Rabe de las Calzadas to Hontanas

May 20 - Rabe de las Calzadas to Hontanas
We are officially in the meseta today which is the Spanish equivalent of our prairies but we had a huge hill to climb anyway. It went up 10% for about a kilometer and then down at 18% for about half that distance and had us all huffing and puffing on our way up and straining our knees by putting our brakes on, on the way down. Some people even walked down backwards to protect their knees. But the bikers were in their glory giving wild whoops as they got to the top and headed down. It was fun to watch them because they've had a few hard days slogging through the mud and straining uphills.
The views were spectacular today both on the way up and down the hill and although the distance was hidden in the mists it was all really lovely. The kind of wide views that don't really show up well in photographs unfortunately but still wonderful to look at live.

It was a pretty easy walk as we stopped about halfway in Hornillos for a coffee and snack. Our guide books had varied between 15  and 21.5 kilometers and for sure the distance was the latter so the people who were nursing sore feet and legs had a hard day. But for me (lucky me) it was a lovely day of walking. There seemed to be quite a few places in Hontanas so we weren't worried about getting a place that day. And sure enough, we had no problems. We stayed at a spot called El Puntido, had a nice lunch, did some laundry and relaxed. As it turned out they had forgotten to mention to us that we had to sign up for one of two different dinner times if we wanted to eat there - 7:00 or 8:30. The early shift was full so we decided to try our luck elsewhere. And what luck that we did. We went down the street (it's basically a one street town) to Santa Brigada where we had a really nice home cooked meal - a huge bowl of home made chicken vegetable soup, roast chicken or a meat stew that was wonderful! So many of the meals are the same it was really nice to taste something simple but different. Along with the two Canadian women from Cambridge we had a very pleasant evening.

The albergue El Puntido was very pleasant with lots of space for washing and hanging clothes and sitting around chatting with others. The bedrooms were not too crowded although the showers were a bit odd - both in the same room with no place to change except in the open, unlocked space accessible to each other and anyone else who chose to walk in.  I thought the people who worked there were very efficient and helpful.