Day 21: La Isla to Villaviciosa

October 2, 2022. Our day started with food uncertainty. We packed up and left a beautiful rural hotel near La Isla, but uncertain of where to get breakfast or buy food for a difficult mountainous trek without access to many services. There were no markets in our town and all were closed as we walked into the only large town, Colunga at 8 am. As soon as we saw the familiar sight of a busy bar with numerous pilgrims sitting in al fresco seating and then on into the bar, we relaxed. We went in and found a nice little table. The bartender said the tortilla would not be finished for 15 minutes and we were happy to sip a strong cafe con leche while waiting for it to be delivered hot and fresh to our table. While waiting we chatted up Mandy and Caroline from Toledo, OH, and Montreal, Canada.

As we left the bar-restaurant we hoped to stop at Carrefour on the highway. As we tried to approach it we realized it was only accessible from the freeway and even though we were no more than 70 meters away, we couldn’t cross through a farmer’s orchard, cattle, electric fence and thorn bushes to get to it. We faced a mountainous hike with very little food. Alice urged me to have faith that the Camino would provide the answers. People have walked this path for 1000 years and none of them had internet of GPS. I agreed, we would go forward looking for signs of the food we would need.

As we wound up the first large hill we came across an elder farmer. We asked him about food and he said we could certainly find a woman selling food in La Llera. We continued on up the mountain in the cool morning, now clouding up. We enjoyed seeing the numerous Hosseos, or typical grainaries found in northers Spain that I mentioned yesterday. We came to La Llera, but no sign of anyone selling food. Continuing on the walking was easy. We were piling up the kilometers fairly easily and not using up much water or food. We came to an intersection with the National highway where we had to decide to follow the Camino into the hills or seek a restaurant on N-632. We climbed up to the restaurant, but we should have remembered — no meals before 1 pm in Spain. Arrgg! Looking at the map, we decided to follow the highway parallel to the Camino. The walking was much more level and more likely to find services.

After 1 km, a bar restaurant came into view! La Victoria Bar Restaurant was open and there were some men eating breakfast outside. The man at the bar was very friendly and offered to make pintxos for us, and when they came they were very generous sized. This combined with our cafe con leche would get us through the rest of today’s Camino stage.

We followed N632 for about 3-4 km and my map said there should be a connector road at that point. As we tried to walk down the questionable double track, we ran into a giant pile of manure. This dissuaded us from advancing and we decided to continue on N632. But a man yelled from a house across the street, Where are you trying to go? I yelled back, To the Camino!. He motioned how to wind around the house and find the promised narrow road. In addition he asked if we needed water or would like a Coca Cola. The thanked him and declined, but were thankful for the care of people along the Camino.

The rest of our 5 km hike into Villavicioso was unremarkable. As we approached our hotel, we saw a Sider mill/restaurant and ordered a bottle of cider. The bottle, that cost 3.40 euro, was fresh and cool. The young Cuban waiter poured it from a height so that the aeration of the cider would improve the flavor. We’ve been coached on the height, the angle of the glass and the speed that the drink should be downed now. We found our hotel, a very classy urban hotel on a pedestrian walkway with numerous tables and people eating their mid-day meal. Safe and sound we were thankful for the blessings of the Camino.