El Burgo Ranero? A bourgeoise man that likes frogs…
It sounds more fun than what this village looks. After arriving to the village Maria handled me a copy of the history of the village which did not include why was the village called that way. Just it is public knowledge, We are El Burgo Ranero! I never saw a frog…
Maria worked at the local restaurant on the main street of the village, the real Camino. It is getting boring how comercial local fights are changing the yellow arrows in all this tiny villages.
At Bercianos, there were yellow arrows in all directions. I just follow the street without arrows and got out of town in a second. Restaurant, albergue, and grocery store owners want to make business with the peregrinos. They just paint a yellow arrow on their direction. It is no fun when you passing for the villages when the sun has not come out yet.
Maria was a jovial young women with a great welcoming spirit. Emi, at the kitchen, prepared for me the first American breakfast in 42 days. It was delicious. My first fried eggs with bacon and toasts. I returned there for dinner.
All the albergues were on the north side of the village. I stayed at Domenico Laffi albergue. Domenico was an Italian priest in the XVII Century that wrote about his adventures in El Camino. When he arrived to El Burgo Ranero, he slept on the floor because the people was so poor that they did not have a place for him to sleep. The village built this albergue in 1990 and honored Dominico with his name.
I am experiencing the solitude of the walkers. Today someone apologized to me, because he was walking 50 meters behind me.
Now El Camino is flat and as other peregrinos say: it is boring. I don’t find it boring, but a mental challenge, therefore I have fun with it. I sing, I count trees, I think about all of you, which I laugh, in a good sense. I run with my backpack. Mentally I know how many km I have walked, I am certainly sure how many km are left. When I see church steeples, I think about St. Joseph, and it is an average of 5 to 6 km to reach the next town.
Today I finished by 9:40am. I felt so good. Pablo texted me that he landed in Madrid, and was going to take the train to Pamplona. By the evening he was at St. Jean De Port. Tomorrow he will start walking toward Santiago. Buen Camino, Pablo!
It has become a normality now that in every village the children come out to play by the village streets after 10pm. During the day you cannot hear a pin hitting the floor in any village. But late at night, it is school yard central! We are all in bed and we can hear the kids playing late at night.
I like to sit at the entrance of the villages to see the peregrinos that walk 30-40 km a day. They always pass by the villages around 5:30pm. I know, because I experienced it myself in France. It is so cool to see yourself in their efforts.