Outta Dodge (Leon)! Oct 3

We left our luxurious lodgings in the Hotel Petit Leon 7 am. Here I am in full early morning hiking regalia 

While navigating a maze of roads and traffic we encountered many cool things like this metal door with sculpture on it

This dog was depicted along with a human who looked like a friar or priest. Later on I found out that the guy was St Isidro who had been traveling with his companion burro until a wolf ate the burro. St Isidro made the wolf carry his things after that.

We also encountered many bodegas throughout our walk.

We ended up at this little Albergue in Villar Mazarife and by the time we made it to our choice of beds, you guessed it, all the lower bunks were taken. Had to happen sooner or later. We ended up rooming with two young ladies. One named Lea from Denmark and Rachael from Ireland. We were all totally compatible and I suppose Rachel, my bunkmate, suffered almost as much as me from my climb down the bunk ladder to the bathroom twice in the night (shaky bunk😉). Here’s a picture of nightfall from our bedroom window:

We had dinner that night with John a retired man from England who was living his dream - to walk the Camino with his camera and chronicle it. He had worked all his life with graphic people on the business side and was finally going to get a chance at showing his talent. I’m afraid his backpack was too heavy however (I saw it-it was a 50 liter monster) so he learned his first trick on the Camino on his first day (he started in Leon) — pay 5€ to have a company called Jacotrans take his bag to wherever he was planning to be next. 

Just by way of an explanation, this year there seems to be a huge number of pilgrims on the Camino. We have heard of many pilgrims getting to a village and being turned away because there are no beds left. In order to avoid this happening, one has to reserve a bed the day before (no $$ involved). This does not necessarily guarantee you will have a bed when you get there though. If you don’t arrive before 3, the bed is usually given up. And, by the way, even if you do reserve a bed, you need to get to the Albergue as early as 1 in order to have a choice of top or bottom bunk. Kind of complicated, huh? These reservations are made by phone, by the way . No email or internet involved.