28 September, Day 7: Viloria de Rioja - Atapuerca

Distance: 42km



The room was dark and quiet until past 7:30 - so different! - when I got up and found Orietta and Acacio already up and with fresh coffee and breakfast ready. So I poured myself a cup and sat down to chat with them while the others awoke.

We had breakfast together and by 9:20, we all said our good-byes with hugs and best wishes. Following the pattern of the previous days, the morning was foggy, promising a sunny afternoon.

With Acacio and Orietta, Viloria de Rioja

Following the camino, we soon reached Belorado, then Tosantos and from Espinosa, we started going uphill and, when reaching Villafranca de Montes de Oca, we had to push our bikes on the steep hill, do a little pedaling and push again, as the camino passed a nice piece of mixed forest.

Going up Montes de Oca

We were passing quite a few pilgrims and, as always, we tried to wish them "buen camino", trying not so startle them as we approached them and asked for room to pass. However, some of them seemed to be so deep in their thoughts and others simply have their "iPods" at full blast in their earphones, so they did get surprised and often jumped on the side surprised when they finally felt the bicycle next to them (even though a few times we had been calling and using our bells for a while...).

As we climbed, I'd go pretty much at the same speed as the walkers, so I chatted for a while with a Mexican young man who is planning to visit Africa (Senegal, Mali, Mauritania) after he finishes the camino. We stopped at a lookout point to eat a little, while we enjoyed the view of the Montes de Oca.

Taking a rest by the lookout point

We kept pushing and pedaling and at one point, I was lagging behind, pedaling next to this French couple of walkers and, after a little while, the man came close to me, said "allez, allez!" and with great energy grabbed the back of the bicycle and pushed me for about 10-15 meters! (I must have looked really bad...)

Once at the top, it was fairly flat and it was a pine reforested area, where they were cutting some of the trees.

We finally got to San Juan de Ortega (26 inhabitants, according to the guidebook), where we got ourselves some nice bocadillos that we ate while seating with pilgrims from Denmark, France, Germany, Canada, US, Spain and Australia.

We had planned to do a stop in Atapuerca, to visit the archeolgical park they have there, and then continue on to Burgos. However, we arrived just before 2pm, when they were closing for lunch and, anyway, they suggested that what was really worthwhile was a guided visit to the archeolgical site itself, which would be done at 5:30pm.

We thought about it and we all agreed to stay that day at Atapuerca, so we could do the visit and add a little more Science to the trip (apart from observing the different landscapes and if there is any connectivity between patches of forest, and doing tree identification, we've been trying to do some birdwatching, especially of raptors, but we didn't bring either binoculars or bird book and, after almost crashing for trying to follow the trajectory of a Peregrine Falcon, we haven't really identified much...).

With Oscar, outside the Archeological Park of Atapuerca

We then went to the Albergue privado El Peregrino, which has a nice garden, with a place to lock the bicycles. It seems to be built in modules, so each room (and bathroom areas) is relatively narrow. Our room had four bunk beds and we shared it with one French man and two German ladies. After a shower and some laundry, we read and rested a little, while Oscar walked over to see the local church (which was closed).

At 5:30, we took the bus with the group for the visit to the Atapuerca Archeological Site

There, the guide showed us where a team of archeologists and volunteers have been doing excavations since the 70s and have found the remains of several species of Homo (antecesor, heidelbergis, neanderthal y sapiens). The guide gave us a torrent of information which overwhelmed many, but we really enjoyed it, perhaps because we've been reading about it and have watched a couple of documentaries on the subject lately.

Our guide, showing us the skull of Homo sapiens and a relative

Back at the village, we were all starving; the one store there had closed for holidays, which meant that the two restaurants had increased in one euro the price of their "Pilgrim set menus" (demand and supply...), so - oh well! - we went over to the restaurant El Palomar and there we had a bit of fun listening to the young waiter who would recite the long list of options in Spanish and later, in his English to a couple of Korean pilgrims (whom several of us helped understand).

We had delicious potatoes with chorizo, a piece of salmon that had been overcooked in oil (a pity), bread, wine, desserts and even pacharán (anis with endrinas, a type of berry). We also chatted a little with a couple who was finishing their trip this time in Burgos, him Spanish, her Philipina.

That night, the fact that the room was small and narrow became a bit of a problem: our French roommate snored like an industrial sawmill and the there was poor air circulation. We made use of our earplugs, with mixed results.