Thursday, November 3rd

Today’s pictures can be viewed here. Today’s prayer intentions: For Deacon Ralph and Joy Turingan and their daughters.

We read the weather report that said the rain should be over by 10:00 a.m. So we took an extra long morning, had an extra Cafe Con leche, and then decided to head out. But as would happen, the heavens opened and the rains came down! We geared up in our raincoats and headed out because we still have the joy that there are only 4 more days of walking until we reach Santiago!!

As we began our climb up the hill with rivers of water coming down, we passed the chapel of Saint Roque. I shouted out, “Saint Roque, pray for us!” because he is the patron saint of knee problems. The day before as we were making our way into Portomarin, my knee was actually giving out and was becoming a great concern. So this morning I turned my heart to our heavenly family to ask for their prayers and found great strength thinking of my own patron saint, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, whose conversion began with a wounded knee from a cannonball. As we continued on I found inspiration in the continued conversion of my own heart in the coming few days.

Lisa captured this image of a tree clutching still by its roots. A good reminder to just hang in there!

The sun finally came out and we put away our rain gear. After 2 hours of rain, the rest of the day was gorgeous and our hearts were greatly cheered!

The views

We arrived to our hostel and found that it was a lovely large home run by a young woman in her twenties. There were other fellow pilgrims already there. The young woman showed us a family room with a fireplace, a sitting room with a library, and a large dining room where we would have dinner later in the night.

One problem we learned of in the morning was that Lisa somehow contracted a case of bed bugs. She woke up with all kinds of bites all over. We really needed to wash all of her clothes and put her backpack through a dryer. Unfortunately this place only had a washing machine and places to hang clothes. When I inquired about having them call a taxi for me to bring me to the next town, this young woman volunteered another young man who worked there to drive me into town to a local laundromat, wait for me, and then bring me back. (All without expecting any compensation) The hospitality of this region is outstanding!

We really are astounded not only by the hospitality of this young woman running this hostel, but by her amazing cooking skills as well! True restaurant quality and options for Lisa’s vegetarian life!

We went to bed that night happy, well fed, and confident that there would be no more bed bug bites!

Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

Funny little saying with lots of new meaning for us! (Well, for Lisa anyway!)

Buen Camino ❤️🙏

Today’s pictures can be viewed here. Today’s prayer intentions: For Deacon Ralph and Joy Turingan and their daughters.