Burgos to Hontanas 31K Day Eleven

We didn't sleep all that well last night due to the riotous party in the streets and the apprehension of starting the meseta tomorrow. Many people are taking the bus from Burgos to Leon to avoid the meseta, but NOT US! Therese, femme extrordinaire, says others avoid the meseta due to laziness!

As we were leaving the city, we stumbled across this wonderful little bakery where we bought chocolate croissants that were just out of the oven....they were heavenly. We were excited to see the storks nesting in the church belfry as we went by. Elizabeth and Kathy got a little behind the others because we ran into a local man who kept showing us "otro monumento antiguedad". Every time we would try to escape, he would say, "Un momento" and we were too polite to say no. However, I did improve my Spanish in the process. One funny moment in this exchange came when this same man stepped on the toe of his dog. For the next ten minutes, the dog growled and barked at him....as if to say, ¨How could you be such an idiot!¨ Though we were far behind at this point, we had a lot to laugh about.

After 9.6K we stopped for cafe con leche and this beautiful little humming bird lit in the flowers beside us. I immediately felt Victoria's presence. Throughout the afternoon, I continued to feel Victoria presence in the yellow and purple butterflies that kept flitting about. Yellow, the colour of happiness and intelligence, reminded me of Victoria's bubbly personality and her great intelligence. Purple, the colour of lent, reminded me of the suffering that Martha, Ed, and Matthew have had to go through since Victoria's death. Martha, when I drove to your mom and dad's place after Victoria's death, and we embraced each other, I saw pain and sorrow in its rawest form. Your journey has been long and hard and I admire the strength and courage you have shown on your Camino, the hardest one of all.

The meseta is very taxing. The heat is almost unbearable and the slow ascent seems to go on forever. It is like Mexico without the cactus! A real no man's land. After a wonderful picnic just outside Hornillos, Marilyn and Elizabeth decided their feet had had enough for one day and stayed at a wonderful albergue in this town. For the rest of us, the last 10K were gruelling. Monica and Kathy picked up speed toward the end, a case of the primal instinct...the horse smelling the barn. We could see the heat rising from the ground and were actually seeing mirages before we finally arrived. Therese and Linda arrived a bit later to great cheering from the rest of us who were enjoying our cervacas! Linda said the only way she finished was by thinking of umbrella drinks and cabana boys. We are sleeping in a large dorm where we are greatly outnumbered by men. We decided that the only way to cope with the snoring would be to drink a lot of vino for dinner. That did the trick, although Linda and Kathy did have a little trouble getting up to the top bunk!