Day 19 - Carrión de los Condes to Moratinos

Carrión de los Condes → Moratinos
Distance: 18.5 miles / 29.7km
Elevation: +577ft, -495ft

We woke up this morning at 6am in the hotel we were staying at, and it was very difficult to get up and going. It took about an hour before we were fully packed, ready, and out the door, stopping in the lobby to refill our water bottles from the water machine. We walked out of town with a group of a few other people while it was still dark, and by the time we got outside the city limits and onto the gravel path, the sun had started to come up.

It was a really pretty morning with the sunrise and the cool air, and the path was almost sandy and soft, which was a nice change after walking on so much gravel and cement and rocks. The barefoot shoes are really nice for preventing blisters, but they do cause you to feel every single stone on the ground, and after a couple miles, it can really start to hurt your feet.

Our first stretch was 17 km (about 10.5 miles) between where we left and the first town. Thankfully at halfway through, there was a coffee shop called "coffee bar." We stopped and Tovin bought some sort of breakfast cake, a coffee con leche, and apple, which came with a free orange juice shot. The orange juice shot was just orange juice, but in a shot glass. I ate some of my sandwich that Tovin had bought yesterday too.

After our break, we continued the next 9km to the first town. This stretch was starting to get really hard, as it was up on top of the hills with hot sun baking down, and a hard gravel path with rocks and nothing to look at. Tovin carried my pack for me the last 9km to the town though which really helped.

Once we finally got to the town, we stopped at the café - there, Tovin went inside to buy just a small snack, but got up-sold by the lady working and we ended up having quite the brunch. A bacon bocadilla (sandwich), a piece of banana cake, a very large sangria, a can of Aquarius, and a cup of orange juice. We ran into our friends, Maureen and Beatrice, and also Jeff and Kate, and spent some time visiting with them. There was also a cat that I saw and said hello to!

Tovin needed to use the bathroom before we left, but discovered too late that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom stalls - rather one communal roll of toilet paper hanging above the sink, tied up with an iPhone charger. He texted me and I had to come into the bathroom and rescue him by bringing a pack of sanitary wipes from my backpack.

We continued the 6km to the next town of Ledigos, but at this point we were very over the walk. Tovin had carried my pack for the last 10 km which helped, but hadn’t put sunscreen on his face and had gotten his lips sunburned. It was now blistering as we continued to the town where most people stop for the day. We got lost here because many of the albergues here, in an effort to promote themselves and do marketing, will try and reroute the Camino de Santiago through town to pass by their business. There were lots of yellow arrows and signs, sometimes pointing in different directions!

We stopped and filled our water at a fountain, and then continued past one more town, and then finally to the town we were staying in for the night, Moratinos. As we were walking up the hill, there was a sign on the side of the trail, where about 10 years ago, someone had been hiking and almost made it to town, but they got too tired and just died on the side of the trail. We both felt that was extremely relatable, as our feet hurt so bad and we were so tired of walking and getting very grumpy. 

We got to the hostel and got checked in, but then got very frustrated because these two ladies in front of us took 15 minutes to order the supper for the evening, when all we wanted was to go and lay down and relax. We finally got shown to our bunkbeds, where I got the bottom bunk and Tovin had the top bunk above me. It was very nice to relax, and then Tovin took all my clothes while I showered and went to do laundry. I will miss having him to do my laundry for me when he leaves tomorrow ☹️ After I showered, I went out to check on Tovin and he was just finishing up the laundry. Then he went inside and showered as well.

We went and got some drinks at the bar which was much needed after a long day - they had spiked fruit smoothies, and we got a raspberry mango smoothie with rum, then also an aquarius, a glass of red wine, and Tovin got a rum and Coke. We had the rest of the sandwich we had bought in town the day before, and then laid on the ground in a shady part of the grass, and just relaxed together. There was even a cat walking around that we tried to pet!

Supper was served family style at two different tables for €15 per person - tonight was red wine and water, baguettes, pasta for the starter, and then a chicken sausage and pinto bean curry type dish for the main course. I thought it was pretty good! Tovin was not a huge fan and was worried that it would hurt his stomach, but I think only he felt that way. It was really nice to have conversation with the other people at our table - two Italians, a couple from France, and two friends from Denmark. We all talked a lot about why people choose to do the Camino and also about society, language, and culture. Towards the end of supper, a lady showed up who had walked nearly 50km that day (over 30 miles)!

After eating, Tovin and I had finished almost an entire bottle of wine on our own, and so we went for a walk around town, up this big hill where we thought there was a bench. Sadly, it was just one lawn chair, so we took turns sitting in it. After we walked around for awhile and spent some time talking, we walked back to the hostel and got ready for bed.