Hello St. James,
I will continue to try to catch you up to where I am now. Thursday Sept. 7th I left Santa Marta, and said goodbye to my German friends (might see them again, as I hope to jump ahead a bit if I can). Full disclosure: they're the only ones I walked with so far, and not even for a whole day. The entire rest of it, I've walked alone. I planned a short walk for Thursday, 13k to Olleros de Tera. One place to sleep, attached to a bar; CERRADO (closed). The "town" before it had a municipal Albergue (1.9 k back), I already knew it was available because I used the bathroom on the way through. They just leave it open. The town was empty, but they had a little food market. The town was Calzadilla de Tera, and I had the place to myself. Turned out to be a very pleasant and relaxing afternoon and evening. I smoked my last cigar next to a pretty playground, and slept without any snoring (unless it was mine). So 13k became 15k, and I had to add another 2k to tomorrow. The "towns" at this point are pretty similar, lots of homes, maybe 1 place to sleep maybe 1 bar to eat, or a market to buy food. Some of the Albergues have kitchens. Some of the towns have a strong Camino spirit, some have none. So when locals get excited about me being a Pilgrim, it' pretty awesome. The walking itself is becoming more pleasant (landscape-wise, not physically). I hope this next set of picture gives you a sense of what I'm trying to say. Peace, fb