Bill Arney

Again posting early afternoon in anticipation of being in a gushingly reviewed albergue that is probably without wi-fi. Started the day with a steep uphill in a heavy rain and anticipating a climb of 400m over the next 7 km into Bodenaya.  The valleys,  which we get to see from above, are beautiful.

Update: Oh boy, was I wrong about this albergue not having wi-fi. It has everything.  David, the host, met us (I was walking today with TP, a photographer from Ireland who spends half the year in India), welcomed us to “our home,” offered tea, coffee,  beer… and chatted while we settled in. Then, before doing the paperwork,  he told us the rules of the house. “The first you know already.  This is your house. You are welcome to anything in the fridge, coffee, whatever there is. Then, we will have our family dinner around 8. When you get out of your clothes from today, please put them in that basket. I will wash and dry them tonight and they will be ready for you in the morning. At the end of dinner we will decide together,  like a family,  when the family will wake up in the morning. Everyone will wake together; alarms and phones are not permitted.” Not surprisingly,  David is friends with Don Ernesto from Güemes and with the other Camino David, the center of Casa de los Dioses outside of Astorga. On one wall David has a picture of a pilgrim from 1917, whom he calls “our (the Davids and Ernesto) god.” “You see that he is carrying two bags. One contains food for himself,  the other food for others.  It’s a reminder that pilgrimage used to be hard,  but one always shared and helped others. You had to.” Next to the picture is an embroidery of the Spanish version of a phrase we discussed in class, “el verdadero peregrino no exige, agradece”: “A true pilgrim does not demand, but gives thanks.” Next to that, in the wall, is a stone from the last time, in 2010, the Holy Door in the cathedral in Santiago was unbricked and opened for the Holy Year. The house, our house, is filled with history,  fellow feeling, and good spirit. Right now, we are six peregrinos, two friends, and David,  and everyone seems to know we are all lucky to be here now.

Oh, and it’s all donativo, “and please put the money in the box because I don’t like to touch the money.  It’s more beautiful that way.”