Camino de Santiago Day Twelve to Fifteen

Tosantos to San Juan de Ortega to Burgos

We left our humble hospital de peregrinos in Tosantos where Santiago provides such amazing hospitality. Simple meal of lentils and chorizo made by all of us, and a simple prayer time in the capilla upstairs.

We stopped for coffee and ran into Mike and his daughter Eliza. For his 60th birthday he invited his three young adult children to join him for a portion of the Camino. The other two had already split off, but Eliza was there for his actual birthday. We sang happy birthday. 

Mike and I were in a covenant group that met every year in the 1990s. For two or three days we would check in with each other and then the whole group would lay hands on each of us and pray for our spiritual life, family and ministry. Those were formative years for all of us—and for me: living into first call, balancing work and family, dealing with leadership challenges and (in our last year together) discerning my next call. 

Mike saw my post on Facebook and wondered where we were on the Camino. Turns out we started the same day in France but we were ahead one day. By Logroño we caught up and shared tapas. We ended up staying in San Juan de Ortega and caught up on life while we soaked our feet in cold salt water and watched our clothes dry. In life we have logged a few more miles since we last met, and it was good to reflect on God’s faithfulness along the way. And we enjoyed the mass and pilgrims blessing in the church.

In the morning we left the hostel in San Juan de Ortega in the dark—not because we wanted to, but because the first pilgrims up at 5:30 made it hard to sleep. Nonetheless, we had the gift of an amazing sunrise.

It was a rainy long day to Burgos, where we took a rest day to nurse our aching feet.

I came to Burgos in 1981 at the beginning of my post Madrid, seven week Eurail adventure. I remember the El Cid statue and the Cathedral—it was special to return. It was a great place to rest—beautiful sites and great food. We went to the same place two nights in a row with the same server and the same question: what should we eat? We were not disappointed—big portions and cheap!

In the morning we got a late start. It was raining pretty hard. We stopped at the cathedral to get our credential stamped. The stamps show where you ate, worshipped, or slept and the hand written date. Eventually, this will prove to the pilgrim office in Santiago that we completed our pilgrimage.



Because of the rain and the late start we stopped at Rabé de las Calzadas, just 13km from Burgos. It’s a small albergue with pilgrims from Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida, Germany and San Sebastian. We shared a family meal of chicken soup with noodles, iceberg mixed salad and tortilla española. After dinner a few of us went to vespers at the Sisters of Charity Convent a few doors down. At the end of the sing prayer time they blessed us and gave us a medallion from their order. The leader said, the psalms say we have eyes but cannot see. The Camino gives us the opportunity to see with the eyes of our heart. 

One last thing. This morning I was reflecting on the relationships on the Camino and my “affiliation need.” I’m relational, but I like knowing who we are going to be with. The Camino offers so many opportunities to meet people from all over the world, but once we click with people I want to continue those relationships. Everyone is walking at their own pace and we don’t know from day to day who we’ll be with. When you take a rest day, you risk not seeing the community you’ve formed. It sounds a bit strange, but it’s something else on the Camino I have to let go of.

But we stopped in Tardejo this afternoon for lunch and we ran into two Tosantos friends. We shared quite a bit together making dinner and praying in the service with Santiago. We hugged each other like old friends and sat with them. It’s a mother and daughter from Australia who have had their challenges but have also been surprised at how blessed they’ve been from the very beginning of their trip. They didn’t plan on this being a “spiritual” Camino, but it’s become that for them. They also took a rest day in Burgos and were happy to see us. 

God is good to remind us of the importance of fellow pilgrims along the way from two days and two decades.