a night to remember

Jess and I had a night to remember last night. Late in the day we decided to take a short side trip to a small town called Enuete. It is basically a 12th century church related to the knights templar and a small hermitage attached. The hermitage is a refugio and holds only a few people each night. We arrived at about 2 and decided to stay and wait the 3 hours until the refugio opened. Shortly before 5 three spanish people arrived in a car and started to talk very quickly and basically to confuse Jess and I along with a Swiss woman who was waiting with us. then at 5 a french man named John, (jean), arrived, opened up and let us and one other pilgrim stay the night. The other pilgrim was a man from chile. 4 pilgrims! John cooked a three course meal for us and took us at the end of the evening to a the church for night prayers. We all had a part and the atmosphere inside the old church was electric. the sound went off the walls and bounced back to us. the prayers were wonderful. We then slept soundly and woke refreshed. Breakfast was served by John and we were off, feeling very much cared for. We were invited to pay what we felt we could and that was that.

both of us felt blessed by John and by the conversation with both of the other pilgrims. As jess said, a once in a lifetime experience.

today we are in Estelle, having walked a long way. We will rest and eat a good meal and then it is off to the next stop. No blisters so far and only a small amount of pain in my legs. A blessed camino to this point.

michael