We are in rebirth

You may be able to recall an anectodal fact of mine about the camino and its three parts: life, death and rebirth. Well, we have entered into rebirth and i believe i have experienced what the swiss man promised all those days ago in Belorado.

Ben and i were leaving a very small town as we made our way to Astorga, the last stop in "death". I asked Ben what he had learnt about himself, mostly in reference to his injury and how we have dealt with it. He took the question down a spiritual route, on which i admitted i havent really felt anything distinctly spiritual. Ben questioned what i thought would be this distinct experience and i rattled of jibber jabber about real connections and love for the camino.

And then we climbed a hill in a pretty barren landscape and met a beautiful man from barcelona who had a cart covered in hearts and full of juice and food. And it was all free, as the barcelonan beauty walked around with his long hair and skirt reminding us all that this felt like a dream. He was so much that feeling i had just felt a lack of.

And then, on halloween, we climbed the tallest mountain on the road to a fallen apart town called fonceban. It was a creepy little town, and we learned it existed first as a church that pilgrims could stay at as the pass was challenging in the 1600s. I dont remember when it was abandoned but in 1970 it had a population of 2. It wasnt until 2003 that the municipal alburgue opend up and by the time we arrived in 2011, it still felt like a ghost town, but one with three alburgues, a bar and a handful of children that at least suggested a future for the town.

The alburgue was a donativo and jesùs, the volunteer made us all dinner and  breakfast. He taught me to make tortilla espanol and we spoke for a long time in spanish. He told me i am not a typical american, and also that spain gave the us a loan during the revolutionary war that we have still not repaid.

It was as if something heard my words and said "you just havent looked enough." And so, here we are in rebirth, remembering why we are doing this.