Author: antonioyrocinante

Camino Aragonés Albergue Review

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Last year’s Camino Primitivo Albergue Review was quite well received and is in my top 10 posts this year, so I have decided to do the same with the albergues on the Camino Aragonés which I just finished. Like I did last year I will then post the reviews on Google Maps to share the knowledge.

Notice the Camino Francés por Aragón

Somport – Albergue Aysa 2,5/5 stars

This is a tricky one. It does double duty as a high mountain refuge and for pilgrims. It sits feet, yards away from the French Border, and that is all you will find there besides a road maintenance shed and the closed down Customs building. The views are amazing, and it is the “unofficial” start of the Camino Aragonés, so you do not have much of a choice. Having said that, Pedro and his son Marc are not the most hospitable hospitaliers. Pedro had another pilgrim and I wait half an hour in a hallway while he prepared breakfasts; he could have invited us to at least sit down with a cup of coffee, or -and this might be pushing it- prepare our breakfast and then continue preparing everybody else’s breakfast since they all arrived much later. It is also a bit on the expensive side at Euro 27… supply and demand I guess when you are the only albergue at the top of the mountain….

Jaca – Municipal Albergue 4.5/5 stars

Marisol is a sweetheart hospitalier! The albergue checks all the boxes for a correct. large, urban albergue: right downtown, clean, good bathrooms, ample kitchen, and dining room, it even has a cute little garden. And the aforementioned Marisol knows everything about Jaca! A couple of pluses are no bunk beds, yeay! The beds are paired up with a night table in between and you can store your pack under the bed (this is a bit cumbersome since you have to move the mattress and lift the board to access the space, nobody I saw used this feature). The only thing missing from this albergue was a washer/drier, which in an urban, public albergue is expected, the only thing missing for the full five stars! 11 Euro.

Arrés – Municipal albergue managed by volunteers. 5 stars

After a beautiful but looong climb you will suddenly hit this tiny, ancient, stone village. The albergue is the first building you will see; it is housed in an ancient stone building, carved into the stone -in fact, the toilets on the bottom floor have exposed rock! I was lucky to have Ray El Peregrino as the volunteer hospitalier, this guy is a rock star pilgrim who has walked every Camino!! And he cooked a great dinner: Hearty vegetable soup and tortilla española packed with onion, peppers, and chorizo. The albergue is fairly basic, but that is expected in a tiny, medieval village in the middle of nowhere. The hospitalier gives the pilgrims a tour of the tiny church before the community style dinner. Oh, and it is a “donativo” albergue, meaning that you put into the box what you can/want (the going rate for municipal albergues is around Euro 11, so that is about how much you should give, if you can, a little bit more if you consider that dinner and breakfast are included).

Ruesta – 3 stars

Ok, this is a good one: In the 1960s the government built a dam, flooding the fields where the good people of Ruesta earned their living from, so they were forced to leave, abandoning a beautiful medieval stone village. In 1988, the local government leased the village to the trade union federation CGT (Confederación General de Trabajadores), a bit of an anarcho-syndicalist trade union, with the condition that they rebuild, and eventually repopulate the village. So, guess who runs the local albergue? You guessed it the folks from the CGT, who, regardless of your political viewpoints, are really nice and sweet. I had a large room with an even bigger balcony where I was able to tie my rope and sun dry all my clothes! Dinner was community style with two options for appetizer and entrée (I had vegetarian lentils and the chicken, both delicious) and a few options for dessert. The one black spot was breakfast: a shrink-wrapped piece of bread with a patty of jam and one of butter, a coffee -probably made the night before and covered with a saucer, and the cheapest available tetra-brik orange juice. For Euro 4, breakfast could have included some cold cuts, etc.

Sanguesa – Municipal Albergue 5 stars

This is a no-nonsense, basic but correct albergue, and the first with a washer/drier! Maybe because the Navarra government cares just a bit more of their pilgrims than the Aragón one (let’s see if they get the hint…). This albergue, while small with 14 beds and (only two of them are bunks) is right downtown, has amazing showers, and a solid kitchen. The only problem is that there are more pilgrims than keys (probably because pilgrims inadvertently take them) so we had to always be knocking on the door, or asking pilgrims if they had a key!

Monreal – Private 4,5 stars (you have to be at the albergue at 5pm for your paperwork)

High up on a hill, and with a killer set of stone stairs to kill you off before you get to the door of this albergue, it is a perfectly lovely place. Renovated by the local trade school, it has exposed wooden beams. Aura the hospitalier is nice and generous with her advice and local knowledge, she also owns one of the two local bars/cafés. Unfortunately, the albergue is owned by an investment company in Pamplona so Aura is only there for a while each day to collect the cash and take a photo of your id.

Honorable mention:

Albergue Restaurante de Artieda

We stopped for our midday snack here and what a beauty this place is: hanging on the edge of the hill overlooking the Pyrenees. It is a private albergue with the best sandwich I remember having in a long time!

Camino de Santiago #4 Camino Aragonés and why you should walk the Camino, (or at least walk)

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“We should take wandering outdoor walks, so that the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing.” — Seneca

Somebody recently asked me what my happy place was, the answer was easy: walking on the Camino. I just walked my fourth.

The Camino Aragonés, is the route taken by pilgrims from the South of France, Italy, and Eastern Europe. In France it is known as the way of Toulouse since that was the meeting point of all the Southern European ways.

This choice was personal for me, for although there are many Caminos to choose from, my grandfather, Antonio Balsón was from Aragón, which gave this Camino a bit more meaning for me.

After two trains and two buses I arrived at the high mountain refuge of Somport -literally on the French border. I walked around France a bit, looking to get my credencial stamped but there was nobody around.

Massive rain the next morning forced me to walk down the mountain on the road instead of the path since this was basically washed out by the rain. Fortunately, only about 4 cars passed in two hours.

The descent was beautiful despite the rain and walking on the road, so on a sunny day on the path it must be glorious. The Camino passes an old railroad tunnel that connected Spain to France, but it was closed in the 70’s (there are now plans to re-open it). There is an amazing old station which has now been refurbished as a fancy hotel. The end of the stage was in Jaca, ancient capital of Aragón with its old churches and fort. I enjoyed a great swim and a bit of a spa at the municipal pool, I will write another post on that…

After the first day’s descent the next few days hiking was on beautiful rolling hills, through forests and wheat fields. Since last year’s Camino Primitivo Albergue Review gets a lot of hits, I will also write a dedicated post to reviewing the albergues on the Aragonés, stay tuned.

A few days into the Camino, it crosses into Navarra, where food is even more idolized than in Aragón, making for glorious midday snacks!

After six stages the Camino merges into the French Way. But although this Camino is short, it is intense and beautiful. We were about 10 pilgrims on the Camino, so we basically got to know each other at the albergue stops. Most days there is only one end of stage village, and that village only has one albergue so your options as a pilgrim are fairly limited. It is also quite rugged with many long stretches of hiking between villages, which forces you to plan your snacks and water well, but it also makes for good walking. I loved this Camino for its ruggedness, and it has automatically moved up to be my second favorite after the Primitivo.

It is the long stretches of walking that cleanse your mind and your soul. There is nothing else to do but walk, every day. My average day on the trail was 7 hours and a half (27,3 km / about 17 miles average per day for a total of around 164km, just over 100 miles), so you have time to think, meditate, sing, look at the birds and the scenery, it is a total break. This is not a secret, even the ancient romans knew this as the quote by Seneca at the beginning show.

Since I already walked the French way in 2017, and I was somewhat pressed for time I stopped at Puente la Reina and made Santa María de Eunate my “spiritual” ending, in lieu of the Cathedral at Santiago.

Story of a Book, a return to poetry: Valparaíso, puerto principal by Luis Correa-Díaz

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As everybody knows, books are living creatures, and as such, they have their own lives. This is the story of a wonderful book.

Luis Correa-Díaz came into my life socially, during a visit to Chapel Hill a couple of years ago. Knowing that he is from Chile, when saw an old -ancient- National Geographic with the main story on Chile, I did not hesitate to send it to him, as a bit of a nostalgic curiosity. What I did not expect was that he was going to pay back that silly gesture by sending me his latest book of poems: Valparaíso, puerto principal.

I treasured this book, waiting for the right time to dive in, which was during my recent silence and meditation retreat (see previous post). As I took the book out to the monastery’s cloister garden, I was filled with excitement. Before digging in, that anticipation of starting a new book, I was called to the fountain… ¿how about some photos for the blog? So, I got clicking, until, in and adventurous and risky pose, the book was blown into the fountain (yes, I know you were expecting that, I did too, but I took my chances…)

A quick rescue and a rush to the monastery kitchen soon had the book in the microwave oven for an ER intervention. Coming out steaming hot -literally- I blew the steam out making sure the words stayed put on the page. This had to be done a few times to ensure the book dried quickly. It survived, albeit with stiff, wavy pages that say: “I had an adventure” and “my owner is an idiot”.

What I love about Correa-Díaz´s writing is that it appears casual, carefree, with all sorts of English words, Millennial English words -even emoticons thrown in. But as those happy-go-lucky words sink in you see, no, you notice the feeling, the emotion of those words. In this case, his beloved Valparaiso as a home he no longer lives in (exactly how I feel about my Madrid). His writing is peppered with references to Teilhard de Chardin or Madonna, to the local coffee shops, where you can almost smell the coffee suffusing from the old walls, plus all the local references that one has to be a local to identify, reminiscent of the best Gabriel García Márquez.

This book will make you miss Valparaíso, even if, like me, you have never been there. This is what the Portuguese and Brazilians call saudade, or the Gallegos morriña (you can read about that feeling here), there is no comparable word in English, sorry.

Yes, you need a silence and meditation retreat,

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Unless, of course, you are a Zen master or a monk or a nun. This is my third such retreat, but my last time here was in February of 2020, the week right before the Covid lockdown. Since then, I started a new job far away in Florida which means I only come to Spain for the holidays and that time is pretty busy with family, friends, chores, etc. and although I had been meaning to get out here, things do not happen unless you make the commitment, so here I am.

El Paular monastery is an ancient (1390) Medieval monastery built in the confluence of two or three streams where a hermit used to live. The monastery was originally of the Carthusian order, but it got dismantled in the 19th Century and re-started again in 1948 under the Benedictine order. It currently has eleven monks, which is a couple more than when I was last here!

The journey here brings you over the mighty Guadarrama mountains, specifically the 2000mt Navacerrada pass. That is your first threshold, leaving Madrid far away. The descent on the other side is your second signal that you are entering a new world. And then, there you are, face to face with what used to be a massive monastery, which is now a fraction of what it once was, but still beautiful and awe inspiring.

The first thing you notice stepping into the cloister is the silence, there are no TVs, radios, music, nothing other than the birds chirping. Then you notice the rhythm, the pace. There is no rush here, everything works pretty much the same way it did over six centuries ago. Then you notice the massive 52 Vicente Carducho paintings depicting the history of the Carthusian order!

As for the retreat, you get a cell which is a perfectly nice room with a bed and a desk, and a bathroom with great water pressure and even better views of the mountains!

You are encouraged to pray with the monks five times a day:

6:30 Maitines

8:00 Laudes before breakfast

2:00 Sexta before lunch

8:00 Vísperas before dinner

10:00 Completas

One does not talk with the monks unless the monks talk to you, which when they do is briefly. You eat your meals in silence in the refectory -well, there is a reader, yesterday they were reading Merton’s biography!

Other than that, you are free to go walking in the mountains, or to the village a couple of miles away, but that kind of breaks the silence –unless you did not pack enough socks and you have to venture into the village to get some. You spend most of the day reading, writing, meditating.

The abbot is my spiritual director, so when I come, we spend some time talking. Padre Joaquín, like all the monks emanates spirituality, patience, love. Being in the presence of the monks brings down your blood pressure, after all these guys have the key to happiness. It is scientifically proven that monks are the happiest people in the world!

Yes, I have my phone, but it spends a lot of time just sitting in my cell. I take it with me on my walks mostly so I can take photos. This is the beginning of feeling free… (to be continued)

How do you measure teaching performance?

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You do not have to dig too deep to realize that a -or the- key factor in the situation of the planet today boils down to education. We are polarized politically: education, we have massive environmental challenges: education, there is disparate wealth distribution: education, and so on, and so on. Education is not only my métier, but also something I obsess over; how can I improve my craft? How can I improve my school? How can I better serve and teach my students?

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Prof. Matthew Kraft from Brown University deliver a conference on the topic: “Lessons from a decade of reforms on the teacher evaluation system in the US”. The conference was held at the great Fundación Ramón Areces in Madrid.

This foundation dedicated exclusively to the promotion of science in all its aspects is the non-profit of the Corte Ingles retail giant. They are constantly inviting guest speakers, organizing conferences, funding research and scholarships, etc. The Fundación has a great building in the leafy residential Viso neighborhood of Madrid.

Prof. Kraft spoke about the sad failure of Obama´s “Race to the Top” education program from the standpoint of teacher evaluations in the public high school system. (You can check out some of the slides, and a link to the conference, and the data below if you want the nitty gritty).

At the end of the day, Kraft’s conclusions are that we need to not just focus on teacher evaluations, but on the whole school ecosystem if you want success. Key takeaways are the importance of mentors and coaches for teachers, as well as focusing on the health of the school’s culture and environment. Kraft pointed out unseen factors like the importance of socioemotional wellbeing, in school performance.

It was great to hear Prof. Kraft’s holistic and organic approach to improving education – from a hard-core quantitative data background! something we continue to learn and to implement, and something politicians and school administrators need to appreciate.

Oh, some tidbits: Prof. Kraft did his whole presentation in perfect Spanish! He mentioned The Widget Effect published in 2009, as well as Time magazine Dec. 8, 2008 article How to Fix America’s Schools…

The full conference
teacher-eval-achieve-nber-marchDownload

West Palm Beach as an oasis of art and culture.

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If you pay attention and follow this blog you will notice that the main topics covered are The Camino, academics and education, Literature, art and culture, and then a lot of random thoughts and stuff.

This reflects who I am, of what drives me, what makes me tick. And as such it is -I guess- remarkably reliable. The reason for my passion for art and culture lies in the emotions involved and invoked by art.

Fortunately, a lot of art is now accessible from the comfort of your home: film, books, and so forth. But, a lot of art has to be shared, you have to get out to experience it. I am blessed to live near Palm Beach, which is -I have said this before- an oasis of art and culture in this suburban wasteland that is South Florida.

The Norton Museum gets a lot of attention in this blog because it is a jewel of a place which I love. I recently went to see their latest addition: John Singer Sargent’s painting of Amy Phipps Guest. It is a beautiful painting with illumination reminiscent of Sorolla (they were contemporaries and not only did their careers overlap, their technique is eerily similar).

Another cultural treasure of Palm Beach is the Palm Beach Symphony, which I saw perform Handel’s Messiah in December. I recently saw them perform their season finale, at the Kravis Center, their “home”, which included Mozart’s Piano Concerto #23, Franck Symphony in D minor, and Hailstork’s Monuments for solo trombone

In conclusion: thank God for Palm Beach.

Duke, NC State, and UNC The Research Triangle, Tobacco Road

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Respect

You have heard of the Bermuda Triangle, the National (or Parliamentary) Triangle in Canberra, Australia, Isosceles triangles, and other famous triangles, but today we are going to talk about the Research Triangle.

The Research Triangle is formed by three nearby universities in central North Carolina and the towns where they are: Chapel Hill home of UNC, Durham, home of Duke, and Raleigh home to NC State (in Alphabetical order by city –by university in the title). Many companies, mostly tech and biotech, seeking to take advantage of hiring all these grads have set up shop in the area, thus the name. You can´t blame them.

So that is an economic sort of benefit of the Triangle. But more importantly, and one that does not appear on the news, or in economic reporting, is the great relationship between these three great schools. Sure, we trash talk and compete to the death in sports -UNC vs Duke is the oldest rivalry in college sports, also known as the Tobacco Road, but in academia there is great collaboration and cross pollination. During my days at UNC it was normal to go to Duke or NC State for conferences and chats, I even went to concerts! It is normal for couples to work and study in different universities. I personally know two couples with one person at UNC and one at Duke and one at NC State! And there are many who get their undergrad degrees at one and pursue graduate work in one of the others.

I am blessed to teach -in the same class- a Duke and a NC State graduate, so the other day we agreed to wear our swag shirts and get our favorite photographer Dylan to take some photos of us showing off. Enjoy!

Sharing knowledge, academic articles (my first!)

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PC: Jess Strub

As my dear old friend and brother Theo would say, I am a bit of a late bloomer. I got into teaching later in life, I started my master’s at 42 and my PhD at 47. Once in the doctoral program I realized the importance of publishing academic articles, but I never really committed to it, I was focused on my dissertation which I managed in 4 years from start to finish. So I was never into the article publishing game; I tried a couple of times but halfheartedly…

Then life happened, and I did not worry too much about it, oh and Covid, and so on. Once settled in Florida, alone, in the long winter nights, I actually hammered out an article! When I mentioned it to Irene, my dissertation director, she liked it! and recommended I submit it to Romance Notes academic literary journal…

And they accepted it.

And it was just published!

What is it about?

Remember that Francisco de Isla wrote a scathing satire of 18th Century Spanish preachers: Fray Gerundio de Campazas? The moment it was published it sold out -literally overnight- but as was to be expected, the novel rubbed some people the wrong way and it was denounced to the Inquisition.

The article deals with the letters that Isla wrote in defense of his work. And that is where it gets fun: it is not so much a defense, as an attack on the fellow who filed the complaint of Fray Gerundio to the Inquisition.

You can find the article following this citation, and if you do not have access to academic databases and still want to read it, reach out on the comments and I will get you a copy.

Balsón, Antonio. “La Apología por la historia de Fray Gerundio de Campazas de Francisco de Isla. La anfibología como arma secreta.” Romance Notes 62.3 (2022): 419-429.

Here is the abstract (oh, FYI its in Spanish):

La Apología por la historia de Fray Gerundio es la defensa de Francisco de Isla contra la denuncia presentada por Fray Pablo de la Concepción, superior general de los Carmelitas Descalzos, ante el Tribunal de la Inquisición contra La Historia de Fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes. Fray Gerundio se publicó en Madrid el 21 de febrero de 1758 y fue un éxito rotundo. La reacción de los predicadores fue instantánea y, no queriendo ser tildados de “Gerundios”, empezaron a predicar sus sermones en un lenguaje más claro y sencillo. Cuatro días después de su publicación, de la Concepción, presentó su denuncia del Gerundio ante el Tribunal de la Inquisición. Isla rebatió la denuncia escribiendo cuatro cartas que se convirtieron en la Apología por la historia de Fray Gerundio. La Apología es una obra típicamente isliana en su retorica combativa. Isla utiliza todos los recursos aprendidos durante su larga carrera literaria, para defender su obra y usa un ataque minucioso para desglosar la totalidad de la denuncia, aunque finalmente fuese en vano, y la novela best seller del siglo dieciocho fuese prohibida. Una de las claves para entender la Apología reside en el uso de la anfibología por parte de Isla. El doble entendre ilumina la Apología como arma ofensiva más que defensiva. Esta obra, como la mayoría de las obras de Isla con la excepción del Gerundio, ha tenido mínima repercusión crítica y académica.

La apologia por la Historia de FG

Saying farewell is hard. Fr. George and emotional healing.

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“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”

Rumi

Life is a story, a narrative, with a beginning and an end, and in between (hopefully) many chapters, some longer and some shorter. When a chapter finishes, or is left unfinished, it is emotional. It is emotional because you are back to a blank page, you can start a new chapter -you should start a new chapter.

Saying goodbye is a process shared by all humanity, the emotions that we share when we say farewell. Books, films, plays, operas, ballets, songs, poems (especially poems), you name it, have been devoted to saying goodbye, how we deal with it, how we process, the whole messy procedure. And here is the space for magic to happen in the space left by the person who has left. As you let go of the person leaving, you are on the threshold, you are now open to growth, to seeing what you can take from the friendship, or whatever it was, and make yourself a better person, a more understanding person. Or you can become bitter and insecure.

It is in these transitional moments of our lives that authentic transformation can happen. Otherwise, it is just business as usual and an eternally boring, status quo existence. 

Richard Rohr

From family members, to loved ones, friends that sometimes you love as much as family, or even someone you have recently met but with whom you connected with, and everybody in between. Saying goodbye is hard.

The key word there is connection; the moment you share, you laugh, you cry, everything forms a connection with the other person.

Fr. George generously invited me to go paddle boarding with him last Fall, it became a bit of a tradition, going out early in the morning for an hour or so, and then getting a coffee at Willy Cafe before heading to work. We connected. Now he is leaving our school and going back to Orlando. As a proper surfer, Fr. George is known to wear Hawaiian shirts when not in his clerics; The other day, to celebrate him, we all agreed to wear Hawaiian shirts in his honor, it was fun and moving at the same time!

Words are so clumsy at explaining the feelings, the void left in your heart when someone leaves, dies, ghosts you, whatever.

Of the many, many words to express goodbyes, I like Rumi’s quote at the top and this poem a lot. What are your favorite farewell songs, poems, books? Let me know in the comments.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Pancreatic Cancer Action Network PanCAN

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Luciano Pavarotti, Steve Jobs, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Aretha Franklin, Patrick Swayze, Joan Crawford, Dizzy Gillespie, Alex Trebek. What do these people have in common with my father?

They all died of pancreatic cancer.

My father died in 2015, so when an opportunity arose a few months ago to volunteer at the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network PanCAN, I signed up.

The purpose of PanCAN is to help folks with pancreatic cancer. We sponsor researchers and doctors, clinical studies, and then we help divulge the findings and help patients:

Our mission is to take bold action to improve the lives of everyone impacted by pancreatic cancer by advancing scientific research, building community, sharing knowledge, and advocating for patients.

PanCan Mission Statement

PanCAN’s main event is a 5k fundraising event held across the US on the 29th of April. There was a lot of preparation involved in organizing the event. I drove to the Burt Aaronson Park in Boca Raton on the Friday before the event to help set up.

I returned on Saturday to see thousands of people signed up to do the walk -and more importantly, to fundraise. The event was an enormous success. I spent all morning running around getting this, helping with that, bringing something to someone, setting it up, breaking down, cheering walkers, staffing the Photo Booth, etc. it was exhausting but extremely rewarding!

I cannot wait to start helping with next year’s walk!

Oh, if I have inspired you to donate or to explore this further, click here! Thanks!

The awesome band!