Where There is Smoke

**Updated 12pm**

We woke up to smoke in the house and burning throats. Looking outside, it’s even worse. Pilgrims walking by have their shirts over their mouths.

The alerts went out. There are two new fires in our municipality of Palas de Rei. One near the Castelo, just down the road, and the other just south of it. We heard reports of ash falling like snow near Sarria yesterday and a lot of village evacuations to Triacastela. People are devastated. They could lose everything.

These latest fires near us happened so fast. We are hoping that evacuation is not in our immediate future. It is supposed to rain early morning tomorrow. Let’s pray the bomberos can keep these fires under control until then.

In the meantime, anyone outside walking needs to take care. If you have an N95 mask, you should wear it outside. And, while it is much cooler today, drink a lot of water. If you don’t have a mask, wet your buff and put it over your mouth. And if you have a previous history of asthma or similar, take a rest day and avoid going outside through the area effected.

This fire season is one of the worst on record in Spain and Portugal. We sit here on the farm and, quite literally, pray for water. At this point, we will take it from the sky or the ground. We aren’t picky. Whatever we can get.

UPDATE: We decided we needed to leave and are packed up and heading to the coast of Coruña. Its thick smoke all the way on the A54 to the A6. Today, we will breath easier and have water for real showers. Praying 🙏for rain 🌧