Tosantos

What a night! There was an old Spanish guy in our room who cried out in his sleep and made really funny noises at least once an hour. It took awhile for me to fall asleep. When I woke up I discovered I had five bug bites in my face. Luckily only one is visible, the one under my right eye. Breakfast was laid out for us this morning and Doug put money in the donation box. On our way again... It was very windy but warm. In the next 16km there were several villages, so we had a choice where to stop for coffee. The third village was the birth place of Santo Domingo. His house is still standing opposite the church. Both are nearly 1000 years old! And I forgot to take a picture!!! At the next village the restaurant was closed. Only another 5km to the next town. As it turned out we walked all 16 km before we had coffee. This coffee shop in Belorado was connected to the pilgrim hostel but it was too early to sign in. We did meet Joel, Eva (Swedish), and Max, the Australian. After a nice long rest we continued to the town centre. In the central square there were market stalls set up. There was a nice shaded aria in the middle. Doug had his lunch there after buying the food at the store. I chose for a quiche and sat on the patio with Elsa and her Hungarian friend. We continued with the wind unabated. Tosantos was a mere 5km away. We arrived there in good time and found the only hostel. A Franciscan monk was in charge but there was an Italian volunteer who spoke some English. We were welcomed and shown the way. Another room with mattresses. The Alaskan couple was already there. Elsa and her friend showed up a little later. All in all there were 11 people who had shared the previous hostel the two of us included. There was a kitchen and a dining area. There were fresh figs in a bowl for the taking. There was no wifi. The volunteer and the monk prepared the dinner and this time we had a meal with 23 others. There was a little red wine. After the meal we went to the small room which was used as a chapel. We sang a song out of the Taize booklet. Then each of us received a little folder in your language and each language group read a piece out loud. After that the monk handed out little notes where pilgrims had written out their problem. Each and every one was read out loud. We closed with the same song. All that took more than an hour. When we went back down the dishes were all done by the people who did