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Astorga → Foncebadón 25.9 km (16.1 mi) |
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¡Miao, todos!
Apart from a fellow who was shouting randomly in his sleep throughout the night, it wasn’t a bad night at all! My feet are turning, as Pink Floyd might say, comfortably numb, and I’ve got a ton of energy, probably because of the chocolate! It’s a good thing too, because today, I have a date with the snowy mountains!
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It was chilly leaving town this morning, but I started to see real animals occupying what had been empty fields! There were horses, cows, sheep, and goats all the way into El Ganso, where I met Mara Gata, a super friendly cat who welcomed me to the Maragatería! That sounded like a great tropical drink, but she assured me that the Maragatería is a land of great mystery!
The inhabitants belong to a completely different race from the rest of Spain, maybe from a mingling of Moors and Goths (moro-godo) or from the province of Maragat along the Nile. They may have even been named for the Celtic word “Marc-Hekaat,” which means “horse” because they’re such great packers, or more specifically, mule drivers! They were the ones who brought the chocolate to Astorga! In fact, their muleteering ways made them famous as merchants, or mercaderes. Perhaps that’s where they got their name after all!
Mara Gata offered me a mouse to help me on my journey. I appreciated the gesture, however offensive it may have been. Mara probably didn’t intend for her action to be rodentist, having only lived around rats and mice, who do eat their own kind when convenient, but I think my grimace gave my feelings away. Before either of us could say anything else, there came the distant sound of crinkling plastic, and she vanished in an instant!
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After El Ganso, the Camino headed up into the Mountains of León, which separate La Maragatería from the next region, El Bierzo. Though storm clouds had been hovering ominously over Monte Irago, they started to clear during my fruit break in Rabanal del Camino. Then, as the oaks gave way to tiny conifers and bizarre thorny plants called aulagas (Genista scorpius), spring sprang! Pink and white flowers started to fleck the hillside! Now that the flowers have migrated down from the trees, I think the Camino is going to get a whole lot prettier from here!
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Then again, spring is a fickle season. As soon as I walked into Foncebadón, winter returned: gray, cold, and snowy! This only added to the desolation of the place, once the home of the church and peregrino hospital (another ruined peregrino hospital?!) of a 12th century hermit named Gaucelmo! Of course, it’s difficult to maintain any town in the high mountains, but this one, apart from the albergues, has been mostly abandoned since the 70s when its inhabitants left for warmer weather and better prospects in Madrid! Since they took everything with them, there aren’t even ghosts left to haunt the ruins!
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That being said, it was pretty neat to wander through a mostly ruined town, and since there weren’t any ghosts, the place was surprisingly lively! There were four whole albergues in Foncebadón, the first of which was blaring Celtic music and seemed to be hosting a party! I checked into the second albergue, Monte Irago, which had a pleasantly New Age atmosphere and, more importantly, a roaring fireplace!
When I got upstairs to claim a bunk, I suddenly felt the floor rattle! After years in California, my first thought was “earthquake!” but the shaking turned rhythmic and corresponded to the breaths of a fellow asleep in a bunk to my left. Yes, folks, this man’s snores were rattling the whole albergue! As it was only 5:00 in the afternoon, I could tell this was going to be a long, long night!
I was in no hurry to spend a lot of time around someone with such a monstrous roncador, so I headed out to wander the town, where right away, a herd of goats skipped past me and started climbing all over the ruins! I asked them what they thought they would find to eat up there, and one replied that they weren’t looking for food at all! There was plenty of grass elsewhere. This was their mountaintop playground! They had to put their fleet feet to use every so often, or else they’d go crazy! I thought that was a pretty good idea, so I started to climb the houses too. However, my feet aren’t so fleet, and I had to climb down again before I brought a premature end to my Camino!
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When I did, I realized that this seemingly dead town was overflowing with the goats’ peers: chickens, horses, cats, and a big, sleepy mastiff who couldn’t be bothered to round up the goats again! I came into this town thinking it was dead, only to find that it’s one of the liveliest I’ve encountered so far! A party was in order!
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That was how I joined the ghosts of Foncebadón, who party around town when the humans aren’t watching! When the goats came down from the walls, they introduced me to the horses, who taught me to prance, the cats, who taught me to land on both feet, and the chickens, who taught me a great game called Peck the Pebble. To play, you have to put a pebble in a pile of grain, and whoever plucks it out first, wins! It’s like a mix of apple bobbing and Egyptian Ratscrew, only much more competitive! The mastiff just watched and sighed.
I got back to the albergue just before the doors locked. I was pretty darn cold and tired, but it had been great fun! Inside, I found the other peregrinos having a different sort of fun with a lot of wine. Among them were the skipping Catalans from Calzadilla de la Cueza, Niall the Scotsman, and Aaron the Zombie. Uh oh. They invited me to join their revelry, but I politely declined in the same way I declined Mara Gata’s offer and headed to bed.
I had just climbed into my sleeping bag and closed my eyes, when suddenly the party burst into the room! People yelled and jumped on the beds, throwing open the windows and lighting their cigarettes! One guy thought it would be funny to take a flashlight and start shining it in my eyes! I was so mad, but there were so many of them! There was nothing I could do except try to hide!
Luckily, the hospitalero stepped in and shut off the light, which put the room in a state of pitch blackness! That shut everyone up. I know the Camino isn’t supposed to be a marathon, but I have to find a way to outrun these guys, if not tomorrow then the day after!
Buen Camino!
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Total Distance Walked: 534.5 km (325.8 mi) |
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