The Maragato

When we went to sleep, rain was forecast the entire day today. We awoke to find it had pushed back to 12:00. We scrambled into our rain gear and packs and headed down for 1st breakfast at Hotel Gaudi.

Sitting at the café bar with our tortillas and café solos, we could see The Replacements getting ready for their first day. In first trotted Sporty and Ginger Spice fresh from showers, with hair done and makeup applied. They looked dressed more appropriately for yoga than for what we were all up against today. Our bartender came down our way, gave us a wry smile, shook his head and mumbled something we couldn’t pick up. In next walked their trekking partners Biff and Buff in shiny new sneakers, designer khaki’s, and……… golf shirts. “Do they even know where they’re going today?”, we asked ourselves. “They’re about to get their ass kicked”, I muttered to Ben.

I hope you all realize we’re laughing with these people, not at them. A short 23 days ago we were Biff and Buff, so we’re mostly laughing at ourselves. That didn’t keep Ben and I from having another laugh, at my expense, on our way out of Astorga. We recognized the possibility that later that day, in my dire hour of need, Biff would appear Bear Grylls style, knife in his mouth, and gut the caribou he had just slain to provide me warm shelter until help arrives. “You’re going to be ok”, he would whisper. “I carry a 6 handicap.”

The reason The Replacements were about to get their ass kicked is that we all were. We have one of the toughest walks of the journey today, 25.9 km (16.1 miles) uphill all the way. We would start at about 2,500’ and climb another 2,500’ to an elevation of 5,000’. This is the first of two summits we’ll make in the Cantabrian Mountains, with the El Bierzo valley in between.

I would not have believed a couple of weeks ago we could arrive back at the mountains in the good shape we are in. On the one hand, we’re 23 days worn. More than offsetting that we are so much more physically and mentally tough now. We don’t have a blister on any of our four collective feet, and we have the ability to treat them when they arise. Our confidence is bolstered by the head-to-toe layer of extra plastic in our packs, purchased at the Sports Hurricane back in Astorga.

We had the threat of rain, but we also had a changing landscape and local architecture, and new cultures and cuisine to explore. And we had new challenges, not the same monotonous one each day.

The Maragato people indigenous to this area are rumored to have descended from the Berbers of North Africa. The Berbers arrived in the 8th century with the Muslim conquest but later converted to Christianity. There are about 40 small Maragato villages in the area. Ben and I are hoping to tuck into some Cocido Maragato, a hearty ethnic meal served in reverse from what we know at home, which includes a meat pile of about every variety (including blood sausage, pig’s ear and snout, and the like).

We passed through our planned 2nd breakfast stop at Murias de Rechivaldo, the first Maragato village we experienced. Feeling fortunate to be dry, we covered the first 10 km to Santa Catalina de Somoza for 2nd breakfast quickly. Still racing the storms we cruised through the middle part of the walk, hitting Rabanal del Camino over 20 km into the day before noon. Rabanal, a unique Maragato mountain village, is where we could really feel we had entered a new stage of this adventure.

We had carne empanadas in Rabanal that were different than anything I’ve had before. I quickly logged onto the WiFi to check weather and found the storms had now backed off until 1pm. With 5.4 km of steep climb left, we made Foncebadón near the summit before the rain.

Foncebadón is a wild Maragato mountain village, with traditional stone houses and thatched or slate roofs. Many of the buildings here seem to be crumbling away with time. Earlier I mentioned that sense of wildness that remains in the north of Spain, that “really far away” feeling. This place has it in spades. The town felt like a northern outpost in Game of Thrones. It didn't take Ben and I long to find that authentic Maragato cuisine, we spotted the Concina Medieval on our way through town. What an experience, and meal. I think I was sitting on a squirrel pelt. We shared a jug, and Ben ordered the "Lord of the Forest". I'll let him explain to you what that is some day. I'm not sure what I had, but I know it would've knocked Fred Flintstone's car over.

Good to be in the mountains. Buen Camino.

In the Cantabrian Mountains, Foncebadón

Leaving Astorga towards the Cantabrian Mountains

Passing through Murias de Rechivaldo and Iglesia de San Esteban

From mud to grass and stone

Maragato structures are stone with thatched or slate roofs

2nd breakfast in El Ganso with Iglesia de Santiago

I did not see Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moor Slayer) upon one of these white horses.

Rabanal del Camino for lunch, another Maragato village. I think the circular stone building is our first sighting of a "palloza"

The ascent to Foncebadón

Storms all around us, just not above us, Foncebadón

Foncebadón, population 13. Looking back down the slope where we came from today.

Don't go through that door unless you want to enter Game of Thrones

Ben's "Lord of the Forest". My side of beef.