July 10
Villafranca del Beirzo to LaFaba 27.2km
By the end of today we will have less than 100 miles to go to Santiago. There are still some challenges ahead, called mountains, and today we have quite a climb. The first 2/3 of our hike is a gentle ascent, but the last 1/3 is very steep.
The paths were made up of asphalt, gravel roads, dirt paths, rocky paths, and the steep uphill mostly rocky loose stone paths. Our feet got a real tough workout today. The views however, were spectacular which more than made up for the strenuous climb. During the climb we met a man raking hay with a forked stick. He wanted to put us to work, but raking hay with a backpack on your back just wasn´t going to happen. Lorie and he had a great discussion comparing how hay is raked on a mountain side in Spain and how we rake hay in the West Salem area using machinery.
Some of the animals we´ve seen have been deer, mink, lots of birds, lizards, frogs, snail and slugs, and of course lots of domestic animals such as cows, horses, chickens, dogs and cats, sheep, and goats. Mostly country and farms with the few hamlets mixed in today.
We were having an extremely difficult and HOT climb when we came to our albergue at La Faba.  It is currently our favorite albergue.  It was beautiful, shady, peaceful, charming, especially clean and had a very spiritual air to it.  There is actually a church on the property which was beautiful.  Several of us practiced yoga in the courtyard while we waited for the alb. to open.  A german CIA agent challenged Lorie to a push-up contest.  She had to do 10 to his 20.  It was a tie. He´s a really fun and very fit  guy, (we´re talking he works out in a little black speedo every afternoon). We enjoy him and his beautiful girlfriend, Haika, very much.
That night the service was led by a franciscan priest or brother, we´re not sure.  He emanated love and peace.  He asked some tough questions for us to consider. One was, what is the sign of a christian.  We all said the cross/crucifix.  We were wrong.  It was love.  He said to often we use the crucifix to crucify others, and that the symbol of a christian is love.  That if we each do our part, and remember to take what we learned along the camino with us into life, that together we (that means you too) can creat the world that Christ wants us to create. Anyway, there was much, much more to his message and the service.  And then he began to wash our feet.  I cried.  I don´t think anyone has washed my feet since my mom.  It was such a service of love, (believe me to wash our beat up pilgrim feet is a real sign of love.)  We were all very moved by the love. After the service I thanked him and he grabbed my face in his hands and kissed both my cheeks in the Spanish way.  La Faba is truly a spiritual place.
It was a fantastically restful, peaceful place to end a very tough day.  Buen Camino.