La Rosa del Agua -Pilgrims Serving Pilgrims
Donation protected
My Story: My name is Mike de Ayala, an American who’s been living in Spain since 2010. I came to Spain as an English teacher and opened up a language academy in Mallorca. During these intervening years I discovered the Camino de Santiago or The Way of Saint James (“the Camino”). The Camino is a network of ancient trails throughout Europe and in particular Spain that lead to the shrine of one of the 12 original apostle, St. James, kept in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it, the remains of the Saint are buried. My first Camino was in 2014 and I walked approximately 800 kilometers over 5 weeks over the best preserved and most historic pilgrimage route in Europe, the French Route.
Between 2014 and 2018 I walked 5 Caminos through Spain, Portugal and France. With each experience I became more convinced that I wanted to serve pilgrims on their journey. In 2018 while walking through Castilla y Leon in the El Bierzo mountain region, I discovered a 200 year old refurbished building, in the medieval mountain village of El Acebo de San Miguel on the French Camino. It is there where I met the owners and negotiated a lease to open begin serving pilgrims from all over the world on their sacred way towards Santiago de Compostela.
2019: I took over the operations of the casa rural (i.e., bed and breakfast), café and mini market. The B&B and Café is called La Rosa del Agua https://larosadelagua.com/. In my 1st year 2019, without any previous hospitality experience I served over 20,000 pilgrims from over 65 different countries. Our mission at La Rosa de Agua was to serve pilgrims like family doing our best to make them feel at home. Our mission statement is "Pilgrims serving Pilgrims".
2020: We opened our doors for the 2020 Camino season on 27 February with high hopes and building upon the experience, goodwill and hard work from 2019. On 16 March of this very year, the Spanish central government declared a State of Alarm, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the country and all over Europe. As a result, La Rosa del Agua, along with other "deemed" non-essential businesses throughout the country were ordered to close until further notice. The State of Alarm was not lifted until 1 June or 75 days later. Moreover, when we were given the green light to re-open it was under significant capacity constraints.
Furthermore, we didn't see any pilgrims until the Camino was officially reopened on 1 July. Since that time the volume of pilgrims on the Camino is less than 20% from 2019 levels (source: pilgrims office Santiago). In spite of incurring losses this year, we remained open through early November, essentially until the end of the season for the winter.
A Brighter Future 2021: The year 2021 has been designated a Jubilee or Jacobeo year on the Camino and in the City and Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. A Jubilee Year is celebrated in Santiago de Compostela whenever July 25, the feast day of Santiago, falls on a Sunday. We expect that 2021 will also bring the world an effective and safe COVID vaccine. The combination of these two events gives us reason to hope for an increase in pilgrim activity next year.
Where we are now: Our cash reserves are nearly depleted as we struggle to pay fixed expenses through the winter. Small business help from the Spanish government is modest and limited and due to technicalities in the law such as having been established less than two years, we don't qualify for government backed loans. We've negotiated a significant reduction in rent with the landlords through 2021. In spite of our fixed operating budget being cut to the bare minimum we are not quite able to meet all our expenses. That is why we are asking for your help in a modest 5,000€ capital campaign to which the money will serve as financing bridge to get La Rosa del Agua ready to open fully in 2021. Any individual contribution of 150€ or more will be gifted a complimentary nights stay with full breakfast for two. Thank you very much for any help you can provide to help us stay open soon to serve pilgrims from all walks of life on the Camino de Santiago.
Between 2014 and 2018 I walked 5 Caminos through Spain, Portugal and France. With each experience I became more convinced that I wanted to serve pilgrims on their journey. In 2018 while walking through Castilla y Leon in the El Bierzo mountain region, I discovered a 200 year old refurbished building, in the medieval mountain village of El Acebo de San Miguel on the French Camino. It is there where I met the owners and negotiated a lease to open begin serving pilgrims from all over the world on their sacred way towards Santiago de Compostela.
2019: I took over the operations of the casa rural (i.e., bed and breakfast), café and mini market. The B&B and Café is called La Rosa del Agua https://larosadelagua.com/. In my 1st year 2019, without any previous hospitality experience I served over 20,000 pilgrims from over 65 different countries. Our mission at La Rosa de Agua was to serve pilgrims like family doing our best to make them feel at home. Our mission statement is "Pilgrims serving Pilgrims".
2020: We opened our doors for the 2020 Camino season on 27 February with high hopes and building upon the experience, goodwill and hard work from 2019. On 16 March of this very year, the Spanish central government declared a State of Alarm, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the country and all over Europe. As a result, La Rosa del Agua, along with other "deemed" non-essential businesses throughout the country were ordered to close until further notice. The State of Alarm was not lifted until 1 June or 75 days later. Moreover, when we were given the green light to re-open it was under significant capacity constraints.
Furthermore, we didn't see any pilgrims until the Camino was officially reopened on 1 July. Since that time the volume of pilgrims on the Camino is less than 20% from 2019 levels (source: pilgrims office Santiago). In spite of incurring losses this year, we remained open through early November, essentially until the end of the season for the winter.
A Brighter Future 2021: The year 2021 has been designated a Jubilee or Jacobeo year on the Camino and in the City and Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. A Jubilee Year is celebrated in Santiago de Compostela whenever July 25, the feast day of Santiago, falls on a Sunday. We expect that 2021 will also bring the world an effective and safe COVID vaccine. The combination of these two events gives us reason to hope for an increase in pilgrim activity next year.
Where we are now: Our cash reserves are nearly depleted as we struggle to pay fixed expenses through the winter. Small business help from the Spanish government is modest and limited and due to technicalities in the law such as having been established less than two years, we don't qualify for government backed loans. We've negotiated a significant reduction in rent with the landlords through 2021. In spite of our fixed operating budget being cut to the bare minimum we are not quite able to meet all our expenses. That is why we are asking for your help in a modest 5,000€ capital campaign to which the money will serve as financing bridge to get La Rosa del Agua ready to open fully in 2021. Any individual contribution of 150€ or more will be gifted a complimentary nights stay with full breakfast for two. Thank you very much for any help you can provide to help us stay open soon to serve pilgrims from all walks of life on the Camino de Santiago.
Organizer
Miguel Deayala
Organizer
Molinaseca, CL