Day 21 – Carrión de los Condes to Teradillos de los Templarios

27.5 km ~ 38,797 steps

Song of the Day: Only Love – Ben Howard

What a beautiful day, not simply the weather but the company. Today, we walked all but 2 km with people.

We started off as early as we could, having been warned this 17 km stretch would be brutal with no services right off the bat. I wanted to make sure we got through that before it got too hot for Maverick. So despite how amazing our night had been, we left Carrión under the cover of darkness. As we made it through the outskirts of town, I have to admit I did have a small twinge of fear skirting by a gas station with only one car at it in the dark. I suppose that’s only rational, to feel fear in that sort of situation, when you’re alone in the dark as a young girl passing by a seedy looking gas station with one parked car with its lights on. Luckily I’ve got Maverick with me, though honestly I think he’s more of a scaredy cat than me half the time. (he has since grown up so hopefully he will be a scary guard dog for the VF)

Anyway, just as we were passing this gas station, another pilgrim came walking up behind us. I figured there was safety in numbers and fell into step with him. It just so happened we ended up walking the next 18 km together! He was an older gentleman, probably in his late sixties or seventies from Taiwan. Over the next few hours, I was able to learn all sorts of history from him that I had never even known about regarding Southeast Asia. We laughed and played with Maverick and talked and suddenly that 17 km stretch of nothing today didn’t seem so bad.

Contrary to what guidebooks and many other pilgrims say, there actually is a stop between Carrión and Calzadilla. It’s just a little food truck/hut kind of cafe, but it has shade, and places to sit, and should you need a coffee or food you have the option. Maverick and I had been prepared for this long stretch of nothing, so we actually didn’t get anything, but we stopped with our new friend as he got a coffee and some breakfast and rested our feet. I took off Maverick’s booties for him and began to message his paw pads while I sat down in the dust.

The older gentleman from Taiwan looked down at us and laughed before saying, “When you have a son, I worry you will love him more than the son” to which I replied, “he is my son!” which made everyone around us laugh but is so true. Maverick is my little child, no denying that.

One of my favorite people I have met on this trip, a lady from France named Lily, was there with us and she went on to tell me that the love Maverick and I share is inspiring. That she can see how we have a special bond, and that it is one she herself had with her little girl and seeing us brings her joy. That Maverick brings all of them happiness and love along the way and should we need anything, they will be there to help. It almost brought me to tears it was so sweet. There truly is something special happening here along this Way of St. James

When we finally reached Calzadilla, there was an almost celebratory vibe in the air among the pilgrims. Everyone was lounging about, eating food, buying drinks at the cafes, as if it was a thrill to be done with that long stretch. We dug into some breakfast and filled our waters and then chatted with a few locals. After a nice long break, we set off without our new friend from Taiwan, as he was choosing to stay behind a bit longer.

We weren’t alone for long, though. Before we even left the town, we met up with the sweetest boy who Maverick simply adores that we’ve been bumping into for over a week now. He said goodbye to the people he was chatting with so that he could walk along with Maverick and I and we were able to walk the next 6 km with him and finally truly get to know him. While I had thought this whole time he was from Spain because his Spanish was so good, I learned he was from Italy and we had fun now laughing over our different mixtures of Spanglish and Italinesh??? PS Italian to Spanish goes a lot more smoothly 😂 So smoothly, it took an hour of talking to him before I could pick out all the Italian words he would slip in because his Spanish wasn’t perfect that I had never noticed before. This whole time I had just been thinking he knew far more Spanish than me and was using words I didn’t know yet. Come to find out they’ve been Italian words this whole time!!

We ended up staying in a lovely albergue in Terradillos with our new friend and also his friend Gabriella, who was a real sweetheart, and watching the World Cup with them during dinner.