Etapa 10: Unquera - Puertas

We had planned a short stage to Llanes as sort of a rest day, so we relaxed in the morning at our wonderful hotel, then had late coffee with oreja, which was like an American "pig ear" pastry. Apparently, the pastry of Unquera is famous, especially the corbatas which we did not try. The owner of the hotel joined us as we sat outside looking out ofçver the river and bridge, and commenced to smoke all over us as we tried to enjoy the rest of our breakfast. She, like most people we´ve spoken with in Spain, was very interested in the Democratic primary, and specifically Barack Obama. He is the popular favorite here, hands down. There was a great internet place across the street where we spent a good deal of time, run by a friendly and very knowledgable tech guy.



Our route out of town at siesta time was first to cross the bridge which was the border between Cantabria and Asturias. We recognized symbols of Asturias immediately, sidrarias (cider houses) and horreos (antique raised grain houses). The Camino went directly up a hill, as usual, which offered a nice view of the river valley where we had spent the night. We passed over the hill into Colombres and saw our first Casa Indiano, another symbol of Asturias, a house from the same period as Victorians, which were built by people returning from South America with money to burn, in the architectural style of Latin America. We stopped for a rest in the town square and were wished good luck by an old woman sitting alone at the cafe.

We soon hit the main highway, where we met a French woman in her 60s returning from Santiago. She seemed very flustered by the way she had just come, shaking from fear of the huge trucks wizzing by. We soon had some close calls of our own, walking along the narrow shoulder.



To our relief, in Buelna the Camino joined a very pretty beach hiking trail called the E-9, which passed along the cliffs, tiny beaches, and through quiet beach villages where we saw many horreos which had been converted into summer beach cottages. The path entered the town of Pendueles, which was an intruiging place for us both. There were some very old structures in different stages of disrepair, empty and with trees growing inside, next to renovated and inhabited stone houses. The place resembled a ghost town, but at the same time, we saw many children playing on the playground in front of the cemetery. Up on the hill above town we saw a train pass by the bright yellow Feve station house (these are so cute) and decided to try to catch the next rain to Llanes, as it was getting late in the afternoon. When we got to the station, the schedule showed that the train we had seen was in fact the last train of the afternoon. We headed for the bus stop in town. The schedule said that a bus would come in 50 minutes, time enough for us to walk the 3K to next village on the same busline, Vidiago. When we reached Vidiago, Carlos called the bus info line and was told that the bus never stopped in these parts. Fantastic.

Back to the highway for what would now be a tiring, long walk to Llanes, arriving after 9:30pm. There was so much construction on the road that the going was difficult, and our shins hurt from a day on hard asphalt. We saw a neon hotel sign on a hill in Puertas, looked at eachother, shrugged, and headed for what was sure to be an expensive bed. We felt we had no other choice. We showered and napped, but the 110K in 4 days had taken a toll and we never made it to dinner at the excellent looking Restaurant and Sidraria Poli where the hotel owner told us the next day that he had waited hoping to have a drink with us.