la rioja, y castilla leon

yesterday we left estella and headed to burgos. on the way we visited several monestaries including some where the first instance of written spanish occurred. it was around 40 degrees and raining in the mountains where we visited in san millán de la cogolla. after this we descended to santo domingo de la calzada and los famosos gallos. this is the life! we made it to burgos last night where we went to the centro and the catedral that took over 500 years to finish. burgos is where the famous¨el cid¨ is from. the political climate here is one of constant disagreement and problems. in the northern area of spain- including navarra- the basque people (vascos en español) have been resisting their inclusion in the nation of spain since the early 1800s. Speaking with Spainards, it is difficult for them to understand the idea of only one national identity- their prefer to find their identities in whichever province that they were born. There is a strong sense of counternationalism in el país vasco, catalunya (which includes barcelona), and los gallegos. IT has been incredible to meet people from all over the world doing the pilgrimage for their own reasons. Here are a few pictures for now... our group the day before we began in the pyrenes where charlamenge´s nephew roland was slain by the first muslim invasion.
the view from our basque hostal in in the middle of navarra
this is the famous puente de la reina- in where else but the city puente de la reina!
this is an incredible old church from the 13th century in estella

this is a picture from our trek through basque country (northern spain near the border of france)