May 16-17
May 16-17 Muxia Along with Finisterre, Muxia is one of the medieval “end of the earth” points. Looking out from the ridge, it is easy to imagine why they would take that view. The area here is the Costa de Morte, a name drawn from the hazards the rocky coast with its powerful currents, but […]
May 15
May 15 The apartment buildings along the inner harbor of A Coruna are faced completely with wooden window frames standing off the building about two feet. They collect the morning sun and heat, and from the outside look almost as if the structures are draped in lace. The sun finally made an appearance this morning […]
May 13-14
May 13-14 A Coruna Now fully in tourist mode, travelled by train to A Coruna, up on the Galician coast to see the ocean but also hear Guadi Galego sing. The weather continues to be Galician sunshine (a constant light rain) but there is something magical about A Coruna. A city bounded by water, a […]
May 12
May 12 Santiago Crossing cultures. The end point of a trek, particularly a heavily traveled pilgrimage produces a remarkable convergence of cultures. I spent much of my Camino walking with an Italian and a Portuguese, so our words veered between four languages, appetites varied, and just the simple gestures of daily life had different nuance. […]
May 11
May 11 Santiago End of trek redux–to not be a walker brings a strange sense of loss. Over breakfast watching peregrinos wander in, seeing them not as colleagues but as someone still trekking is unsettling. Of course I’ll be back amongst the walkers soon enough–will commence the Trans-Swiss Trail later this month and might still […]
May 10
May 10 Vilamaior to Santiago de Compostela 8 km It’s hard to think through trail endings. Long anticipated and suddenly appearing, they usually drain away any words that might help make sense of a long, unfolding path. People feel elation when finishing an arduous trek which often brings a compulsion to celebrate, commemorate, and commiserate […]
May 9
May 9 Boente to Vilamaior 38 km. The official Camino de Santiago ends tomorrow with a short trek into Santiago. Started early today to avoid the worst of heavy afternoon showers. The trek up out of Boente (an undistinguished town) was in early light. There were open skies overhead but every cloud type packing the […]
May 8
May 8 Gonzalez to Boente 37 km. Robert MacFarlane along with Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards wrote a beautiful little book called Holloway. A holloway is “a sunken path, a deep & shady lane. A route that centuries of foot-fall, hoof-hit, wheel-roll, & rain-run have harrowed into the land.” They trace and illustrate a number […]
May 7
May 7 Agriculture– the Camino might be a strong financial engine for this region, but clearly farming defines the people’s lives. The way passed villages that were more clusters of barns than towns, smelling strong but good. An elderly man walking his dog embodied the spirit, a certain joy in his smile and enthusiastic “buen […]
May 6
May 6 Triacastela to Barbadelo 28 km. Galicia is renowned for its green beauty, but walkers the green exacts a price–it rains often, as it did all day today. Not a hard rain, but a good soaking one that left me damp. All that water has to go somewhere, and the streams were all brimming. […]