clothing variety

[Jim Damico]

Most of the time, a village fountain (fuente) is a faucet with a drain.  I
remember a lot of them had trough's for livestock the farther west you walk.
So, no, you won't offend anyone by washing your feet.  Or just fill your
water bottle and find a good place to sit and wash them there.

Dogs are not treated well in Spain.  Smaller 'working' herd dogs are well
behaved.  It's the 'guard' dogs that scare the living daylights out of you,
but in ever case they were chained up (with very thick chains).  I had more
problems with farm dogs in the USA because they were not chained.  But, as
you can imagine, a lot of dogs in Spain don't like humans at all because of
the poor treatment.  As a pilgrim from another country, I tried not to judge
the Spanish farmers too harshly.

The sun can really give your head a beating in Spain, especially on the
plains.  So, sometimes you even forget you have the hat on.  I only had one
occasion in a church when I 'forgot' and a priest gently pointed to my head.
I was a little embarrassed but the priest was not mad at all.

Don't miss any 'pilgrim' masses.  Sometimes there is a special sermon for
the pilgrims.  And in Los Arcos, the priest asked us to stay behind so he
could give us some encouraging words privately.  I'm not a religious man,
but it doesn't take you much on the Camino to feel the power of a thousand
years of pilgrimage.  Maybe I'll just call it 'adding to the world's karma'.

Buen Camino

Jim Damico
www.WanderingTheWorld.com
hiking, biking & beyond...