Even further

Here I am! In Santander!

I have just made an untypically long stop of four days. And I was so close to giving up. So close to taking the bus and just stopping this. Because, people, I am really exhausted now. My energy is coming to its end. But the good news are that they will probably last for the last 3 weeks!! Perhaps this weakness is some kind of psychopathological effect. The goal comes closer... And the last kilometers turn out to be perhaps the hardest, at least motivationally speaking.

I stopped at the house of my great friend Marina. Since I was like 15, she was always telling me from a great refuge in Cantabria where she was volunteering sometimes. She told me so many good things about it, that I was expecting my arrival al this refuge (La Cabaña del abuelo Peuto, in Güemes) to be one of the highlights of the Way. And it was. Oh yes, it was.

I can count with the fingers of one hand how often I was welcomed so warmly in a refuge. It felt like arriving to a place where old friends were waiting for you. Uncredibly warm. There were a lot of people from nearby villages helping with everything: Cooking, cleaning, everything.

The man that started the refuge a lot of years ago (Ernesto) is an old priest that has travelled throught all South America, working in the gold and zinc mines and in the fields high in the Andian Mountains. He has such an inspiring aura.

The moment I crossed the door of the refuge I wrote an sms to Marina and told here I had arrived at her refuge. Imagine how my face did look like when a couple of hours later she arrives. I was thinking that she would be in Tenerife, but she arrived at Cantabria the very same day that I reached the Refuge. Come on. This things only happen in books and in the Camino.

We went to a camp that Ernesto and friends and collaborators organized for children. It was great to be there. It brought me back some forgotten childhood memories. And it made me remember that someone in my family has been missioneering in Brazil (in the Amazonas) for quite a long time, and perhaps it is about time to get back in contact with him. I've been thinking for a while about travelling to South America. Perhaps my next long trip will be to the Amazonas? A new form of pelgrimage, of discovery?

I'm going to bed. Someone please tell the God of the Rain to stop making vacations in north Spain!