the road to Santiago

the last time i posted it was questionable as to what would happen with the Officer...would he meet us in Sarria? would he be able to continue? and what about Ovi and the Scientist?

the Healer and I left Fronfria with a new addition to the Camino family. we first met him in Astorga with his father. as the story goes, the father walked the Camino with his friend 5 years ago and this time the two decided to invite their sons. and so the Spirited Son, a recent college grad and teacher-to-be is on the Camino with his father, his father´s friend, and the son of his father´s friend (a firefighter)...ah and they are all from Arizona, the Phoenix area to be more specific. as happens on the Camino we met this group in Astorga and ran into the Spirited Son again in Ponferrada. this time he was with a friend of his from college who was walking the Camino with her father! they had hoped to meet up on the Camino and spend a few days walking together and then the Spirited Son would meet up with his father again. As it turns out we kept crossing paths the next few days and soon enough the Spirited Son was walking with us to Sarria.

not far from Sarria we came across the Scientist, literally on the road! what a happy reunion! we knew we were just behind her and Ovi but not quite positive how far so it was a happy moment. but Ovi, he was not there and to our surprise the Scientist explained, "i don´t know about Ovi, we lost each other at O´Cebreiro!" somehow they started the day together, got into the town and somehow separated. so this was the day before and so we wondered, "will Ovi meet us in Sarria? is he ahead of us? is he behind us? did he get my emails or the Officer´s text messages?" but the Camino works in funny ways and always provides ;-)

upon arriving in Sarria the Healer and I discussed possible alburgues and both our books recommended a few. we decided on one and then upon reading a bit about the other changed our minds. we arrived at Don Álvaro, a private alburgue to find they had beds and as we gave our names the hospitelero said, "oh you have a reservation"...hmmm we didn`t make a reservation. ah of course, the Officer found a way to Sarria and made the reservation for us. but no, the reservation was for the Healer, myself and the Officer. strange. and then we were told, "the Romanian waits for you."

our response was almost in unison..."OVI!!!!"...imagine our surprise! and imagine his when he saw the Scientist! we then came to find out that he had been texting back and forth with the Officer about arriving in Sarria and the alburgue location but the Officer never mentioned that he was not with us! so Ovi thought we all were together, the Officer was still in Fonfria, Ovi and the Scientist didn´t know where the other was, and the Healer and I had added the Spirited Son to our family and were just hopeful we would all find our way back to each other. and there we all were...together, well almost. the Officer was still in Fonfria. we wondered would there be a bus to bring him to Sarria? will he be feeling well enough to walk 27 kilometers we needed to walk that day?

the next morning, a few minutes after 8am the Officer walked triumphantly up to the Iglesia de Santa Mariña!