Camino Ignaciano: Luceni to Alagon (Day 8)

Day 8: Luceni to Alagon

Stage 6 of the Camino

No, it's not St. Ignatius.
A metal sculpture of Sancho Panza, a character in Don Quixote, found in Alcala De Ebro

Luceni to Alcala de Ebro

Today's walk started out in Luceni, a small municipality of Zaragosa, going towards Alcala de Ebro. We walked through farm lands, many of which were planted with corn. The corn fields were a curious sight for us, not because we don't have them in the Philippines, but because the corn was not harvested and was left to dry in the sun. It seemed such a waste of food for us who live in a country where so many are hungry! We later learned that the corn was intentionally left that way because these would later be converted in animal feed. Ah, the difference between the First World and Third World countries! 

Corn fields as far as the eyes could see!

Alcala de Ebro to Cabanas de Ebro

Alcala de Ebro was the first pitstop. The name Alcala referred to fort or castle. Hence, Alcala de Ebro meant "castle by the river Ebro". It was here that we started to see Moorish influences, especially in their architecture. Even Catholic churches were built with Moorish designs, such as bell towers resembling Moor citadels. 

It was said that this was the area where St. Ignatius met a Moor on his journey towards Montserrat. The Moor highly doubted the virginity of Mother Mary and engaged St. Ignatius in a debate. Offended and wanting to defend Our Lady, St. Ignatius wanted to run after the Moor to kill him. He reached a fork in the road and decided to let his horse make the call. If the horse chose the path which the Moor took, he would kill the latter. Well, the horse was more in tune with God, so it chose the other way. :)    

Cabanas de Ebro to Alagon

Up to this point, we have never walked along the highway for long stretches. We would usually just cross it, or walk along a rough path that runs beside the highway. This time, we had to walk on the side of the highway itself, with speeding cars and large trucks zooming by. Logically, it would have been a safety issue, but being from Manila where pedestrians waltz in and out of traffic all the time, I wasn’t alarmed. In fact, I felt very much at home with the traffic and even brought out my umbrella to shade myself from the sun. It must have been a strange sight for the Europeans to see a girl walking along the highway with an umbrella. 

Finally, we were back along countryside pathways. Passing through villages, we often encountered dogs barking at us, warily observing if we were threats to their owners' properties. In this route to Alagon, a curious sight met us. One of the houses we passed had a pair of unusual guard "dogs" -- a pair of geese stood near the gate and energetically honked us away from their master's property! 

Alagon

Finally, we arrived at Alagon! 

Alagon is a municipality in Zaragosa. To enter the center of the village, we had to climb a short but steep flight of stairs, which led us to winding narrow streets and eventually to the town plaza. For such a small place, it had three huge churches, each only a few blocks away from the other one. It seemed like a pity though, as there were no people around. The churches were all locked and the bell towers have become nesting places of storks. 

The Iglesia de San Juan Bautista found at the end of the street - Its belfry had been overtaken by storks. It was closed but the small prayer room was open. 

Storks' nests at the belfry of Iglesia de San Juan Bautista

The Iglesia De La Virgin Del Castillo - The Church had a small courtyard and its gates resembled castle fortresses. But it looked deserted! 

The locked gates of Iglesia De La Virgen Del Castillo

The more famous Iglesia de San Pedro Apostol built with Gothic-Mudejar architecture - Its imposing bell tower is said to be built over an old minaret of an Arab mosque. 

A closer look at Iglesia de San Pedro Apostol

I love meeting the local people and seeing their different personalities. After a few minutes of walking around Alagon, Geri, Bob and I decided to have lunch at a nearby restaurant while waiting for our companions. (Unknown to us, most of them opted not to climb the steep stairs into town and stayed in the bus. And they thought we were lost!) The restaurant near the San Pedro Church didn't have an English menu, nor did the menu have pictures. The lady manning the bar just shrugged nonchalantly at us, but her husband spotted our dilemma and motioned us to the computer near the door. He had Google Translate on and started typing out the menu choices one by one to explain to us. Talk about ingenuity and customer service! Needless to say, he got our business! 

After a while, our guide German found us who were supposedly "lost". He was so gracious about it, waving off the inconvenience our misunderstanding caused and joining us for a quiet but delicious lunch before bringing us to Zaragosa.