Women in Extremedura

Thanks for the link- when I was in Spain I took a weekend long motorcoach tour through Extremadura. It was a wonderful place to visit, sparse, remote, beautiful in a stark way, but I'm not sure I would want to live there (much less walk across it!).

It's an interesting to note that Extremadura produced many of the conquistadores of the 16th century including Francisco Pizarro (Incas), Hernan Cortes (Mexico) and Pedro de Valdivia (Chile). It's theorized that the harsh, poverty-stricken life in Extremadura drove them and their crews to become adventurers and fed their cruel and destructive ways when they reached the New World.

I'll have to do some more research on the Via De La Plata- thanks for the nudge!

In her last post she writes of how they're famous along the route, that people knew of her. Which reminded me of how that happened to me as well. Many times I would meet pilgrims who would say they had heard of an American/Spaniard woman walking with her son, or the hospitalero had heard from another that I was on the way, or that I must be the Lillian that had been at such and such place. Which goes to show how people really do look out for you.
This part of the experience comforts me greatly.
Lillian