LIVE from the Camino On the caminos of Caravaca and San Juan de la Cruz

[AlanSykes]

To Ávila

An early start, blissfully, for the first time this camino, in a bath long enough for a normal height northern European male to fit in comfortably.

Less than an hour after starting, I was at the delightfully named Puerto de Arrebatacapas, taking a last fond look down over La Mancha.



Then, sadly, entering into a cloud at about 1100m. The camino goes over a wide boulder-strewn upland heath with the path not being very obvious. And poor visibility making spotting arrows more difficult. Slowing progress. When I got to San Bartolomé de Pinares at around 11.30, and the cloud ahead still looked low, I was unsure whether to risk carrying on, or stay in San Bartolomé. After 30 minutes in the bar - much nicer than it used to be - the cloud cover had moved up to 1500m, so it seemed worth carrying on. Especially as I have a strong, but possibly false, memory that the albergue in San Bartolomé is upstairs from the funeral parlour.

And I'm so glad I carried on, as the next five hours were spectacular. Bright warm autumn colours, the clouds gradually vanishing altogether, occasional hen harriers, pretty Limousin-like calves busy turning mountain grass into chuletón,



a few (very few) people out for a Sunday stroll, glorious upland scenery, almost perfect way-marking and delicious sierra water filling water troughs. The poplars were especially gorgeous - as Machado put it "he vuelto a ver los álamos dorados, álamos del camino en la ribera ...".



The next pass is the Puerto de El Boquerón, at 1315m, and the path then goes up to the day's high point at 1375m. Highest point of this year's camino for me, I think - certainly higher than anything ahead.



Eventually, Ávila became visible from about 10km out - the honey walls catching the afternoon sunlight even at that distance.



It was still a slog to get into town, and, to paraphrase, I "tired the sun with walking, and sent him down the sky". Hitting the city centre just as Venus was setting into the south west.

Seeing from the Diario de Ávila on the zinc in a bar on the outskirts of town that a delegation of Hungarian pilgrims seems to have blocked-booked the albergue, I telephoned to the Doña Juana hostal, just off the Plaza de Santa Teresa, for two nights. Seems fine, and reasonably priced. And I remembered to turn off the wake-up alarm for tomorrow morning.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

How nice the fog lifted for you, Alan. When you concern yourself in wondering if you should trudge on in dense fog, it is definitely as thick as it gets. Btw, I notice a bit of "sticker mania" beginning to form on that red sign.
I loved this, "I tired the sun with walking, and sent him down the sky".
Thank you for another great post of carrying onward!

 

[VNwalking]

2 nights and a full day in Avila.
Ah, wonderful.

It sounds like another glorious day getting there, too, once the clouds lifted.

It seems stickers have made it as far as Puerto de Arrebatacapas, too. People are strange sometimes.

 

[AlanSykes]

A rest day in Ávila

A very pleasant lazy day ambling around "la bien amurallada".



First stop, through the walls - as Lorca put it "Cuando se penetra por su evocadora muralla se debe ser religioso, hay que vivir el ambiente que se respira". On to the cathedral to see the magnificent altarpiece started by Pedro de Berruguete and (mostly) completed by Juan de Borgoña: "acabar e reparar e poner en perfeçion los tableros que Berruguete pintor ...".

Then to the tourist office to pick up my "distinción" of the "huellas de Santa Teresa".



On to the convento de la Encarnación, mainly to see the tiny drawing of Christ by San Juan de la Cruz.



Inspiration for my favourite (and nearest) Dalí, his "Christ of St John of the Cross", at Kelvingrove in Glasgow. The kind invigillator also insisted I visit the room where Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz simultaneously levitated.

Spot of lunch and down to the triple-cloistered monastery of Santo Tomás. Mainly for the even more magnificent altarpiece by Berruguete.



Many of the Berruguete family's altarpieces and sculptures are in a museum in Valladolid, so it is a particular pleasure to see one in the place for which it was created, and which it fits perfectly. Given that the French messed the place about considerably, it's astonishing how much survived. Including the Italianate tomb of poor Prince Juan de Asturias, heir to Ferdinard and Isabella, who died aged 19. The official version is that he had smallpox, but contemporary gossip suggests that his already fragile constitution was further weakened by over-enthusiastic time spent in bed with his Habsburg bride.

And back to the floodlit walls. A lovely lazy day.

 

[VNwalking]

Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz simultaneously levitated.

Fun and games of the spirually advanced class. Marvelous.

Then to the tourist office to pick up my "distinción" of the "huellas de Santa Teresa".

Oh, lovely. She was a special one to be sure. And clearly she went to some pretty special places.

 

[AlanSykes]

Ávila's horrible exit has, sadly, not improved in 10 years. I thought I was being clever trying to walk along the río Adaja, but mapy.cz gave me a bum steer, and I still had to double back and spend an unpleasant km on the busy motorway approach roads. I bumped into one of the Ávila amigos, out for a walk, and he explained that a local landowner had blocked off the cañada real that they had wanted to use for the camino, forcing us back on the roads. Very tiresome. And mapy.cz wrongly thinks you can walk through the blocked path (which is between the motorway bridge and the railway one, by the reservoir).

On to Gotarrendura, where a charming Romanian is running the albergue and also providing meals in the bar. My first albergue of this camino. And a pleasant supper when I had been expecting to have to break into my emergency stash of cheese and fuet.

 

[peregrina2000]

Ávila's horrible exit has, sadly, not improved in 10 years.

It astonishes me that (1) it is legal for pedestrians to walk there, since it is very clearly the entrance to the superhighway and (2) that no one has been killed or injured.

I was lucky to walk on a Sunday morning but I think during a weekday rush hour it would be completely awful.

Good to hear the bar is still serving food, sounds like a change in ownership. I remember that in that bar I had one of the best plates of setas I've ever enjoyed.

Loving the posts as always!

 

[AlanSykes]

Gotarrendura to Fontiveros

Saying goodbye once again to the yellow arrows and the Camino de Levante (and/or Sureste), I carried on following the Ruta Teresiana that runs both ways between Ávila and Alba de Tormes - from cradle to grave, as they put it. Very good signage - concrete posts at every junction, with red arrows pointing to Ávila or Alba (de Tormes).



A glorious bright cloudless morning, with distant sierras to the far west that I think must have included the Pico de la Dueña, highest point of the Vía de la Plata, a couple of days south of Salamanca. And several hen harriers en route.



Wide mostly flat enormous fields, with decent earth paths underfoot, stops for coffee at 10km at Papatrigo, a caña at 20km at Collado de Contreras and lunch at journey's end, Fontiveros. Ideal.

Fontiveros is where San Juan de la Cruz was born. So on this camino I've now been to his birthplace, his deathplace, the place he was imprisoned and tortured, several of the places where he set up monasteries or convents, and a few 100km of the paths he trod. In theory, that should be the end, but I'm continuing, past Alba de Tormes where Santa Teresa died, and on to Salamanca, where San Juan was a (not very successful) student.

Fontiveros is a bit of a dump, which would probably please San Juan - to paraphrase PG Wodehouse, it was never difficult to distinguish between him and a little ray of sunshine. But there is a decent albergue near the municipal swimming pool (camp beds, showers etc, no cockroaches, 10€), and I had a very good menú del día in the Méson Juan de Yepes, which has the albergue key (delicious lentils, perfect crisp boquerones, tolerable Badajoz red, 13€).

 

[AlanSykes]

To Peñaranda de Bracamonte

Another uneventful mostly flat day in the dazzling sunshine. An eagle, a couple of owls, a few hen harriers and a solitary lapwing for company. And a really quite large (1 metre plus) clearly well-fed grass snake, which was moving alongside me at about my speed for about 20m before disappearing. Largest I've seen in decades.



A few streams to cross, with surrounding trees, otherwise just prairie.

There are two options on the Ruta Teresiana, splitting near Duruelo, site of the first barefoot carmelite order, of which nothing original remains. North takes you to Peñaranda de Bracamonte, a slightly longer way to Alba de Tormes, but the one Santa Teresa walked on her last journey, so the one I'm taking. It has some quite handsome porticoed streets and a plaza, but nothing to set the heart racing. Although my menú del día included a delicious fresh John Dory - presumably farmed, but very tasty.



The flowers from last week in the cemetries are starting to look a little faded. Except where people have used plastic ones. "En los nidos de antaño no hay pájaros hogaño".