Before Manuel and I began walking this morning at 4 a.m., it hadn’t occurred to me that the weather in Extremadura ever changed. But for some minutes at that hour we felt refreshing rain drops, and clouds with little humidity kept temperatures down mercifully below 30C degrees till after noon today. We needed the cooling break. We walked 38 kilometers (24 miles) today from Mérida to Alquéscar (KM 259). Leaving Mérida and late Saturday night Disco club revelers behind us, we walked past “Proserpina Reservoir” which since Roman times has fed the city’s aqueduct.
With our early start, we beat the Pilgrim cycling peloton to Algucén, where, all together, we enjoyed breakfast at a small plaza side taberna. The menu was hot café and the staple “bocadillos” toast, with freshly diced tomato liberally olive oiled. Thanks to a cleaning woman, we got to see the inside of a beautiful village church and so blessed, we headed back out to desert solitude. During one long desert like stretch my guidebook promised we would see no humans. We saw none … for hours. We are on the Via Romano a good part of the time—centuries old imperial road. It’s marked with distinctive large green cubes.
We are guests tonight with other pilgrims at the “Albergue de Peregrinos Casa Miseracordia” , a convent with parrots caged in a beautiful tree shaded, flowered interior courtyard. It doubles as a shelter for disabled men and is a true “refuge”. We Pilgrims have enjoyed a communal evening dinner meal and now dormitory lodging, all for a donation only.
