We arrived at midnight after 17 hours of flight and a 2 hour taxi ride to find the owner, Marisol, waiting outside with the light on. She doesn't speak English - but her eyes sparkled and we felt immediately welcome. We had the gorgeous 2 story home to ourselves for 2 nights and our choice of rooms. Marisol introduced us to her husband, her sons, we fed chickens, watched sheep graze and she proudly showed us her garden, full of fresh vegetables that we would pick that afternoon and eat that night at the dinner table. We stayed up late on our last night and spoke of life, love and our start of the El Camino de Santiago the next morning. We were served a feast each morning and each night - more than we could ever eat - and in the very early morning as we started our pilgrimage, we were hugging our host family goodbye as if she was a member of our actually family. When we walked the 8 days and 120km from Sarria to Santiago starting from her home in the country, we always felt Marisol's loving presence with us. Hard to describe - but we wanted to contact her to "check in" and tell her we were well. We will never forget the kindness we felt in this country home and how our stay here started the entire journey off with such meaning. Thank you, Marisol.
