Distance travelled: 18.7 kilometers

This was a shorter day, but there was no avoiding it – the next town after Carrión de los Condes is another 16 kilometers away, so continuing on would have meant a very long day indeed.

I walked for a while out of Frómista with Andrea, the retired Spanish teacher from Minnesota. We decided to be the non-conformists who took the alternate route out of town – it was a tiny bit longer but allowed us to walk through fields rather than on the road, which I thought was a great trade; I don’t know why more people weren’t willing to do it! We did eventually end up walking next to the road with everyone else. Most of the way into Carrión de los Condes looked like this:

About 40 minutes outside of town, I ran into an older Spanish man who lived in Carrión de los Condes and was out for his morning walk. He was excited to find a Spanish-speaking pilgrim and talked energetically with me all the way to the edge of town, where he then pointed me in the direction of the albergue I wanted and wished me a Buen Camino.

It was just around noon when I arrived, and I was the second person to check into the albergue Santa María, which is another classic Camino experience. This albergue is run by nuns, and they’ve become famous for their late-afternoon hour of singing with pilgrims. I’ll get back to that in a moment.

I dropped my stuff and set off to explore the town. I went into a shop selling every conceivable type of pilgrim supplies and picked up a few snacks at a grocery store before coming back and running into Javier, the engineer from Seattle whom I’d met back in Grañón. He was still walking with Mark (the lawyer from San Francisco) and his sister Becky. I was really pleased to find someone I’d met before Burgos. Although I’d had some pleasant interactions with the French and Australian pilgrims, I had been feeling pretty alone; so far, my experience on the Meseta was that everyone kind of kept to themselves. Whereas in the first portion of the Camino people had pretty immediately suggested coordinating to stay in the same albergue the following night, no one made any such offers to me this time – people were happy to talk to me as and when they encountered me, but each pair or group had their own agenda and didn’t seem to be interested in factoring anyone else into their planning. I wasn’t taking it personally, but it was a bit of a bummer after how friendly people had been before.

Anyway, Javier and I sat down to get a beer and get to know each other a bit better, and Becky soon joined us. The three of us eventually went in search of more substantial fare and ended up getting some great food (including my first octopus of the Camino!) at a place a few blocks away. Mark arrived a little later on.

We reconvened at the albergue for the singing hour, and as I was coming down the stairs to the assembly point, I heard a voice that sounded familiar. It was Adam! He’d done a long day from quite a ways before Frómista and ended up grabbing the last bed in the albergue. I was so happy to have one member of my Camino family back!

I wish I had pictures or video from the singing hour, but it didn’t feel right in the moment to do that. Three nuns led us in singing a variety of songs in different languages, and once again, we went around the room to introduce ourselves and say why we were doing the Camino. At the end, the nuns invited people to offer their own songs to the group. A Korean guy sang a beautiful song in Spanish – not a language he actually spoke – that brought tears to my eyes and those of many people around me, and Mark led the group in singing a song called “Amen” that I’d hear several more times from him in the weeks to come. It was a not-to-be-missed experience!

We had a fun evening. Mark, Javier, and I had some drinks out in the plaza, and then we formed a large group for dinner in a nearby restaurant. I met Raúl, a guy originally from Bogotá; he’ll show up in future posts too. We had a very nice time together and made it back to the albergue just before it locked up for the night!