Day 3 - Astorga to Foncebadón

21 September 2018

16.9 miles in 7 hours 11 minutes (including breaks)

Today's journey took us from the big city of Astorga and into the mountains. Cooler temperatures as we gained altitude meant we sweat far less today than in previous days, but our legs took a beating as we climbed to near the highest point on the Camino de Santiago.

We continued walking through ancient villages and into mountain greenery as we left the flat and hot 'meseta' (central plateau of Spain) and moved closer to the region of Galicia and our final destination of Santiago de Compostela. We are now 45 miles into our journey to Santiago de Compostela - only 155 miles left to go!

Tomorrow takes us down the other side of the mountains in a steep descent that threatens to be even more brutal than today's climb. We bought trekking poles tonight to help take the weight off our legs during our descent.

So far we have had no injuries, and for that we give thanks.

Progress Map

Our days on the trail start before the sun is up. This shot was taken today about 7:45 a.m. while the town still slumbered. We had already walked 2 miles before the sun came up around 8:30.

Villages are located about 3 miles apart all along the Camino, and every village has their own humble little Romanesque-style church that was built 800 to 1,000 years ago. Most churches, like this one in the village of El Ganso, have stork nests on top.

The interior of these Romanesque-style churches is simple and basic, far different than the enormous Gothic-style cathedrals in León and Astorga that were built a few hundred years later.

Sadly, most of these small villages are slowly turning into ghost town since young people have fled to the big cities for jobs. Former now-abandoned homes, like this one in El Ganso, are a common sight throughout much of northern Spain.

Abandoned homes, like this one, outnumber the occupied homes. In many villages, the only residents are senior citizens.

Photo of the entryway in a now-empty home.

People used this metal door knocker instead of a doorbell in this now-vacant home.

Due to the number of foreign pilgrims (Germans, French, Australian, and American), some businesses thrive. This was a very unusual cowboy cantina we passed today serving beer and food to foreign pilgrims passing through.

As we continued our upward ascent today, the vegetation got greener and greener. This shady oak forest was such a welcome relief to us since we had previously spent 2 days walking through dry, hot flatlands.

Blackberries (called 'moras' in Spanish) grow wild along many of the paths. Whenever we got hungry, we stopped and picked and ate this sweet 'trail treat'.

Groups of wildflowers blossomed in this early fall weather.

Even the daisies were in bloom as we got higher and higher into the mountains.

Knights provided the only form of law enforcement and protection in medieval Spain. This local man dressed in his outfit and brought his eagle to the Camino to show support for the pilgrims passing by.

The man offered to let me hold and pet his eagle. So I dropped my pack, put on the handling glove, and got to hold the bird.

In the village of Rabanal, Sandy posed as a pilgrim woman, dressed as they had for centuries during the middle ages. Pilgrims often traveled anciently in groups of men and women for safety  and support.

The ancient village of Rabanal is shown here. Note the addition of a clock on the church tower. This was a much-later addition. Only churches in big cities had enough money initially to install something as extravagant as a clock.

The higher we got, the more green it became. Surprisingly, we have never gotten lost (yet) due to the signs marking the trail.

When we finally reached our destination village of Foncebadón, Sandy saw this place and excitedly said, "I  hope this isn't our hotel!" It is actually the crumbling boarded-up remains of an original pilgrim hostel built centuries ago.

Our hotel was actually a really nice place. We ate dinner in the hotel, and I ordered "Pisto," a very traditional Spanish dish made with egg, rice, and lots of tomatoes, green, and red peppers. It tasted a lot like Mexican huevos rancheros.

This shot from our hotel window in Foncebadón shows the region we crossed to get to this high spot on our pilgimage (4,700 ft. elevation). We hope the remainder of our Camino goes as smoothly as these first 3 days. These clear and sunny days have been great for walking. Sunshine is the forecast for the next 10 days. Hooray!