This was a gentle but consistent uphill climb today, as the path reaches its highest point tomorrow at the Cruz de Ferro. At times the path was extremely rocky, making it difficult to pick up any speed nor feel secure in my footing. The first few miles of the day, I felt no pain in my leg! Progress! But after my lunch stop where I sat for an hour and iced it, the pain came back. It was tough, but not worse than yesterday. I take that as a good sign that I’m not injuring it further. The pain was definitely affected by the rocky terrain and so I had to be so careful where I stepped.

But, I made it to Foncebadón, where I’m staying in a building that is a renovated convent. It’s absolutely beautiful. The village of Foncebadón is steeped in history and was important on the Camino as far back as the 10th century.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foncebadón#:~:text=The%20village%2C%20situated%20on%20a,way%20to%20Santiago%20de%20Compostela.

In recent decades it had fallen into ruin, and was plagued by a pack of roving wild dogs as recently as ten years ago! But in the last couple of years there has been a lot of rebuilding (there are at least 4-5 albergues here now) fueled by unprecedented renewed interest in the Camino in recent years, and the economic bolstering that followed.

Dinner tonight was right downstairs…it was refreshing to not have to walk anywhere. I ate with other pilgrims, a mother and daughter Marcy and Emily from Texas, and Sebastian from Bordeaux, France who spoke mostly French but a little bit of Spanish. Between my limited Spanish (which is getting better daily!) and lots of Google Translator, the four of us had a great conversation about the Camino and the craziness that is American politics right now.

Tomorrow will be a little bit longer mileage as I approach Molinaseca. But, it’ll be mostly downhill, and more of the rocks. We’ll see how it goes!