<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0">Hi Jim, and you all,<BR>
Simply stated, a band with a xylophone is NO Mexican mariachi band, period. (I've lived in Mexico City, and taught in its autonomous University, for enough summers to entitle me to make such a peremptory assertion; surely anyone who knows Mexico and its music will agree). In Yucatan, Veracruz, Chiapas, and other South-East Coastal Mexican regions, however, the local bands play, and have played for centuries, the wooden originator, precursor and inspirer of the xylophone, called a "marimba", and their music is uniquely beautiful, popular, contagious and memorable.. But "mariachi" music comes from the Mexican "Altiplano" atop the cordillera mountains, and it is distinguished by its different rhythm, melody and instruments which are trumpets, violins and a variety of different-sized guitars. (By theway, the piece well-known in the United States as the "Bamba", is not a "mariachi" but a "marimba" tropical piece.) <BR>
As to sore and ailing feet: the albergues in O Cebreiro, Sarria, Palais del Rei, Arzua and Monte del Gozo will have Podiatry students, and teachers, from the Pablo CEU University in Madrid, assisting pilgrims that may need help with their feet this summer. The effort is sponsored by the Galician Xunta and the Santiago Archdiocese. The University's podiatrists will be on site, at the above named albergues, to help those needing their assistance from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00p.m. during the second and third weeks of August and the last two weeks in September. (This is an addition to the availability of the Santiago de Compostela University Podiatry students and teachers that was posted here some weeks earlier <BR>
and that is available throughout the French Way).<BR>
Also of general interest: the Ministry of Development and Culture of Castille has approved the expenditure of 3.2 million Euros (about 4 million Dollars) to expand the heretofore bulging albergue in Burgos. The directors of the overseeing commission, Pilar del Castillo and Francisco Cascos, have trumpeted their resolve to have all needed improvements and additions finished before the next Holy Xacobean commemorations of next year.<BR>
A PERSONAL NOTE: I myself shall be leaving next Monday for my fourth Camino pilgrimage and will remain in its environs until the middle of September .(Hurrah!) Although I intend to traverse the enticing Silver Way, owing to commanding health conditions, that will not be ignored, I shall only walk, for about a week, from O Cebreiro to Santiago.<BR>
Because I have been invited to several functions and celebrations in Santiago itself, and because I just love the place, I expect to remain in Santiago for at least a week.<BR>
If there is something that any one of you in these lists would like me to look up for you, or inquire about, or get, while I am there, I should REALLY be very happy to do so. Let me know.<BR>
Warm regards,<BR>
Rosina</FONT></HTML>