Monday 14 March 16
This morning we met a pilgrim in the breakfast area who we came to find out from the lady running the place is the same pilgrim we read about last week who had to be medically evacuated off the Pyrenees route after having fallen and hurt himself.  He managed better than his companion who broke her leg when going to get help for him and couldn't continue.  She ended up using her cell phone to call her husband back in Brazil and he called emergency services.  Crazy pilgrims!  They were advised to go around rather than through the mountain pass.  Unfortunately, they  missed the signage and got caught in a blizzard.  We had a private room to sleep in last night and kept warm in our sleeping bags despite having no heat.  Had a simple breakfast of toast and coffee this morning.  Roberto bless his heart offered to one drive us to Grañón, saving us a bus ride.  We weren't aware this place had wifi until this morning and we're hoping the place we'll be staying for 2 weeks has it as well.

When we arrived around 11 am and we met the hospitaleros are replacing, Jose, nicknamed Chema, Spaniard and Maria, a Mexican. Both are very welcoming. As soon as we arrived pilgrims started arriving, making a It a bit difficult to get the tour of our responsibilities. Today we had Danny a US, Spanish Basque guy, Javi,another Spaniard, Amparo and Carlos from Columbia, Mario and Alexander from Germany, Kim Hye-Uk from South Korea, and Juliana from Romania. Chama showed us around the place showed us all we needed to be doing. Maria took Palma took around as well.  At dinnertime Danny took the lead in cooking the meal and Jobbie the professional pastry person made the desert. We have enough food to last for two days which was good. At 7 o'clock we went down to mass. Father Jesus does a quick mass, half hour tops. Afterwards we went back upstairs to the albergue and finished making dinner. Whatever Danny made, some kind of stew that had almost the whole kitchen sink in it, was wonderful.  And Jarvis apple cobbler was fantastic.  Father Jesus did the prayer that he calls a benidiction rap. More on this later. After dinner we cleaned dishes and went to the church choir loft to do a pilgrim benediction. The benediction is quite special and magical. When we go into the choir loft it is lite only in candle light, and we sit in the choir seats. We start with the history of the church and the albergue followed by a discussion of the tradition of the albergue. Then a candle is passed around where each pilgrims can talk about why they are walking the Camino. Once everyone has spoken we embrace each other and offer each other a buen Camino. This is a very moving experience for the pilgrims and almost all seem to love it.