BELORADO TO VILLAFRANCO MONTES DE OCA

My first day on my own. Mary Jo left by taxi at 9am and I started down the Camino. Hopefully she’ll get to Bilbao in time to see the Guggenheim. Her flight is tomorrow morning. I thought of going with her to visit the Guggenheim, but it would break the rhythm of the walk to take time off in the middle like that. I’ll fly to Bilbao after Santiago. I think I’ll go down to Seville after that. 

It was colder this morning. I had to wear my gloves to keep warm in the morning. I’ll definitely need to pick up a down vest in Burgos. I sent my heavy sweater ahead to Santiago. It was too heavy to carry. I’m back to carrying my backpack. It’s not so bad. I’m getting stronger. I sent about 8 pounds of stuff ahead to Santiago so that helped too. 

I was so happy to find that my room was waiting for me in the goose town. I made the reservation by phone with my wonky Spanish and it worked! When Booking.com said there are were no rooms available I called the hotel. She had rooms and they were far cheaper too. Oca means goose in Spanish. They actually celebrate the goose in this area, at least historically. The goose symbolizes the mother as in mother earth or Holy Mother. The footprint symbolizes the shell of St. James that you see on the Camino. St. James was supposed to have drunk water from a shell. His body is buried in the Cathedral at Santiago, hence the ancient pilgrimage.