Going it alone today 😬 9/10/19

My walking partner, Marty from BC, will be leaving today to catch her flight out of Santiago. I am up early, waiting for breakfast at 7 before I depart on my walk.

Yesterday was beautiful but long. We did 25 kms and were on the road for 8 hours (including stops for lunch and to get off our feet). Here is a church we passed on the way. Note the pole to the right of it. On top there is a huge stork nest. Usually they nest in the steeple but this one may not have worked for this pair.

The country we are walking in now is really very much Napa/Sonoma without all the traffic. This is a huge wine grape growing area. I hope you can see in this picture

I am also somewhat surprised at some of the modern architectural style here. This home is typical and has a roof style I haven’t seen before. It kind of makes me think of something I would see in a Dr. Zhivago movie

I went inside this church in one of the little towns along the way, beckoned that way by a volunteer outside the door. They ask for a donation and of course I was happy to oblige. Well worth it as you can see. This is the last supper painted on the dome

We also enjoyed lunch (I had pork ribs-yum) at this beautiful restaurant. Again, it reminded me of Napa and even the Guadalupe Valley in Baja

We arrived at Villafranca, our destination and after cleaning up went out on the town. Our hotel is on the main square and from here you can see how the town caters to the pilgrims. I suppose so much of the villages’ economy depends on us. Just like the tourists support Truckee. Some of the villagers are not so happy about it. We met one man and while we were just asking for help he blew us off rudely. All in all though most of the Spaniards have been friendly and most helpful.

We toasted our goodbye with a healthy shot of Havana 7 over ice. Marty’s Baby Teddy approved