Another small town without a bank. I bailed out a fellow peregrino who hadn't noticed the lack of ATMs at this point on the route. He had to hitch a ride to a town about 5km away to get to an ATM. That doesn't sound like very far, but on foot, a 10km round trip and the downtime looking for the bank will easily eat up 2 hours, and that's at a brisk walking pace without stops.
The refugio here is connected with the local church. The priest is very helpful and friendly, but too busy to give much time to the refugio and the hospitalero that runs the place is not doing his job. Too bad, because it has such potential.
Everything was closed when we got to town, so we made a visit to the restored church. One of its icons is a statue of Christ carved from an Oregon pine. I mentioned to Don Blas, the priest, that we were from Oregon, and he said, "Oh, in Canada?" I gave him a brief geography lesson.
Here again, we felt fortunate to find a bar opened to feed us. Turns out the previous night they had decided not to open because of some fiesta, and they are the only bar in town. For those of you who have never been to Spain, bars are the lifeblood of social life. They serve as restaurants, coffee shops, public living rooms, and of course, bars. A lot of these towns don't even have restaurants so the bar becomes the lifeline.
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