I Walk the Way

This morning started like most on the Camino. The town I stayed in had quite a few hills..steep hills while leaving so it was a challenging start to the day to say the least. Soon after town I passed by Irache, which is a winery. They have a fountain that the pilgrims can drink wine from. However, today there was no wine. I suspect some pilgrim filled a water bottle and it got turned off. Even if I didn’t get to drink it’s still pretty cool.

Just a few minutes out of Irache I stopped in the shade of a tunnel when I heard a chorus of “la la la la la” going back and forth between a mother and her young daughter. As they came into the tunnel I joined in and we all had a good laugh.  We began walking again and sharing stories. One subject was how the special moments happen on the Camino. It was something she had also been talking with her daughter about earlier. After a little while we came to another really steep hill. I told them I was going to be going slow and didn’t want to hold them up. The mother turned and asked the daughter if she wanted to walk fast or with me. The little girl said she wanted to walk with me, without a moment of hesitation. It was a moment I’ll never forget. 
After we walked a bit more we finally entered a little village. As we came in there was an elderly man walking by and we greeted him which spawned a conversation. He then invited the three of us up to see the church. It was very special. Then we had a bite to eat at the bar. While we were sitting there another pilgrim asked if anyone knew where to find Pablito. Apparently the man we met is written up in a guide book.  

As we left that town there was another brutal hill. Again I told them I didn’t mind if they went ahead. The young girl again said no she wanted to continue walking with me. As the sun beat down I was really fading but was energized by this girl. Her mother walked a bit faster and she fell in right behind me and followed my pace. It was quite precious.

In the distance at the top of the hill I could see a building I recognized. I told them there was a pool of water inside. We all got excited at the prospect of shade and water.  As we got a bit closer we could see a lot of activity going on. There was a big tractor and they had a generator pumping water out. When we got there we could see the activity was really going on inside. Apparently people had thrown rocks inside and it had blocked the flow of water to the city.  So they had drained it and the people of the community were all working together to fix the problem. We were also told it was the “water of love”.  This led to us going down to the very bottom and filling our water bottles with the delicious spring water. Also a nice bit of wetting the head. It was most refreshing.  One of the guys told us it was the first time the water was not there and we were the first pilgrims to ever put our feet at the bottom. 

After that it was just a few more minutes into town. When we arrived at the albergue we were told there was a special mass at the church because today is the day of Santiago. I went with my new friends and we were brought in front of the church for a special pilgrim blessing. 

Now, I rest and elevate my swollen leg.