Villafranca to La Faba

We had a fun challenge to start our day today.  Uncle John, as many of us who have been using his Camino de Santiago guide book call him, told us the trail we chose is not easy to find and not well marked with yellow arrows/shells like other trails.  Of course, for Carson and I, we consider that part of our challenge, and accept it fully.  Well, this time Uncle John was entirely accurate and it did take us just over an hour to find the trail from our albergue in town. Every minute of our challenging mountain trail was worth the effort.  The stunning views, the solemn mountains listening to our thoughts and being past tree level and looking down on the world is and incredible place to be.  I loved it!!!

We are so excited every time we find cherries along the trail.  Sometimes in obvious orchards, but other times right along our trail.  On our mountain trek,  the camino provided cherries instead of tots in our pants pockets:-)  (Napoleon Dynamite reference!)

We have been keeping track of our camino lessons learned.   Today we learned:
-Be nice to barking dogs.  Hide your fear.  Use others to protect yourself (Carson).
-The camino provides cherries of the most delicious sort.  Red, Ranier-like and wild.  Delish.
-Directions from random Spanish people through trees and in cars are most ultimately appreciated!!
-Use all of your patience and beyond to find the trail.  Never give up.  Its worth the effort.
-John's not always accurate.  Mileage, directions, descriptions.

We ended our day early to rest.  We walked over 16 miles in mountain terrain and treated ourselves to ice cream and a lemon adult beverage before making the decision to walk another 5k to finish the day.  We thought we picked a town off the trail from our friends, but ended up at the same place they were!!

James, Carson and I made a pasta for dinner with salchichon and veggie sauce.  It was delicious and we consumed it all!!!  Next up, we we to a special pilgrims blessing service by a monk in the town. There were Americans, Germans, Spanairds, Italians and Polish people there.  The monk asked me to help translate his Spanish into English which was fun, but he went a bit to fast for my tired brain.  The neatest things about the service were having volunteers come up and get their feet washed by him and then passing that along the line.  He also had us all say the "Our father" in our own languages at the same time, and had us all hug each other. He was very positive about spreading the world's happiness.  He reminded all of is that on the camino we are never alone.

Another highlight of our great day was seeing happy cows walking through towns, and in fields.  They are everywhere in this part of Spain, including their poo!!!!!!  Ew.