October 5, 2013
As we passed through the city of Astorga, where we had to interrupt our previous Camino, we saw familiar sights but had our eyes set on the mountain beyond.
We stayed in a little town, Murias de Rechivaldo, just beyond Astorga, so we had the feeling of finally being into the first section we had reluctantly skipped in 2010. Here are our two Dutch friends, Katje and Marie Louise, who have been with us for several days.
The next morning, the path out of that town led us up the mountain, to the almost-abandoned town of Foncebadon, which is just two kilometers short of the peak, Monte Irago.
It rained on our wash hung out to dry, so we had to bring it into the albergue and hang it from the rafters.
The next morning we set out just before dawn for the high point of the Camino.
At the highest point on the Camino at 1505 meters, is La Cruz de Ferro (iron cross), where the tradition is for peregrinos to place a stone at the foot of the cross.
Anne Marie brought a stone from home, and it represented all of the many intentions that people had asked us to pray for during our journey, as well as our intentions for the particular persons we decide to pray for each day.
Early in the Camino, when the stones underfoot were particularly painful for Jeff's blisters, even through the thick soles of his boots, he picked up one stone to represent not only the physical ailments of the Camino, but also the little everyday hurts, spiritual or psychological, that he tends to take too seriously.
We climbed the huge pile of stones left by countless pilgrims over the years, and placed our two stones at the foot of the cross. Two stones, two kinds of prayer. One an offering, one a letting-go.
Our trek down the other side of the mountain, toward Molinaseca where we write this, offered a combination of incredible scenery and treacherous footing on paths of exposed and broken slate.
