Atapuerca

4 Sept 2025

A lovely and “gemütlich” (cozy) evening last night as there were only three of us guests at the Albergue. One, a German policeman Yannick, spoke only a little English and no Spanish, the other, a Spanish woman Amaya from Barcelona spoke excellent English but no German. Dinner was fun but mentally exhausting as I bounced back and forth between three languages to make sure everyone understood all the lively conversation!

Walking today was wonderful- it was rather cool because although it was sunny I was mostly in the forest and the breeze kept the temperature down. Some cheeky pilgrims used a few of the pesky stones in the dirt roadway to make a sign.,.

Atapuerca is the town near some caves where archeologists are still excavating a treasure trove of bones and tools from the Neolithic and Paleolithic periods. The oldest known fossil of a “human” was discovered here in 1992; Homo antecessor from 1 million years ago. I got to town in time to attend a tour of the archeological center and ride the tour bus to the cave dig site. The tour was in Spanish but I feel like I got 80% or more of what she said. Super interesting!!!