Tario keeps
popping into my consciousness.
Maybe
because the post never published at the time. Maybe because of all
the pilgrims I met, he declined to identify as one. I never
discovered whether he had ever walked to Santiago or Rome.
It was
walking along the riverside path outside Ribadasella … he called
out “Hola, peregrino” from the picnic spot where he was cooking
his lunch. Invited me to join him for chicken stew. I declined having
just eaten in town (didn't get into the vegetarian question … or
where he had found the chicken).
He had no
English, so verbal communication was limited by my very basic
Spanish. However, we were connecting on a more fundamental level .. .
where the language barriers are transcended somehow.
Tario had
two little dogs and his stuff in a small trailer, which he pulled by
hand. Seemed to sleep out mostly, though was aware of the local
albergue where I was headed and looked clean, so perhaps called in for
showers and laundry from time to time.
When asked
if he was a peregrino or pilgrim, he laughed and said “ no, just a
wanderer”. He has been walking about, sleeping out, living free for
the last eight years … the eyes showed a contented soul.
Since the
next adventure wants to be the Camino del Norte from Irun to Santiago
and on to Finisterre, perhaps we will meet again.
I hope so.
