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[QUOTE="SantiagoCruzB, post: 1190472, member: 98657"] Oct 13 San Juan de Ortega-Atapuerca-Burgos Today we decided to give our legs a break with a short hike (as many of you have advised). Although we’ve managed to hike 20-22 kms in 6 hours every day for three consecutive days without feeling too tired (quite good for us) and we do not want to overextend ourselves. Plus we want to get to Burgos early, and still fresh enough to explore the cathedral and the city. We started out at 0730, with nice weather and about 12C. It was still dark, but the town was well lighted until we got to the trail. We were the only ones on the trail except for a tall young woman who followed us in the distance. We walked a bit slower than usual. The trail merges with the highway at certain points. We used our headlamps both to light up the way and to make sure the oncoming drivers could see us. By this time, the sky was lighting up and the young woman caught up with us as we were taking photos and videos of the sunrise. She offered to take a photo for us then zoomed away. We caught up with her at an intersection of the highway about 2km from Ages. At this point, there were no Camino markers but there were road signs. We decided to follow the road (the young woman went the other direction) until we saw a sign marking the trail which turned left from the road. We debated for a moment on whether to stick to the road or follow the trail. In hindsight, we should have just followed the road. After following the trail for a while, we spotted the young woman in the distance coming from another direction that intersected the Camino trail. We were still taking photos and videos, hence not paying too much attention to the trail. We saw the young woman in the distance take a right turn away from the trail and decided to just follow her. (Apparently, she was looking for a short cut but we didn’t realize it at that time) What happened was that we ended up in the middle of newly plowed fields with knee-high brush. The paths were barely recognizable, and we could still see the young woman in the distance until she disappeared completely. Google Maps indicated that we were heading in the right direction toward Ages but the path we were following looked like it had not been walked on for a long time. We also had to avoid a huge tractor and a combine as they were coming towards us. The farmers driving them waved at us but didn’t stop. Maybe they’re used to seeing peregrinos scrambling across their fields looking for a shortcut to the Camino trail. We scrambled across the fields for about 30 minutes until we found the trail again. Eventually, the trail rejoined the road to Ages, which we followed. It was only when were took a pit stop in Ages that we saw our first group of peregrinos (other than the young woman we followed earlier) They must have easily followed the road since they still looked very fresh and clean unlike us who were sweating from scrambling over the fields. There was a bar open in Ages, but there were no peregrinos who have stopped there yet, and we were still full from our first breakfast before we left our hotel in San Juan de Ortega, so decided to walk on until Atapuerca. The Camino trail to Atapuerca also merges with the road at certain points. We took a video of the famous caveman along the highway. At Atapuerca, we stopped at Cantina de Atapuerca where we saw Josie, from the previous night, already enjoying her coffee. She’s a very strong hiker and plans to walk all the way to Burgos today and get there early enough to meet her husband, who’s flying in to spend a couple of days with her before she continues on to Santiago. As she was leaving, Pancha from Indonesia whom we met in Navarette last Tuesday, walked in with her small group of hiking buddies. We greeted each other like lost friends. She still says we’re the only other Asians she’s met on the trail so far. After chatting and exchanging notes, we (Tess and I) moved our bags inside the café to wait for the taxi which I had requested the camarera to call for us. It came in 15 minutes. By this time Pancha and her friends had left and new peregrinos were streaming in. The ride to Burgos was nice and relaxing after all the scrambling in the fields. The taxi brought straight to the hotel which was located in a historic building next to the cathedral. (We have a nice view of the cathedral from our window) Since it was too early to check in, we left our bags and went to explore the Cathedral. Our first stop was the Capilla Santo Cristo, which is free for entry, and where they have the blessed sacrament (but not exposed). There were few people there, so we stopped and said our prayers. Entry to the main hall of the cathedral costs 5 euros for peregrinos, 11 euros for tourists, 10 euros for group tours and individuals (not sure who these “individuals” are but they’re probably for locals), and 9 euros for seniors. Unlike in Sto. Domingo de Calzada, the cathedral here is packed with crowds admiring the magnificence of the altars, artworks, paintings, sculptures, etc. For peregrinos, you can only get your sello at the end of the tour, which can take 30-40 minutes to several hours depending on how much time you want to spend there. By this time we were hungry so we walked over to Paseo Espolon where they have many tapas bars and restaurants. We found “A La Villa de Madrid, which serves decent Japanese food. (Although we like Spanish food, we wanted something different this time) Here we met a couple of Taiwanese peregrinos who were having lunch. Liu and Shau are going to Leon by train after Liu hurt his foot from what he says was walking too fast. They plan to leapfrog to Sarria and start from there to Santiago. We wished them Buen Camino after they finished their lunch and left. After enjoying yakisoba and rice toppings, we went back to the churro shop (Café Ibañeza Chocolateria) which we saw earlier, and had our first churros and chocolate in Spain and really enjoyed it (hahaha) On the way back to the hotel (by this time it was check-in time), we met Arthur from England whom we had been meeting on and off on the trail. He was already in non-hiking clothes and on his way to visit the cathedral. We wanted to see the castle but decided it was too tiring to walk up, so we passed on it. Now we are in our hotel room relaxing. The square below is still buzzing with people although it’s now drizzling. It seems the good weather of the past week has finally ended. My takeaway for today is: that you need to take a day off and rest your body even if you think you’re getting stronger. Thanks for reading this far. God bless and Buen Camino![ATTACH type="full" alt="Ages Oct 13.JPG"]158291[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full" alt="Shau Liu Taiwan Burgos.JPG"]158292[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full" alt="Arthur Burgos Oct 13.JPG"]158293[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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