Day 44 – Finisterre to Muxía
6/23/17 – 31.2km/19.3mi from Finisterre to Muxía. This was it. The very last day. The end of my second Camino. I actually put off writing this for a few days because I needed some time both to unwind, and to figure out what closing thoughts I had. So I guess this is a bit long. […]
Day 43 – “Day Off” in Finisterre
6/22/17 – “Day Off” in Finisterre. We had a great time last night celebrating a monumental accomplishment. Not to mention that we’ve covered nearly 100 km since Santiago, in just three days. That’s taxing. As strong as we have become on this journey, we’re definitely tired, mentally and physically. That exhaustion manifested in a few […]
Day 42 – Olveiroa to Finisterra
6/21/17 – 49.2km/30.6mi from Olveiroa to Finisterre, which the ancient Romans thought was “the end of the world.” The distance includes the distance we walked to Finisterre, in town, and climbing to the “lighthouse at the end of the world” and back. The stars were smiling on our night in Olveiroa as we had a […]
Day 41 – Negreira to Olveiroa
6/20/17 – 35.1km/21.8mi from Negreira to Olveiroa. I’ve been enjoying seeing again some of the things that we saw on the Finisterre trip in 2014. For example, the sign for the town of “Fornos,” vandalized so it says “Pornos.” A little puerile, but I found this gleefully delightful back then and now. The Camino Finisterre also has […]
Day 40 – Santiago de Compostela to Negreira
6/19/17 – 22.8km/14.2mi from Santiago de Compostela to Negreira. After 40 days and 40 nights of traveling through a certain desert, certain people reached a final destination. We… have a few more to go. Our “Camino family” has dwindled from 10 to 4, and only Serrina, Courtney, David, and I are left. But we will […]
Day 39 – Monte de Gozo to Santiago de Compostela
6/18/17 – “815km/506mi” from Monte de Gozo (ok, from Irún, Spain) to SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA!!! Finally, after a long, difficult, but surely an enjoyable journey, WE REACHED SANTIAGO, which was reason to celebrate! In 2014, we walked 500 miles. And this year, as the song goes, we walked 500 more! My Compostela (certificate) says we […]
Day 38 – Arzúa to Monte de Gozo
6/17/17 – 40(!!)km/24.8mi from Arzúa to Monte de Gozo We’re nearing the end. And so many thoughts are racing through my mind. On this Camino, we’ve had bitter cold and blazing heat. Absolute still air and gusting winds. Sheets of rain and heavy, still humidity. It’s hard to pack light for those kinds of variations. […]
Day 37 – Sobrado Dos Monxes to Arzúa
6/16/17 – 29.8km/18.5mi from Sobrado Dos Monxes to Arzúa Today also promised to be a scorcher so the crew took off early from their hostel at 6:20 to beat the heat. Buuuuut, I slept in the monastery and was so comfortable that I woke up late! I left at 7:17, nearly an hour behind the […]
Day 36 – A Lagoa to Sobrado dos Monxes
6/15/17 – 29.8km/18.5mi from A Lagoa to Sobrado Dos Monxes. Knowing that it would be very hot this afternoon, we all agreed to get walking about an hour earlier than we usually do, about 6am. The good news is that we spent several hours walking in crisp cool comfort. And also we’ve added Giovanni to […]
Day 35 – Baamonde to A Lagoa
6/14/17 – 18.6km/11.6mi from Baamonde to A Lagoa. After a night of merrymaking in Baamonde, some of the crew woke up not feeling so good. Solution? Open up one of our bottles of wine left over from yesterday, and have a morning roadie. I tried to resist temptation, but in the end I had a […]
Day 34 – Vilalba to Baamonde
6/13/17 – 18.6km/11.6mi from Vilalba to Baamonde. It was fairly formulaic today – hike, yoga, food, drink, sleep. So instead, I’m going to talk about the “stages” or “aspects” of the journey. During the last week of our first Camino, we felt real strong. We conditioned ourselves, and endurance was high. So while some members […]
Day 33 – Gontán to Vilalba
6/12/17 – 25.4km/15.8mi from Gontán to Vilalba, with smooth rolling hills. The altitude here in Galicia means that every day, we start off in a cloud of fog. Today’s cloud of fog was so dense, it actually felt like rain, and that means I got to break out “Big Pink,” my ridiculous poncho, again. But, […]
Day 32 – Lourenza to Gontán
6/11/17 – 23.8km/14.8mi from Lourenza to Gontán, with a total of 1300m/4265ft of ascent and descent. Today featured 2 stages. The first was a 2-hour stage from Lourenza to the very pretty town of Mondoñedo that featured a decent climb. After a coffee break, and checking out the gorgeous Mondoñedo town center and Cathedral, we […]
Day 31 – Ribadeo to Lourenza
6/10/17 -29.3km/18.2mi from Ribadeo to Lourenza, with a total of 1405m/4610ft of ascent and descent. After our rest day at the beach, I felt great this morning and it just felt “right” to begin walking. It might sound crazy – but after doing this for 30 days, it feels more weird to sleep in and […]
Day 29-30 – La Caridad to Ribadeo
6/8/17-6/9/17 – 25.9/16.1mi from La Caridad to Ribadeo, and then a “rest day” in Ribadeo. The walk to Ribadeo was nice but long, our feet pounding the pavement a solid 16 miles. Aside from a nice lunch stop in Tapia, we walked through farms and along roads. There wasn’t all that much to the hike apart […]
Day 28 – Luarca to La Caridad
6/7/17 – 33.3km/20.7mi from Luarca to La Caridad, with about 1313m/4310ft of ascent and descent. We knew today would be long so we got up and shuffled out early from Luarca. It was another day of mixed forest, farm, and road walking, with nothing really spectacular. We walked under a major highway and marveled at […]
Day 27 – Cadavedo to Luarca
6/6/17 – 26km/16.2mi overall from Cadavedo, to Luarca, with only 1-2 major climbs. The actual walk was fairly short, but I loved Luarca so much that I walked for several miles all around it for photos and sightseeing, bringing my daily mileage fairly high. The day began with a leisurely exit from awesome Casa Carín […]
Day 26 – Soto de Luiña to Cadavedo
6/5/17 – 23.9km/14.9mi from Soto de Luiña to Cadavedo, with about 1524m/5000ft of total ascent & descent. Today was technically shorter and had less climbing and descent than yesterday. But, every climb and drop was super steep. As a beloved character from “Rick and Morty” would say, “ooooooooo-weeeeeee” – it was tough! Today we were […]
Day 25 – Muros de Nalon to Soto de Luiña
6/4/17 – 25.9km/16.1mi from Muros de Nalón to Soto de Luiña, with about 1700m/5577ft of total ascent & descent. After yesterday’s rain festival, today was one of the loveliest days we’ve had on the entire trip. Sunny but not too hot, great views, beautiful paths, and manageable ups and downs. Muros de Nalón’s claim to […]
Day 24 – Avilés to Muros de Nalon
6/3/17 – 25.9km/16.1mi from Avilés to Muros de Nalón Our larger group stayed in different places last night so today Team Vegas and Wooju headed out early while David, Keith and I brought up the rear. We woke up and prepared for a full day of rain – but at least that allowed me to put […]