June 2

          We left just as the sun was coming up. The sky was clear of clouds and the threat of rain had passed. Originally this stage only had 21k for us to hike. We stopped in a small café around 9:30am for tea and free wifi. At this point we had already gone 13k. The owner of the shop was very nice and gave us pendants to hang on our packs. He explained to me what they were for, but since he was speaking Spanish, I still don’t know. Anyway, they are engraved with a picture of Mary (I think), so I am sure it is something good. The owner had a little terrier that kept me company while I drank my tea. I think he wanted to share, but I don’t think puppies drink tea.
          We reached the end of the stage around 11am with plenty of daylight left. We ended up getting sandwiches and talking with Rebecca and a French-Canadian pilgrim (he didn’t mention his name) before deciding to keep going. Hontanas was the next town and it was only 10k away. Since we had been pretty fast we figured we could get there by 2pm and we did.
          Hontanas was a really cool town to walk into. It was at the bottom of a valley and was completely hidden by the hills before it suddenly appeared. It seems like the location for flooding or attacks, were we in the middle ages, but it looked really cool. We checked into the albergue, took showers, and did our laundry. I guess that is our usual routine, so I probably don’t need to keep writing every day. Next we went out to the supermarket to buy the next morning’s breakfast since we would be getting up early to get to Fromista and then bought some sandwiches at a café before heading back to the albergue to read while we waited for dinnertime. I spent most of the time reading the Hobbit and writing terrible poetry.
          At 7pm we headed to a restaurant where they had a menu de peregrino. Halfway through dinner they seated a couple of women at the table with us. I would have liked to talk to them, but they were in a pretty deep conversation in another language. Afterwards, we went back to the albergue for the night. James 1:17
(Written June 2nd)