HOT in Tábara

If you have never heard of Tábara, you should know that it's three days walking from Zamora and has an absolutely beautiful romanesque church with a tower with three layers of arches, just terrific. I am here, in a pensión with a shared bathroom that has cold water and a burned out light bulb, so don't think I'm living it up over here.

So, Dana and I have been walking for three days now. We are walking through a lot of flat land or rolling hills, most of it agricultural, but today that landscape was interrupted by the Esla River and our short straight up ascent to the top of a rocky ledge with views to die for over the river. We sat and rested and listened to the birds and all in all felt very grateful for having the chance to do this. Our days have been long and hot recently, the temperature is up in the high 80s, maybe 90s, so we try to get up and go very early and stop walking by 2 pm.

We have not been staying in albergues because there always seems to be a "casa rural" that rents out rooms and has clean sheets and clean bathrooms. We are suckers for clean sheets, which are nowhere to be found in the albergues as we know them. In Montamarta, our first stop outside Zamora, the albergue is a bit outside of town, and one peregrino had food and clothing stolen, not nice. Some of the towns have been pretty deserted and unexciting, but we had nice rooms in the "Casa del Sastre" and "Casa del Tio Quico" in two very small towns. Today we're in a bigger town and are in the hostal's "overflow" accommodations -- the hostal itself was sold out because of many construction workers here helping to build a fast train from Zamora north.

Yesterday we were in a town with a XIIth century monastery a few kilometers away, so after lunch, I walked over and back (without backpack, so I felt like I was flying) and had a very nice visit. The church itself is pretty much in ruins, thanks to those awful French invaders, and much of the monastery has been turned into piles of rocks. The "sala de los monjes" (room of the monks) was very well preserved and had beautiful low barrel vaulted arches and nice brick work. And part of the church's outside is in great shape. The setting for this monastery is spectacular, very bucolic, near a river, and the visit was a lot of fun. I spent about a half an hour with my boots off sitting in the shade and eating nuts and apricots, looking at the amazing seven apses, layered on top with more apses, and I felt very luck indeed.

The route is deserted. We never see anyone, or at most one other person, walking during the day. I have read online that if I were walking the Camino Francés there would always be between 20 and 40 people in sight in front of me at any given time. I am GLAD we're not there. This way is pretty isolated and untraveled. When we arrive in towns, people come out to say hello and ask where we are from. And I think that we are lucky to be walking at an uncrowded time -- the vast majority of those who walk the Via de la Plata begin at the latest in early May. So we are well behind the crowds.