Thirty Sixth Day On The Camino Tuesday, October 23, 2018

This is a water font just outside A Balsa, the village where we stayed last night.

These are shots of the scenery on the walk from A Balsa to Sarria. It is so unbelievably green here in Galicia. Everyone says it looks a lot like Ireland 🇮🇪. I have never been to Ireland so it would be difficult for me to say that Galicia looks a lot like Ireland. But I have heard this comparison made by a couple of Irishmen walking the Camino, so I guess I have to trust their opinion on this matter.

This is a donativo cafe that is run by four guys in their early thirties.

When you walk through the gate of this open air cafe one of the young men asks you if you want a cup of coffee and then he disappears into the kitchen. In a few minutes he appears with your coffee and a couple of slices of fresh baked banana bread. I don’t drink coffee but I had a double helping of banana bread, a couple of hard boiled eggs, a bowl of cereal, a couple of bananas and a couple of glasses of orange juice. I left a five euro bill in the donation box and Abe pitched a fit. He called me a cheapskate and embarrassed me into dropping another 20 euro bill into the donation box. Abe said these were four young men who were making a real difference on the Camino and that I should support what they are doing. Abe is probably right. There was some real magic at this place. The minute you walked through the gate you felt like you were at home, minus the corned beef sandwiches of course.

This is Sarria.

We got to Sarria at about 2:00 PM. Sarria is where everyone starts the Camino if they are only interested in walking 100 kilometers and getting a Compostella in Santiago. Real hard core pilgrims describe Sarria as the Disneyland of the Camino. That is probably not fair to Sarria or the 100 kilometer pilgrims, but we decided to walk through Sarria and spend the night at the first town west of Sarria.

This is a roadside cross in Sarria. We stopped and said a prayer for Anna.

We got to Casa Carmen in Barbadelo at about 3:30. This is the alburgue pooch. I almost sat on him while I was waiting my turn to check into the alburgue.

It is wash day in the horse pasture at Casa Carmen.

Another Bible verse along the Way.

The Cliff Notes version of this Bible verse is that a servant was given some money by his Master and he invested it and grew it ten times. The Master was pleased. Duh, with that rate of return of course the Master was pleased. Another servant was given the same amount of money and invested it and it grew five times. The Master was pleased. Of course the Master was pleased. Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, would be thrilled with that rate of return. The third servant wanted to preserve the principle and buried the money he was given. The Master was good and pissed with the servant who buried the money. The moral to this story is, if God has given you a gift you had better not bury it. You had better use it and multiply it or God is not going to be happy.

I hope everyone had a great Tuesday.

Good evening from Barbadelo, Spain🇪🇸.