Day 4, Summer Camino: Belorado to San Juan de Ortega (26km) - Walking Into a Buried History

Day 4 begins before sunrise. Belorado to San Juan de Ortega covers 26km, and it starts kind. Cafes line the early road, cafe after cafe promising freshly squeezed orange juice, Café con leche, and tortilla. I stop at two when I could easily have stopped at five. Then the hill climb changed everything. The struggle sets in on the climb. The hill is long and the light seems to dim with the forrest canapé, though the sun hasn’t moved. I sit, eventually, at a monument marking where 300 people were summarily executed and buried in a mass grave during the Spanish Civil War. Some indigenous cultures speak of nearness to an event through place, not time. I feel exactly that, standing there. Ground remembers what calendars forget. San Juan de Ortega arrives with me spent, legs done, mind still back at the monument. A monastery-turned-Albuquerque hosts me in for the night, and my familiar rhythm takes over: lunch, shower, laundry, siesta, reflection. Find dinner, read and sleep. Ready to go again before sunrise. Few places suit that pattern like this one. Some walks end where they were always meant to. #Camino #CaminoDeSantiago #AshOnTheRoad #PilgrimageWalk #SpanishCivilWar #Pilgrim #SummerCamino