It’s Groundhog Day again. By 8 AM, we had wished “Buen Camino” to all our pilgrims, or so we thought. Somehow, we’d missed Edwin, who was still sound asleep in his tent out in the backyard. A ring of the bell got him up and he made his getaway after a simple breakfast of coffee, bread, jam, and leftover cake from yesterday’s tea. It’s always interesting to see the variety of departures each morning—some with leisurely goodbyes after wrapping toes with sheep’s wool, and others like Edwin who got up late and had to dash.

With the kitchen cleaned up, I went to the garden to collect fallen plums for another batch of jam. This time, I made five jars instead of just two. There’s a certain kind of satisfaction in turning these tasty plums that would have gone to waste into something delicious.

Janine had planned to make bread pudding with all our leftover stale bread, but the bread had turned moldy. Her apple lemon cake came to the rescue, made with apples from the garden. It turned out perfectly this time – not easy with our quirky oven. There’s something welcoming and homey about the smell of freshly baked cake and simmering plum jam when pilgrims arrive.

Our first arrivals today were fellow Canadians, hailing from Ontario and Alberta. That makes three Canadians so far during our nine days as hospitaleras. It’s hard to believe that in just six days, we’ll be training the new team and the following day we’ll be back to walking the Camino ourselves. I only hope that the next hospitaleros love baking as much as we do. The pilgrims really appreciate it. Word spreads along the Camino because pilgrims are telling their friends who are one or two days behind them to stay at Refugio Guacelmo.

We had tea and cake in the garden again today, though I stayed on the patio to keep an eye on things. One Korean woman came by, curious to look around. After having a look at the garden, she asked if she could stay here. I verified first that she is a pilgrim, so she can stay. Her problem is that she’d already checked in somewhere else and would have to get her money back. She didn’t return, so she must have been out of luck. 

Janine and I were returning from the bar in the evening and came across three of the village’s older residents who were sitting outside their homes, visiting and people watching. A simple “Buenas tardes” from us was all it took to spark a lively conversation about how to properly roll our rrrrrr’s. It’s hard to do with our western tongues, but their encouragement was fun and lighthearted. Despite their rapid Spanish, it’s amazing how much we were able to understand. They told us about a festival happening on Sunday, and before we knew it, they were running inside to show us photos of their 12-year-old daughters or grand-daughters – something to do with the festival, though we couldn’t understand all the details. When we parted, I said ‘Hasta mañana,’ and really do hope we can have a chat again tomorrow. ♥️

Tonight we have ten pilgrims from seven countries: Canada, UK, Denmark, Germany, USA, New Zealand, and Nederlands. We also have a neighbourhood cat who likes to visit every day, much to Nigel’s dismay.