Fuente de Cantos is a typical pueblo of Extremadura but, I can’t stress enough the pleasures of staying in hostal El Zaguán de la Plata.  It is a wonderful big house with great rooms, patios,  gardens,  and outhouses which go on forever -a steal at €15 including breakfast.

The hospitalario,  Antonio, is a mine of information.  We fell  to talking about local history with Massimo who,  being Italian, thought that the Romans were the bees’ knees. Then, Antonio, to my amazement,  mentioned the Tartessians, as a very significant people in the pre-roman history of Extremadura. He pointed out the, thought to be, location of Tartessos on a map ( near Cadiz).  He casually mentioned, that there are three villages, in the very remote mountains of Extremadura,  near the Portuguese border,  where, they speak a strange language, thought to be related to ancient Tartessian.

Each village,  has it’s own dialect, each one, unintelligible to the other. ¡Gracias Antonio! The game is a foot!  This is pure Myles na gCopaleen, but if you feel like a big hike, the villages are called San Martin de Treveio, Eljas. and Valverde del Fresco.  They are all available on Google maps but not on Google translate.

Today, I reached Puebla de Sancho Pérez, after a beautiful 20 kilometre walk through open countryside on,  traffic free,  old roads.