Zabaldika

Phil and I packed up and made it to the car rental place by 10 am. We have a little tan 4 door car of a brand I am not familiar with. It is a 6 speed manual so we stuttered along at first until Phil remembered the way to drive a manual. We arrived at the albergue about 11 am.

The current hospitaleros are Spanish and have been here several times. Jose Luis, the male part of the team, is in charge of a couple of albergues over on the Ebro where we walked a few weeks ago and knows the Canadian hospitalero, Paul.

They've had between 2 and 20 pilgrims per day so far. At this albergue the nuns are in charge of the spiritual care of pilgrims. The hospitaleros do the cooking, cleaning, and generally take care of the pilgrims' physical needs. There are 18 beds total.

We made a trip to the grocery store to get a few things because tomorrow is a holiday. Then we all had lunch together with the sisters, Mari Sol, Mari Sun, and Barbara as a send off for Jose Luis and his wife, Charro. Tonight is their last night and we will start tomorrow. The sisters ordered a catered lunch of roast lamb and potatoes with salad and croquettes. Yum!

More about the workings of the albergue in the next few days.Read more