A post from John.

Today was the day of the much feared hike up to O Cebreiro, the highest point along the Camino.  We began the day with an 8 o clock breakfast in a restaurant close to our albergue in Astorga.  After a wonderful breakfast of toast and more toast, we listened to presentations from Jarred and Charlotte and hopped on the bus to begin the drive to the beginning of our hike.  Along our drive, we made three stops; the first was at El Cruz de Ferro.  Meaning The Cross of Iron, it is a place for pilgrims to put a stone and along with that stone leave a memory or idea that one wishes to leave behind with their camino.  I feel like leaving this memory behind was a much more emotional experience for many of us than we had intended, and the ride to the next stop was much calmer.  At the next two stops we saw a cute little stone bridge and a castle in Ponferrada which was built back in the early 1300’s.  As it got later in the day, we realized that it was going to be quite hot so we hurried to the start of our hike up to O Cebreiro.  The climb, although just a piddly 8 Km, was a vicious incline along the beautiful mountains of Spain.  During an ascent comparable to 2 hard hours on a stair-master, our group sweated quite an impressive amount.  Although we may have felt like dying at the time, the view of the distant mountains complemented by bright yellow flowers was well worth the effort.  Although some (Vivek) completed the hike by 1:15, the majority of us arrived a little more than an hour later and spent some time wandering around the quaint city of O Cebreiro at the top of the mountain where we listened to Patrick’s presentation on the church of St. Mary.  At 4 in the afternoon we hopped back on the bus which we took to our hostel for the night.  Unfortunately, the exact time that we arrived at our hostel the rain started, and we all ran as quickly as possible through the rain to our place for the night.  As of now the rain has stopped and we are all taking our own siesta, showering, and eating.  In all, today was one of the more beautiful days along the camino.

Hola from Nanette.
Today we are in Leon and the students discovered the Spanish department store El Corte Ingles. I think many purchases were made.  We had a very informative tour of the beautiful cathedral in Leon and learned alot about Gothic architecture, flying buttresses, and stained glass windows.  We also toured the Romanesque church of San Isidro, the ancient Roman walls of the city, and saw the Casa Botines which is an early work of the architect Antoni Gaudi and was originally built as a drapery shop.  We will see another Gaudi building tomorrow in Astorga, the Bishop's Palace.  Today was a rest day from hiking but tomorrow we have 16 kms to walk before we arrive at our hostel for the evening.  Everyone is gearing up mentally and physically for the big climb up the hill to O'Cebreiro on Friday.  We have all carried a stone from home to leave behind at the Cruz de Ferro before we start the climb.  Traditionally pilgrims leave a stone to symbolize something they no longer want to carry forward in their lives.

Esta Bien from Eric in Puente Villarente

Yesterday we hiked to a very small town called Burgo Ranero. We’re talking small, like one store, a restaurant and a bar. This town runs solely on money made from pilgrims. There was not a lot to do but it was very nice because our hostel had a large open area, where the group laid in the sun, and played hackie sack and soccer. For dinner, a handful of the group prepared salad and pasta for all. It was delicious and everyone was excited to have food that was not bread, meat, and cheese. It has gotten cold here at night, which is strange considering the heat during the day. Today we hiked to Mansilla de las Mulas. The terrain and views have not been as interesting lately, so today a group of us sang for almost our entire hike. We are looking forward to hiking up to O’Cebreio on Friday, which should provide a challenging but rewarding hike.  In Mansilla we found a great local food market. Many of us bought strawberries, which were 1.70 Euros for a kilo. I don’t buy strawberries a lot in the States but I believe they would be at least 5 times this much. We then bused to Puente Villarente, where we will stay for the night.