[Gocamino] New year-round albergue

[Blaroli at aol.com]

Hello you all,
The Brazilian Friends of the Camino have sponsored and completed an albergue 
in Vega de Valcarce in Leon.  The albergue will open the first week of 2005, 
will have 40 beds and will be open all year. The albergue, named the Nossa 
Senhora Aparecida albergue, in honor of the  Patroness of Brazil, will also have a 
library named after Paulo Coelho, the celebrated Brazilian writer whose book 
on the Camino has sold in the millions  worldwide.  (I, personally, couldn't 
get into it, and discarded it about reading a dozen or so pages).
With their new albergue the Brazilians join other international pilgrims 
groups that have albergues on the Camino:  the Italians in Puente Fitero, the 
Germans in La Faba, the British in Rabanal del Camino, the French in Atapuerca, 
the Swiss in Ponferrada, and others sponsored by Dutch and Portuguese pilgrims.
The Brazilians are, however, the first pilgrims from an American country to 
have an albergue on the Camino.

In Brazil itself, Santiago pilgrims have established a preparatory pilgrimage 
which they call "Caminho do Sol"; it is 247 kms long and it goes from Sao 
Paulo to Aguas de San Pedro. It has a pilgrims' albergue called Arasolis attended 
by volunteers.  Santiago is the patron Saint of the town and a carved image 
of the apostle as a pilgrim was taken  there from Spain by Jesus Jato, the 
well-known and much esteemed hospitalero de Villafranca del Bierzo.

Warm regards,

Rosina