After leaving the big city of Burgos, we had a relatively easy day of 12 miles to Hornillos and contemplated waljing an additional 4 miles to the next town. Given that we had gotten a late start on the day, we decided to stay in Hornillos.
Hornillos is a small town with not too much going on. We cooked both lunch and dinner. Another pilgrim from Oregon whom we had met earlier was staying at the albergue, so we invited her to share our dinner. She works with At Risk junior high kids keeping them out of jail and gangs. The camino seems to attract these types of people.
The next day, we decided to stretch ourselves and shoot for 19 miles. After 12 miles, there were no towns for 7 more miles. Everyone was still feeling good, and it was still relatively cool. After 2 miles out of town was a steep hill with no shade.
It seemed like the heat started to get bad as we started up the top. Near the top, Gisela had to rest. Just then a car was coming down the trail and the driver was from the albergue where we were going to stay for the night. He offered to take our packs, so we couldn't turn him down.
As we neared the town, we met Antonio and his 16 year old son Tristan. The asked in bewilderment where our packs were. We explained about our "free ride." He was going to stay at the same albergue so we would talk more later.
We had a great conversation with Antonio at the albergue. He was born in Mexico to Spanish parents who had fled during the Spanish civil war. They returned to Spain when he was a child and was raised there. He now lived in Philadelphia after marrying an American. He had an insightful opinions on Spain and the US.
We said goodbye as he was walking extremely slow and we were planning on an 18 mile day. We had a 4 person room all to ourselves complete with a door and blackout shutters. We fell asleep early for once in pitch black. Somehow we slept through our alarm and didn't get going until 6:30.
Despite our late start, we knocked out 18 miles with packs. We are staying in an albergue with 7 other Americans. This is the first time since our start that we have a big group of Americans.
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