Last night we ate dinner with Francisco and Damian at Pension La Mirador, the only
establishment in Pajares. The hostess served a tasty lentil and sausage soup first, followed
by fries and thin steaks. Dessert was yogourt and an after dinner drink Francisco insisted we
try, Orujo de Hierbas. It is a brandy made with wine skins, unique to northern Spain.
We were the only guests eating. The characters at the bar were local and sounded more like
a family gathering.
Damian
Damian is a European History high school teacher from Madrid, Spain. He is spending six
days of his Easter holiday walking the San Salvador and writing in his journal. He relishes this
little bit of time he gets to focus on himself.
Ron Hunt once asked me what my preferred habitat was – you know – forest, seaside, or city. I
said rural. I feel most at home in rural pastoral settings and today felt very comfortable. We
are still in the mountains, but the sides of this Rena River Valley are blanketed with pasture
land and small farm communities. We looked up a very steep pitch this morning to see goats
and a horse munching on some breakfast grass. The pitch doesn’t seem to bother them. At
lunch we stopped in Herias, a farm community of maybe 12 homes. We made sandwiches
and ate sitting at the picnic table by the communal laundry spring. A day or two old lamb
watched us as we ate. We passed a father and son doing chores as we climbed out of town.
Did I mention we saw a woman doing barn chores this morning wearing wooden shoes? This
place has a unique pastoral charm.