May 15 Santo Domingo to Belorado

A strange day for sure.  After a fantastic night's sleep at the Parador in Santo Domingo, we awoke to a pounding rain.  We had a terrific breakfast at the Parador (the best yet, but also by far the most expensive) and patiently waited for the rain to slow down.  There were many other hikers in the Parador in the same situation, waiting for the rain to slow down.  We waited, and we waited.  REgretably, we all finally decided to take the bus to Belorado.  Amazingly, what was a 40 minute dry bus ride would have been a 6+ hour slog in the rain.  We arrived in Belorado around 1:00 and retreated to a cafe/bar with several other bus riders to catch up on email, have lunch, drink Spanish wine, and make future reservations for rooms.

Everyday we hear stories of people left without rooms.  The guy running our hotel told me that May is the busiest month for this portion of the Camino.  We heard the same thing last night.  We have booked our rooms about 5 days ahead at this point.  The guy running our hotel also told me that this has been the coldest and wettest May since he started running this hotel 9 years ago.

This evening, we watched another small town festival.  This one was some celebration for to farmers.  There were dancers and a small band.  I think it is a sort of well wishes for a good crop.

We have met a surprising number of middle aged women on the Camino, who are either walking by themselves or in small groups with other women.  Today we had lunch with a woman from Washington state here by herself.  Also joining us was an American woman who lives in Geneva, Switzerland, walking by herself.  Her husband works for Proctor and Gamble in Geneva and she has two high schoolers in Switzerland.  

Tomorrow we will have a challenging 16 mile walk, with lots of climb.  The weather forecast is cold, about 38 degrees F in the morning, climbing to the mid 40's.  It is supposed to be dry in the morning, but start raining again around noon.  So, we have decided to leave early in the morning, around 7 am to miss as much of the rain as we can.