We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog

with a wander.

Salamanca is scurrying around preparing for the premiere events of Semana Santa: police blocking off streets for the night's pasos, women and little boys lining up at the peliquería to look their best for a procession, camera crews guarding their hard-won scaffold perches, Salamantinos buying bread like New Englanders before a snow storm. I almost hate to leave, watching all the excitement. Still, I wander off dark and early tomorrow (530 am!) to Los Ancares Lucenses, to break in my new hiking boots and my new nifty pack.

I'll see you back here Easter Monday.
Enjoy the long weekend, if you have it.

Update, noon Thursday The bad news: My throat is sore, my eyes are wet, my cough is deep and my heart is heavy. I woke up with a cold and for reasons I have yet to completely decipher, I let the group know I'd miss the trip.

The good news, if you like to read my ramblings, is that I now have 4 empty days ahead of me, and am likely to hang around here.

Happy Easter. aaaaaaachoooo!