Cockerels in a golden cage

Spain day 6 : Ventoso - santo Domingo. 31km

Strange night...nodded off at 9.30 ish, slept for hours then woke up and went to bathroom, slept for some more hours then woke again and tried to see what time it was. My mp3 machine suggested it was 7am but this had to be wrong as everyone was still and not yet rustling sleeping bags into rucksacks. Thinking it might be the time difference i decided it might be 6am, but still this seemed a little late. Switched on my mobile phone which read 11.19pm......now i was really confused and lay awake til 1am in disbelief. Eventually went back to sleep. having bought individual eggs yesterday i was able to have substantial poached egg breakfast. The older french couple (who cut corners across fields) wished me well and i set of again with Antya from Berlin. We missed a yellow arrow early on though and were left stood on the edge of the village unsure where to go next. i decided to retrace and pick up the arrows as we seemed to be turning in the wrong direction but she wanted to continue on as she thought ´maybe, it is this way´. Not entirely comfortable with a ´maybe´ that might involve walking several unnecessary kilometres extra i turned back and soon found the arrows we had missed which did indeed point in the opposite direction. I perhaps should have tried to catch her but it would have taken a long time and i was sure she would realise and retrace the way soon enough. i never saw her again.
Took picnic stop in the shade of a church belltower atop of which sat the most collosal birds nests i have ever seen. They surely belonged to a kind of prehistoric creature or else it was some kind of economical house share system in the bird world.
As i picnicked El boracho and the Mexican passed waving and calling salutations and then stopping up the street by an old woman who was chargrilling peppers on the pavement outside her home. later i walked with Lugomir (whom i renamed Boromir, for sake of ease, as in Lord of the Rings), from Bulgaria who had been living in Asturias in northern spain and sold me on its charms even further than my already keen interest. He told me a very sad tale of the events that had led him up to walking the camino and was very candid.
we arrived in a small place called cirueña where i had expected a rustic albergue and little else but a few trees. Instead there was a brand new housing estate with parks and play areas and community outdoor swimming pool, just no people...not a soul. The shutters were closed and ´For sale´signs hung around. Most pueblos seemed deserted when walking through but they were usually old villages and it seemed fitting enough but this was just disturbing. We walked on through quickening our pace as it felt a little as if a 3 minute warning siren had gone off and everyone had disappeared down their fallout bunkers and we had somehow missed it. Downhill to Santo Domingo where after some odd ´miracle´occurred years ago involving some chickens in the church tower they now keep a pair of chickens, hen and cockerel, in a gold cage in the belltower and the town is famous for it. Everyone comes to see them, indeed that evening at least 20% of spain were there. Cockerel souvenirs abounded and you could even buy cakes in the shape of roosters. Still it made a change from the usual preoccupation with the Camino. Though i did find a Peregrino Pastry in the bakery alongside the sugar hens.