No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man

is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine: if a

Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,

as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor

of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans

death diminishes me, because I am in-

volved in Mankinde; And therefore

never send to know for

                                        whom the bell tolls; It

tolls for thee.

JOHN DONNE

Somewhere east of Burgos is a monument at the top of a mountain marked 1937 or 1939 for men killed in the fighting there during the Spanish Civil War.  Maybe more of a hill than a mountain but the important thing is the monument and what it stands for.  I was waiting to run across some such rememberance along the trail.  I had read Hemingway’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” twice by then and roughly I knew of the story of the war.

And near the monument are three or four picnic tables were Kelly and I had some food and rest.  While sitting there I noticed a wooden fence with a gate close by so I walked over to investigate.  Inside the fenced area is an area about fifty meters by four meters that is bordered by rocks and beyond a interpretive display.  So I continued in to see the display.

What was going on was that it was a gravesite or actually a former site.  The information described the project done in the early 1980’s of digging up the 104 bodies that were there and running DNA tests on them to identify the remains.  So the bodies were IDed and returned to the families in their home towns.  All the little and big towns that you had just walked through or were going to shortly had someone or more.  The project took place shortly after the death of Franco, the Fascist leader of Spain that died in 1979 when finally the country returned to normalcy.

So last week I started to read the Hemingway book to get me in the mood for this topic. Just wanted to include it somewhere as it was a part of our walk and this is the appropriate day.  Not exactly cheery but a story of reconciliation which is a good thing. Love, Felipe.