We
wake up to the cockcrow in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. Fortunately, Paca’s
foot wound is not infected and it only hurts a little bit. We leave Santo
Domingo at twenty past six in the morning and at once we take the new
tracks and head for Grañon.
Surprisingly,
we can have a hot breakfast in a bar at Grañon. When we leave the village
a son of a bitch had changed the direction of a yellow arrow that was
painted on a small stone beside a crossroads. As a consequence more than
thirty pilgrims drift for almost two hours. When we realise we are lost we
look at our maps and we arrive at a village named Bascuñana. From there
we walk along a lost track blanketed with weeds towards Viloria, where we
recover the right route.
In
Viloria we have a can of lemonade with some of the lost pilgrims: the Five
Alpines, Miguel and his daughter Salo.
The
stage, which was short, increased by ten kilometres. If only the thirty
pilgrims’ blisters pop up on the soft palate of the person who changed
the yellow arrow sign!
This
stage is not, as we feared, one of these in which you have to walk on
asphalt all the time. Last year there are new tracks that sometimes go
along the road and sometimes not. This is good, but the signs (yellow
arrows) are still scarce in some bits, hence the dirty trick we
experienced.
When,
at almost one o’clock p.m., we arrive at Belorado, a lady from her house
windows shouts :" Welcome!", when she sees the pilgrims
pass. She never will understand but Paca and I are on the verge of tears.
Pilgrims thank the people that cherish them.
Pilgrims' hostel in
Belorado.
We
stamp our credentials at Belorado pilgrims’ hostel and we tell them
about the setback we encountered. Someone tells us that there is open
rivalry among villages because of new track construction. All of them
consider that they are in the right Camino. Is this the key?
We
lodge at Hostal Toñi. Hostal del Río in Santo Domingo de la Calzada was
hell’s hall, but Hostal Toñi is Paradise’s Gate. This does not come
in the guidebook.
We
have lunch in « El Picias », next to the Hostal. The roast
lamb is very good. Belorado is a good place for pilgrims, it has a lot of
services and people pride themselves on being considerate towards pilgrims.
It seems that the people are not as rich as they are in Navarra. Wealth,
as everybody well knows, imposes distance.
The
foreign people who are in charge of pilgrims’ hostel do not look very expert.
It is not the first time we see foreign people managing public or private
pilgrims’ hostels. It is right that people look for a job, when in their
countries they cannot find one. But what took us by surprise was that
these foreigners were not African, or Moroccan, or Arab (our brother
peoples), but French, Dutch, German, American from USA, etc
Imagine
that! What a high standard of living we have in Spain! Europeans and
Americans from USA working for us! I do not know where are we going!
Stage
9  Stage10 |