2 week anniversary: Castrojeriz - Itero de la Vega (10km - woo hoo!)

Our days are getting progressively shorter and shorter, oh well. Justin´s shin and foot still hurt when he walks too long so we are taking it slow. He promised me that if it still hurts in Leon he´ll go to a doctor.

Our current plan is to walk as far as we can till Friday and then take a bus to Leon to meet Maria there and hopefully stay with her family for the weekend!! We´d like to not bus, but we´d like to stay with Maria more than that, so oh well.

Last night we met Paco who is wonderful! He runs the alburgue near the main plaza in Castrojeriz.

Last night we were very hungry but no one was cooking food till 8pm so we were sitting around our alburgue feeling sorry for ourselves when in rushes Paco, panting, with a giant pot of garlic soup and a big grin! Hooray!!

After plopping down the soup he mumbled something in Spanish and raced out the door again. 20 minutes later he races back in with a Spanish omelette, panting again. Both the dishes were superb and terrribly generous!

THEN around 9 we decided to go for a drink and who should we see at the bar but Paco! We went to order and he ended buying both of our drinks! What a guy.

We gave the bartender some money and, hopefully, explained to him that the money was for drinks for Paco the next night.

Because Paco is so laid back we got to have a late start in the morning. We didn´t wake till 7:45 and didn´t leave the alburgue till 9! What a treat!

The weather has been quite cold and windy in the mornings, but by 1pm it seems to clear and get sunny and warmer.

The short hike today was lovely with a steep climb in the morning that gave us nice views (most notable of the hundreds of wind mills all around). We also crossed a lovely river and met lots of tractors. This part of the trail is definitely less scenic, but it also has been far from roads and much less developed which has been a nice change of pace.

We decided to stay in Itero de la Vega which is a very small town of 100. We are the only people in this alburgue which is a first and pretty nice. We got a private room for only 5 euros and the owner also has a small restaurant so we got to use his semi- professional kitchen as well.

Justin and I cooked chicken and dumplings again and are about to go and eat. This whole trip all I ever want is warm soups.

Thanks for all the comments! We love them!!

PS- Mommacita- The Dutch woman runs the alburgue/cafe in San Bol.

PSS- The comment about Justin´s broken toe is from when he was a baby and the toe he broke didn´t heal quite right.