Stage 12 - Belorado to Ages

Where We Are Tonight:  Ages                      Miles Hiked Today: 17.2 (27.7 km)

Miles Hiked Overall: 164.1 (264.1 km)          Miles to Santiago: 320.9  (516.4 km)

Steps Taken Today:  50,037                         Blister Count: K's are all healing as are Pam's

Spanish Word of the Day: mosca (fly)

What We Learned Today: If a bottom bunk is available,  grab it before someone else does!

We started off today extra early...for us,  anyway.  If we get on the road by 730, we celebrate.  Other people leave by 5; that's just insane if you ask me.  We left early because the two obvious places to stay tonight after a decent day of walking did not accept reservations and are pretty small...so we are competing with everyone else for a bed.

We continued 3.7 km past San Juan to Ages

Here is Pam drying her clothes on her backpack as we walk.

This type of Camino is what is killing my feet!  Loose and sharp rocks on the path. ..enough already!

Today was pretty mountainous...beautiful scenery.  These are the last mountains or hills we will see for awhile; the higher elevation and the slight breeze made walking perfect today.  The landscape and vegetation are changing.   For a long time today we walked through a forest of pine trees and it smelled SO GOOD!

Both of us love to look at all of the wild flowers that grow along the Camino.  We've taken photos of all of them, I think.  My favorite are the poppies and Pam's is the wild thyme.  It's funny to see all that grows wild here that we'd pay good money for at Home Depot.  We've decided that Spain has the most amazing variety and colors of weeds of anywhere.

It has also been very buggy today...the sky is literally filled with flying insects.   They can't be mosquitoes or I'd be eaten to death by now but that's what they look like.  They don't appear to want to bite...just annoy.  The word of the day is fly because we are noticing them more and more in restaurants and communal places.

This is a photo of me at a memorial remembering 300 people who were killed in 1936 during Spain's civil war when Franco was in charge.  Due to the horrible conditions of the rest of Europe at the time, Spain's horrendous situation has been somewhat overlooked in history but it was, in fact, quite bloody and dire in its own right.

When we arrived in Ages tonight we were more than 1/3 of the way to Santiago de Compostela!  That is simultaneously inspiring and depressing, depressing knowing we still have 2/3 left to do!

"Walking the Camino you can make yourself miserable or strong. But the amount of walking will be still the same."

―Unknown