Connectivity issues prevented us from posting Tuesday’s recap…so today we will be providing posts for both Days 14 (April 24) and Day 15 (April 25)…a “Twofer Wednesday”.

Upon leaving Burgos today…we were scheduled to enter the Meseta…Spain’s high plateau desert….during the afternoon of our 30KM/18 mile walk.  We had been forewarned that these next 7-8 days are considered the most challenging portion of the Camino Frances…mentally.  The days can be hot with a strong high-altitude sun and the evenings very chilly.  We were also told that the scenery is less varied…with limited trees/shade and that the landscape can drive some people a bit crazy.  Some folks opt to “skip” this section outright.  Our anxiety was compounded when a few of the people who had been matching our itinerary day-by-day since SJPDP either stayed back to rest an extra day in Borgus or planned to stop after only 21K at a lower village.  So you can imagine the questions we were both asking ourselves… “Are we mentally fit enough for this challenge?”, “Do we have the spiritual mettle to persevere?” and “Does Spain have Uber?”.

We are only one afternoon into this segment…so it is still early…but we find the pre-reports to be about 50% accurate.  The sun has been torrid…but we had a pretty decent, relatively cool April breeze at our backs.   The temperature did crash from warm to cold in less than one hour at dinner…but we used this as rationale for another glass of wine.  The landscape is disorienting…the lack of perspective previously provided by mountains/rolling hills is lost when you get on these “table-top” plateaus…but the strange horizon makes you feel you are “king of a flat earth in the sky” (Sarah rolled her eyes at this imagery).  See this 360 video I took of the horizon yesterday…and you will see what I mean.

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So we arrived late afternoon in the small hamlet of Hontanas (Spanish for “fountains”) and checked in…eager to shower and quickly capture our daily experience on our blog.  Then we found that the WiFi was just…not good.  We should have known from all the pilgrims huddled over their smartphones in the small square outside the 2 main albergues.  The normally friendly atmosphere was hushed by people irritated that the person next to them was taking precious bandwidth either checking their stupid Facebook or reading some family member’s stupid travel blog.  Let’s just say the mood was testy.

But before getting upset…I stopped and thought first of the pilgrims who came before us hundreds of years ago.  They never had to deal with the crushing disappointment of not having an immediate, fast 5G connection at each village.  They did not have to worry about their Throwback Thursday Instagram photo getting out on this  Thursday (duh).  They did not have to worry about their text messages arriving in real time.  (Heck…Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans after the War of 1812 was already over…due to the signing of the Treaty of Ghent several weeks earlier.)  Net…those pilgrims had it easy.  Also…now you can use the whole “Treaty of Ghent” factoid at your next dinner party.