The Tasty Pilgrim

Duende is an expression from flamenco culture. You sit in a bar and some guys come in. One starts playing and dancing or singing and palmas (clapping) Suddenly everyone joins in and there is the " elf of inspiration" hovering in the air and the performance exceeds expectations by far. There is duende !  On the evening of May 15 we had duende in the house. In the salon I stoked up the fire and the room was nice and warm.

Pilgrims started to come in and sit around the table, Canadians, Italians, Brazileros, Hungarians, Scandinavians and Germans. There was a young man rom Brazil, black curly hair and earrings and a deep brown tan. He really looked the part and all the girls swooned over him. He is a lawayer, but like everybody in Brasil he also sang in a band and played some guitar. In the refegio there is an old battered guitar, but it would do. He tuned the guitar and played and sang. Everyone was mesmerized, especially when he sang a sad tune in Portugese together with a girl. It was about homesickness. The two Canadian girls turned out to be yoga teachers and in the hot room they started to strech and bend and oggled Manuel. Wow, electricity in the air. John comes from Liverpool and wanted some Beattle songs and we all started to sing and " I want you yeah, yeah ...... It was hilarious. Many other songs followed by Coldplay and so on. I should really start to learn more lyrics. Then they wanted me to do some flamenco and to my amazement they thought it sounded great. There was a young Italian couple. On this day they had been married for three years and also it was her birthday. Next day she told me that it had been the most wonderful birthday party in her life !

We were all a bit sad that we had to stop at ten and go to bed. These are the evenings for which I have come, to entertain them and create something special. There is a book in which visitors can write such as

" Thank you for the flamenco guitar music and the warm welcome¨ Vlena

" God will continue to bless us daily on the Camino and here was found "albergue heaven" .

" Thank you wonderful angel Luis for your generous, loving, fun hospitality and help. This has been a " highlight for sure. We found it here, rest and were treated like the Queen, we think we are ( ha) . Love from Mother of the girls Sheila from Canada, Carlie, Courtney.

And there are many others like this.

Since then I start to practice that old guitar every evening and they all want to hear stories about Spain.

Yesterday a Scotsman came in dressed in a kilt. It was a Man´s kilt from the Graham clan near Pitlochry. As I had been there several times we had a nice chat. Very interesting guy. Spends a lot of time in the Orkney islands studying seals and so on strange encounters !