October 6, 2001
Redecilla de Camino- Villafranca Montes de Oca (cool/rain off and on)
17.2m/27.6km - 144.5m/231.3km

The kids in town decided to run up and down the street in front of the bar screaming and yelling for a couple of hours late last night. Parents, its two o'clock. Do you know where your children are?

We stop for lunch in Belorado today. When we get there a wedding is in progress at the church facing the town square. The square is surrounded by a type of tree I have never seen before. Each tree's branches spreads toward the middle of the square forming a canopy that covers the square and creates a shaded sitting area. Benches are lined up along two sides of the square and close to the trees. The street around the square is filled with the cars of the wedding guests. We make our way around the square to a restaurant that also faces the square and sit at table outside it. While we are eating our lunch the doors to the church open and the bride and groom walk down the steps to a waiting car and drive away as the wedding party and guests cheer them on.

After we finish our lunch we sit and enjoy the relaxing feeling that comes with sitting still and not moving for a short time. As we sit I start talking about an incident that happened in my family when I was 13 years old. I tell about how my father got drunk and went crazy one night. I tell how I did not realize until I was in therapy years later that I had been afraid he would kills us all. I tell how after that night I saw the world through a movie screen in my head that replayed and replayed this memory. I tell how talking about it in therapy one day brought this fear to the surface of my consciousness and how admitting I was that afraid let me release the fear and the memory. After I stop talking there is silence and J sits there looking at me in amazement. Finally he says he now knows more about me than he does about any of his friends. I laugh because what he says amuses me and also because I am embarrassed that I have told B and him about this. I have no idea why I have done so.

When we reach Villafranca we find out the municipal refugio is a decaying old school building without heat or cooking facilities. It's a pit and when I look at the bunk beds I swear I can see bedbugs jumping up and down on the blankets as if they were on a trampoline. We stay in the rooms above the bar down the street. After we take showers we sit in the bar and wait for the dinning room to open. These bar/hotels are deceptive. The bar is always small and kind of rundown looking and then you find yourself walking through a door that leads to a larger room that serves as the dinning room. This room is always airy and cleaner. The service is usually efficient and non-intrusive and makes for an enjoyable dinning experience. Other pilgrims have also picked the hotel over the school and are also eating in the dinning room and we visit with them as we eat. By the time we finish eating it is almost 1000P and we again go to bed with full stomachs.