The last overnight during last November’s tour of the Extremadura region of Spain was in Trujillo — birthplace and home to Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru. That’s his statue in the Plaza Major above. We arrived just as the sun was going down and hurried to squeeze in a walking tour of the town while the light held out. We wound our way up switch-back streets, on our way toward an old fortress that provided outstanding views as the sun set.

Above, the interior of the thirteenth-century church of Santa María la Mayor with its altarpiece by Fernando Gallego. The church was fairly dark when we entered, but our guide demonstrated a box on the wall where you could insert coins to get the interior lighting to come on for a few minutes. An energy-saving feature and fund-raiser all in one!

The next morning I awoke early (thanks partially to a temporally-confused rooster outside my window) and took one last walk through the ancient streets before catching my ride back to Madrid.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts documenting my trip to the Extremadura region of Spain. Many of these images will soon appear in another book in my “Journals of a Travel Photographer” series (you can see other titles in the series here). I’ll post a link here as soon as it’s available but here is a sneak peek of the cover: