Day 3 - Camino de Santiago

We started early once again on Day 3 with our buffs on for warmth and headlamps guiding the way in the chilly early morning. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise once again as we walked about 5 km into Hontanas and had our morning Tortilla (a quiche-like egg and potato bake common throughout Spain) and Cafe con Leche.

We left Hontanas soon after breakfast and walked a beautiful stretch of the Camino along a small creek as the sun slowly rose and warmed our backs.

Soon we came upon the ruin of the San Antón monastery. This monastery thrived in the 14th and 15th centuries but fell into ruin in the centuries after as traffic on the Camino dropped sharply in the 16th century. The ruin is now a popular spot to take a rest and take photos, also offering some rooms to pilgrims for overnight stays in a separate building. We spoke with the caretaker there for some time and gave him one of the friendship bracelets we had made for the trip. He gave us a wonderful gift in return - two seashells he had collected from the beach in Portugal the week prior and two Tau necklaces, which were used to identify pilgrims on the Camino in addition to scallop shells and traditional Christian symbols centuries ago!

We then continued the final 5 km into Castrojeriz, our stopping point for the day. The view on the way into Castrojeriz was gorgeous, with a tree-lined street directing us right towards the town's main cathedral and the outcropping of a Roman ruin atop a hill behind town. The final distance was 14.3 km for the day, and we gratefully stopped and got a room at the first pension we had stayed at on this trip. A pension is a private room in a small hotel-like place - generally, someone's home that has been outfitted with extra rooms and a kitchen and bar area to serve pilgrims. We ate pizza for lunch, paella for dinner, chatted with other pilgrims taking a break at the cafe, and explored the town's cathedral before finally calling it a day.