 

Mi casa

Our Spanish friends

Phil from Manchester has blisters in just a few days :(

A true pilgrim in Belorado