We’ve arrived in Villar de Mazarife and I’ve starting receiving texts from all sorts of people asking how things are going. 🤣 Yes, it’s time for an update.
Our VRBO we rented in León was great. It was a 5 bedroom apartment in the middle of everything. And it came with a cat. Not inside, but outside. We were told by the owner it’s the neighborhood cat. She wasn’t skinny, but she sat at the window and meowed all freaking day. We went to the grocery store and I bought a couple of cans of food and fed her every morning. She seemed to disappear at night, and the morning we left, she wasn’t around.
We had some nice lunches and dinners. Nice salads, and some Asian food. It was a nice change from what we have been getting. We also went grocery shopping for snacks: yogurt, avocados, cookies, bananas, and eggs.
Our two days off in León were a bit stressful. Only because we ran into the British couple at dinner the first night and they were panicked and trying to get out of town. Evidently, León was going into lockdown and no one would be allowed out or in for two weeks. They were cutting their trip short by 3 days and leaving on the train the next day to go back to their home in the South of Spain.
We spent that evening looking at all the newspapers we could find, and León was indeed going into lockdown. What the heck were we going to do? Will we be stuck in León for two weeks? If so, then our trip would be over. Could we get a flight out, or would everything stop? I had a friend in Madrid that went thru the first set of lockdowns and wasn’t allowed to leave her apartment….at all. I certainly hope it wouldn’t be like that. I found her on Facebook and she had left Madrid and was biking all over Spain to keep from going into lockdown in Madrid again. But she told me the new restrictions were not nearly as bad.
We read and reread all the info we could find. Some articles said the lockdown included all of León, meaning the province, and some said it was just the city. We contacted a few of the albergues in the province, and they said they were still open and the lockdown only pertained to the city.
We wandered around during the day and it seemed to be business as usual. People were going to work and to school. Restaurants and stores were still open. We saw more police patrols out, but we didn’t know if that was any different than before we arrived. So, we went on with our plans.
All of us wanted to go to an outdoor store to pick up a few things. After the horrible wind and cold that we endured for 4 days, I decided that my clothing was not adequate to deal with the mountains. So, we found an outdoor store and I got a heavier coat, and yet another pair of gloves. I’d prefer mittens, but none of the stores have them. I also got another pair of shoes. I had some Solomon trail runners, but the lacing kept coming loose, and I could feel every rock I stepped on. I’ve had Solomon before and didn’t really like them, but they were the only brand available to replace my hiking boots at the time, so I really had no other choice. They were not going to work in the mountains. But, hallelujah, I found some LA Sportivas! I’ve had LA Sportiva trail runners for several years now and I love them. They are the shoes I use in Costa Rica, so I know they handle the rocks and mud well. I also got another pack. One smaller then my original, but bigger than the one I had been carrying. The small one I was using didn’t have a decent hip belt, so it was a bit uncomfortable. And I needed something a bit bigger to handle my jackets when I took them off.
So, on the morning leaving León we went to the Correos down the street to drop off our luggage. There was a huge line at 8:30am. I emailed our contact and within 3 minutes, a lady came out and pulled us out of the line and took us to where we could drop off our luggage and we were on our way. She didn’t say one word to us about not being able to get out of León, or good luck or anything other than “Buen Camino!”
We grabbed a taxi to see if we could get to the edge of town on the camino and then proceed from there. We had spent the day before trying to determine the city boundaries, but could NOT find any map anywhere with the city boundaries. The province boundaries, yes. But not the city boundaries. So, we picked somewhere near the airport and had the taxi driver take us there. He didn’t say anything about the “lockdown”. In fact, we did see a police barricade, but it was only stopping cars coming into León, not leaving. He dropped us off and we started walking. No issues whatsoever.
Along the road, we saw someone on a bike in hunter orange coming toward us. She was a Camino de Santiago data collection agent. Or something. She stopped and asked us how things were going and if we were having any issues. We were the first 3 pilgrims she has seen that day, but generally are seeing at least 10 people a day. She asked us where we were from and then talked about the pilgrims this year being mostly from Spain. Normally, its Americans, Europeans, and Asians. No one from Spain, but after the lockdowns people were getting out of their homes and doing the camino this year.
We only saw one other pilgrim who sat with us and took a break in one of the little towns we came to. We had our bananas, nuts, and nut bars. Drank some water and headed along the way. The landscape is starting to change. THANK GOODNESS. Some hills and scrub brush and prairie grasses. We can see the mountains in the distance now. And are so looking forward to their changing landscapes. Our mileage also starts to go up as of tomorrow. We will be averaging 16 miles a day until the end. Only 12 more walking days to go!
