Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Today we woke up early, and we got the best start we have ever had on the day. Betty is definitely feeling better. The weather has cooled a bit, and the hike over the mountains from Villafranca to Atapuerca was pretty chilly at times. It’s a massive relief after the hot days of hiking we had last week.
Our stage today was about 19 km (almost 12 miles), and it was pretty breezy. Betty really led the way, and I even had a hard time keeping up at times.
Today I’ve been thinking a lot about communication. We’ve spent so much time together as a family over the past few months, and it’s forced us to work on our communication. It’s not perfect, and we still have lots of moments of tension. But I’m grateful for all of the practice we are getting.
Tonight we are sleeping in a town called Atapuerca. I’m so happy to be here. It’s an archeological hotspot. The oldest human remains in Europe are found here. The oldest date to around 1.3 million years ago. I can’t really wrap my brain around that number, but it’s just super old. The mountains form a kind of funnel here that makes it so any game moving from the northeast to the center of the Iberian peninsula have to travel through this valley, so it’s been a place humans have come to hunt for forever. It’s the starting point for my Iberian history and culture class every fall, and now I’ve been here. I’m really happy about that!
We met an Australian guy named Peter at our albergue today. He’s super nice, and he had lots of questions about the church. He’s actually been to two temple open-houses in Australia, and he’s visited the church’s Polynesian Cultural Center at BYU-Hawaii. I love meeting people who know and respect the church.
We initially requested 6 beds in this albergue, and the hospitalero put us in a room with 7 beds. When the lady he was going to put in the room with us saw that there were kids, she refused the bed. So Betty paid the extra $15, and now we’ve got the whole room (and bathroom) to ourselves! It’s such a blessing to have a bit of privacy. Especially after last night, when a Brazilian lady got mad at Betty because she (Betty) was organizing her pack in the room, and the Brazilian lady tripped over it and fell.
We are all going to be so grateful to get home and have our own space again. No more disposable sheets on crummy beds. No more constantly telling everyone to keep their voices down so we don’t bother people. Just a few more weeks (hopefully)!
