Today’s pictures can be viewed here. Today’s prayer intentions: for Karen Byrne’s friend Nancy, whose husband Art is having surgery on Monday to have a stimulator implanted in his brain to relieve severe Parkinson’s tremors.

We had a beautiful start to the day today (Thursday, October 13th). I think we may have been the last pilgrims to leave the albergue! Our shoes were the last ones in the cubby this morning!

After a couple of cups of Cafe Con leche, we walked just down the road to the local parish to do morning prayer. We were so surprised to walk inside the church and find a beautiful area dedicated for pilgrims to sit and pray. There were Bibles in multiple languages and a little fire pit used for lighting candles for prayer intentions.

After morning prayer we found a stairway that went up to an old bell tower. The community has transformed this into a place to host pictures of the people who have lived in this community over the last few hundred years.

There are too many to post here but you can see all of them in the photo album for today.

As we left Hontanas, we were excited to know we are more than halfway to our destination of Santiago de Compostela

As we walked We came upon the ruins of an old convent of San Antón. I can only imagine the beauty of this place during its glory! Now it is used as a primitive hostel. Pilgrims can come and join in a communal preparation of a meal and spend the night in the ruins. No running water, no electricity but they eat dinner by candlelight and have an extraordinary experience.

As we came into Castrojeriz, we saw the old ruins of a castle up on the hill and visited the church which had some beautifully restored art.

We had a special treat at the hostel that we are staying at today. It is run by a couple. The man is Spanish and the woman is Korean. Lisa, being vegetarian, has struggled to find good food on the Camino that is satisfying for her vegetarian diet. What a wonderful treat we found at this hostel with multiple vegetarian options for her.

In this final picture you can see the folks we had dinner with tonight. Next to Lisa is a woman named Francis from Washington DC. We had a wonderful discussion with her tonight about our Catholic journey and about faith and religion. She is just beginning the Camino with this being her second day.

The woman next to her is named Jolynn, and we have met her at least four or five times on this Camino so far. Today was a special day for her as tomorrow is her birthday and her husband Gary surprised her by showing up on the Camino today to wish her a happy birthday and joined us for dinner.

We were talking with Francis today about how the Lord provides us with exactly what we need on the camino. Sometimes it’s a hard day’s walk, sometimes it’s an easy path with beautiful weather. Sometimes it’s hours of solitude and quiet and sometimes it’s a festive communal dinner singing happy birthday to a new friend!

Buen Camino ❤️🙏

Today’s pictures can be viewed here. Today’s prayer intentions: for Karen Byrne’s friend Nancy, whose husband Art is having surgery on Monday to have a stimulator implanted in his brain to relieve severe Parkinson’s tremors.