Atapuerca, Spain

     On a blistery and cold October Saturday, we woke up early and headed north of Madrid to a small town we passed through along the Camino de Santiago called Atapuerca. At first glance, there wasn't much to the town. We found a small cafe, albergue, and about fifty or so houses of locals living in a small enclave 20 km from Burgos. Upon closer inspection, what we found just outside the town was one of the newest finds in the search for the ancient peoples of Europe and Atapuerca has some of the oldest. In the 19th century, a mining company punched holes in the earth to lay track to move minerals. The company went bust a few years later and left the track. Fast forward to the 1970's and a graduate student looking to work on a dissertation and we find the name Trinidad de Torres, the most overlooked person in the story of remains on the Sierra de Atapuerca.  He sacrificed a summer and endured agonizing heat to go in search of bear skeletons for his project. What he found were human remains and artifacts that dated back 800,000 years, much older than anything found before. 

     His mentor, the famous Emiliano Aguirre, helped to bring in a team in the early 80's and start excavations to uncover more remains. There has been a treasure trove of things including the species Homo antecessor. The foundation set up at the site offers a daily tour of a small camp that imitates how they believed the people of the area lived. They also offer a tour of the excavation sites. We found out the hard way while hiking the Camino that we couldn't just show up and go along. We made a reservation and had a guide take us through the camp.

     She took us through various stations to show us how they made weapons, sharpened weapons, and painted the animals they killed on walls.

     They had buildings set up to imitate smoke houses and housing for the people. We were allowed to walk up to them but not inside.

     Here is a depiction of how they believed they buried their dead based on grave sites found.

     There were some interactive parts of the tour. The first one was the use of a boomerang shaped object attached to a cord. If you've ever seen Crocodile Dundee II, you would recognize the apparatus. It was an instrument used for communication by swinging it on the cord. As it cut through the air, it made a buzzing sound that increased and decreased with speed. The tour guide let some of the people try it out. Pictured below, this guy tried to throw the javelins they made for hunting. He would have gone hungry. Another guy was allowed to try the bow and arrow.

     In the tent we could enter, the girl showed us how they made fire with flints. Definitely one of the best tour guides we've ever had.

     After the hour tour of the small campsite, we packed into the bus and headed to the excavation site. The guy explained what they were finding, where they found important pieces, and how the project continued to unearth new treasures.

     That part of the tour wasn't as exciting as we'd expected because we couldn't see much beyond a bunch of scaffolding and digging tools. The public wasn't allowed to get close to the more important places where they were digging.

     After we finished our tour, we stopped into a small cafe near the site and had some lunch before heading on back to Madrid. We had a great day and finally got to visit the site we tried to see when we were hiking the Camino de Santiago. This is a must see for anyone who loves archaeological sites.

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Camino de Santiago - Day 31

Day 31: Arca do Pino - Santiago de Compostela
Distance: 19.2 km(11.9 miles)
Approximate Walking Time: 4-5 hours
Altitude: Start at 357 m(1,171 ft.) and descend down to 288 m(945 ft.).

     Trying to sleep the night before the last day's walk was impossible. I think I woke up at least 7 times throughout the night and each time, I was more intent than the last that it was time to get up. Around 5:00 a.m., I quit fighting the excitement and rolled out of bed. Izzy was already awake. Our Danish and Korean friends were already starting to stir so I knew that they were excited as well. We all washed up and dressed quickly and were out the door by 5:30 a.m. We cut through town instead of backtracking and picked up the trail near a public pool. The part where we entered the woods was a bit confusing because there seemed to be several forks in the path. We had to look carefully to find the yellow arrow but it was there. For the next two and a half hours, we wandered through the woods with the occasional bit along paved road on our way to Santiago. Nothing took away from our excitement.

     The trail entered Santiago from the northeast and looped around the airport. As we passed by, a plane taxied out and took off. It definitely woke us up. Around the airport, we saw that there was a thick fog everywhere but we hoped it would burn off as the sun came up. As you can see from the pictures, it didn't at all. It was hard to take pictures because the camera couldn't find a focal point.

     Previous pilgrims left words of encouragement on the stop sign. Funny it wasn't in Spanish. About 5 km outside of Santiago was the small town of Monte do Gozo. It had the biggest albergue of the entire Camino at 400 beds. Many people hiked there the previous day and woke up to take a leisurely stroll into Santiago. The houses in the town were made of stone and were beautiful.

     There was a huge monument just outside of the albergue. We tried to find a way in to get a stamp but it sat out in the middle of a fenced off field and we couldn't find a way in. Many albergues closed daily for cleaning at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. after the pilgrims left.

     After a couple of long roads, we started to get closer and we could make out the city in the distance. The number of people walking seemed to increase exponentially the closer we got.

     We crossed over the highway and followed the signs through town.

     As we passed more and more buildings and we found ourselves in the city proper, the excitement was palpable. We were a mere few minutes from finishing our 800 km hike.

     Around 10:20 a.m., we reached the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. 31 days after we started hiking in Saint Jean Pied de Port, France. We took some pictures then walked around the corner to Pilgrim Office to get our compostela. The line wasn't very long. After a 10 minute wait, we were able to get our final stamp and our names in Latin on a certificate that verifies we walked the Camino de Santiago. While we were there, we saw our Italian Egyptologist friend.

     After collecting our certificates, we parted ways with everyone so we could go to the bus station and buy tickets and they could get a room and drop off their bags at an albergue. The two Danish guys planned to go on to Finisterre to see the ocean. We visited Finisterre in July and took a picture of the hiker boot plaque at the lighthouse there. We bought overpriced bus tickets for 45 - 50 euros a piece to get back to Madrid on an overnight bus. There were tickets for an express bus that left at 2:30 p.m. and cost 80 euros a piece. We rushed back to the Cathedral for the pilgrims mass given each day at 12:00 p.m. We arrived a bit late because we were looking for a friend and had to stand. The priests read out the names of the countries and starting point of the previous day's arrivals. After a multi language service in German, French, Spanish, English, and Italian, we witnessed one of the most amazing things. The best part of it was the total surprise. The Cathedral was packed with people and the priests prepared the Botafumeiro, which is one of the largest incense burners in the world. It's a ceremony only performed on special days or when the amount of pilgrims is high. They loaded it and set it to swinging. You can see the ceremony at the bottom of the page. The history behind it is that it was designed to spread large amounts of incense and cover up the rank smell of nasty pilgrims. It's had several accidents over the years with no deaths reported. Once, the ropes broke and it flew out of the top window. Can you imagine what someone in the 16th century would have thought of something like that landing at their feet and not killing them?

     We were able to have lunch with the Danes and our Korean friend. We caught up with Shawn and his mother, an Italian guy we met three weeks earlier in La Rioja, a Swiss couple we met the first day, our friend José we met the first day, and our Canadian friend Rick we met the third day. It was great to see everyone and we all felt overjoyed to be there. We all had a drink at a nice cafe at the Hotel Costa Vella. 

     With great sadness, we left Santiago and caught our bus back to Madrid. We arrived early the next morning and went home. The scales showed us we'd lost quite a bit of weight and we felt great. We hope to return and hike the Camino del Norte soon.

                            

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