Day 40 - 08/06/07

Somedays you wake up and wish that the camino would never end - today was one of those, go figure.

Every day so far Heidi has been packed and ready before me, waiting patiently (sometimes not so patiently) for me to finish packing or putting on my boots but today I launched the counter offensive. I packed as much as I could the night before and was first packed and out of the dorm before breakfast. There was a slight set back afte breakfast with Heidi standing over me with her pack on while I was still doing up my boots. She was gloatingly asking if I was ready yet but as every bond villain soon learns never count victory too early and as every pilgrim knows the day begins when you exit the auberge, not in the boot room. Heroically I leapt to my feet - snatched my staff from Heidi’s hand and made it out the door and onto the road with a clear 1/2 second lead. We got some curious looks but today will be forever remembered as the day I was ready first.

The auberge in Tosantos was an old 3 story town house that was converted into an auberge by some franciscan brothers and staffed by volunteers. We were greeted by the sound of music and the smell of incense when we arrived and the hospitalero left his lunch to show us our beds (simple mattresses on the floor). There were two hospitaleros who both had the cheerful contended appearance of long time meditators and were extremely welcoming. One of them played guitar and in the afternoon we were treated to some spanish folk songs while we lay in the sunshine in the garden.

The hospitaleros prepared a communal meal for everyone (38 people) of a simple soup, salad and fruit. Before the meal we all stood for grace was to the stomp, stomp, clap beat of we will rock you and resembled some form of spanish rap. After dinner we went to a tiny upstairs chapel for short prayers in spanish, enlish, french and italian after which we received a blessing in our native tongue written by a pilgrim who had stayed 30 days earlier. We went around the circle reading the blessings and then we each wrote a blessing for the pilgrims to come.

We went to sleep that night to the sound of spanish guitar being played in the garden.

Amazingly this auberge was rated 1 1/2 out of 5 in one persons guidebook - I guess they value different things to us as it was one of the highlights so far and I would recommend it highly.