Pilgrim surprise

I should have learned by now that snap judgments are dangerous on the Camino, well anywhere really. So yesterday when I had the afternoon to spend in Aljucén, I went with a couple others to the local bar where we sat outside in the shade on a beautiful cool sunny day. We wound up spending several hours there, moving from a couple of lemon Aquarius ( kind of like Gatorade but much less sweet) to an ice cold beer or two. I didn’t know any of these guys, since I had just joined the Via de la Plata the day before in Mérida where the Mozárabe ends.

It was a very congenial group, a British couple, Canadian guy, Dutch guy and me. Then up comes Antonio, oblivious to the fact that no one but me spoke Spanish. Like a bull in a china shop, he charged into the conversation going on and on in Spanish. I explained that I would have to translate if he wanted anyone else to know what he was saying.

Truth be told, we had much preferred our previous English conversation, but he just kept talking. He asked everyone why they were walking the camino but before anyone had an answer ready, he jumped in to tell his story. Like many Spaniards, he was doing it to fulfill a promise to Santiago. Several years his sister was diagnosed with cancer. Of the 11 brothers and sisters, he was the only good match as a donor for bone marrow. He promised Santiago that if his sister survived, he would walk a camino. She just completed her three year anniversary, and he decided it was time for him to walk. Wow.

The next surprise was that he offered to make dinner for a bunch of us. So a few hours later we were all being served a really yummy paella (minus the mussels and prawns). We all agreed that we had not been very pilgrim-like and were totally undeserving of his kindness. And he said he enjoyed it so much he would like to do it again!Read more