A communal meal at a donativo albergue never disappoints. Mark, Anton, Nathan, and I sat
with Annette and Wil, a couple from the Netherlands. They were visiting their friend Stef, the
owner of the albergue. They have been on vacation since December driving their small RV
around Spain. Camping in public parking lots is a common practice here. What is interesting
is… that they pull a horse trailer with their three pet donkeys.
We learned that donkeys are not stubborn and they just need independence, not a boss.
Donkeys are like cats and horses are like dogs. They find a small patch of public grass for the
donkeys and fence it with an electric wire. They have only been told to move once. After
dinner we all walked down to meet the donkeys.
Mary
Mary is from Nova Scotia, Canada. She spent a month in southern Portugal and Spain as a
tourist, and is now walking the Primitivo with us. She, like Mark and me, is struggling with the
heat.
The climb out of Pola de Allende was tough. We chose the lower longer alternative to the
Hospitales route fearing bad weather on an open mountain top. Our route was beautiful, but
at the end, we still had to climb. My phone says we climbed 224 flights today. Once up, we
met a travelling Cafe.
Armando
Armando is from Spain and operates a cafe out of his RV here on the Hospitales route and on
the Camino Frances in the Meseta. Mark remembers buying ice cream from him last year.
This time we had fresh squeezed orange juice.
Rafa
Rafa is from Bilbao, Spain and is known as the fisherman on the camino. He walks during the
day, stopping at suitable mountain streams to fish for trout. He releases all fish he catches.
Rafa started walking on the Del Norte and switched to the Primitivo for solitude.
We walked through three really brief rain showers en route only to be caught in a thunder
storm less than one km from our albergue. Oh well. The area needs rain as we have seen
smoke from two wildfires in the distance.