The advice always offered to peregrinos is “don’t pack your fears and take them with you on your Camino”. 

But Hospitaleros don’t seem to be given such warnings. As I was packing for this trip I seem to have filled the backpack  full of worries about my job ahead. 

Some of the fears I seem to have brought along — bedbugs, difficult pilgrims, old buildings with old plumbing & older wiring, my inadequate español, a strange co-hospitalero, sick pilgrims, Rabanal del Camino won’t be as wonderful as I remember …

But I hadn’t anticipated the one thing that happened today, my first day as an official hospitalera — a snowstorm! 

The winds came howling and the storm blew in. Even though Rabanal is in the foothills of the Montes de León this was a big surprise to all. 


No wee-fee at Gaucelmo but the coffee shops and bars to the rescue!