Pajares, September 18

Last night we were down to four people in the albergue and one of them wants to walk farther today, but we have one who walked from Pola de Gordon, so we still have four tonight. So far, I have met only Spanish pilgrims and all of them seem to be very competent hikers with no problems. I have no blisters and do not expect any, but my usual problem is happening with toenails. So far, two are loosening or turning blue and I will probably lose them. No one that I have met here speaks more than a few words of English, so my limited repertoire of Spanish is getting a workout. I know I'm messing up my verb endings and my vocabulary is limited, but I try. Plus they speak so fast and my hearing is not so good, so that adds to my problem. It's funny, but the new pilgrim here tonight remembered me from the Camino Primitivo two years ago. It's a small world!

Today's walk was a shorter one at 8 1/2 miles, but it was all most all either steep uphill the first half of the walk or steep downhill on the last half. The trail was covered in small loose stones and little clumps of stickery bushes, which did not help. Going downhill on the real steep parts is almost as hard as uphill. Uphill gets you breathing hard and your heart pumping. But downhill can be very hard on the knees and leg muscles, and for me, the toes and toe nails.

Anyway, the scenery was very beautiful. We passed the highest elevation on the Camino San Salvador at 4800 feet. Also we left the province of Castilla y Leon and are now in the province of Asturias. And have completed just over half of the 120 km. camino. I am aiming to be in Oviedo in two more days.

I was lucky to find wi-fi last night, but I searched the whole village to see if I could find a signal and there are no unsecured ones. So this will post at least a day late. The only cafe is closed for their vacation, but the hospitelera cooked three of us a good meal of lentejas con chorizo (cooked lentils with chorizo sausage), salad, pork chops, bread and wine.

Tomorrow will be a longer walk at about 16 miles, but will be mostly downhill and into a larger town.

The mountain pass on the road going into
asturias. The pass that we walked over on the trail was higher yet