Three of our friendly Brazilian pilgrims set out before dawn this morning when the stars were still shining brightly. We’ve been lucky with the weather, except for a downpour Janine and I were caught in last week in Astorga. Yesterday, during afternoon tea, a pilgrim described a hail storm the previous day in Astorga as having “cherry-sized” hailstones, and then corrected himself, saying “maybe more like blueberries.” 😂 

After the pilgrims had all left, we began our morning jobs. Janine said that our days here are like “Groundhog Day.” In many ways, she’s right—the mornings blend into one another with little variation. What makes every day unique is the arrival of the pilgrims in the afternoon. Today, we welcomed fourteen new faces from across the world—seven from Italy, two from Denmark, and others coming from Austria, Australia, the United States, Germany, and Taiwan. People from all over the world are drawn to walk this unique and ancient path.

With the steady supply of stale bread accumulating, we decided to make bread pudding for tea today. White bread doesn’t last long, going stale after just a day. What isn’t repurposed for cooking, ends up as feed for Susanna’s chickens. In return, we buy eggs from Susanna for all the baking Janine does.

For the most part, it was a typical day at Refugio Guacelmo until tea time. A noisy truck rumbled by. It was the gas man who came to deliver three new propane tanks and take away the empties. Then six more pilgrims began trickling in throughout the evening. Until today, we had no new arrivals after 5 PM tea time.

We thought the day’s arrivals had ended by almost 10 PM. The door was locked, and we were turning in for the night when the doorbell rang. In the midst of brushing her teeth, Janine ran downstairs to answer it. She was met by a young Italian man who was escorted to Refugio Guacelmo by the village matriarch. She saw him walking by and insisted he come here, refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer. We welcomed him in, completed the paperwork, showed him to the showers and to his bed for the night. 

The days may feel repetitive at times, especially in the morning, but the arrival of each new pilgrim makes the day different. Today was no exception.

Here are a couple of photos of Refugio Guacelmo: the reception area and the very nice “barn.”