Finisterre

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” – Dr. Seuss

E: Gary and Cooper walked to Fisterra from Santiago. I will let Gary write about their adventures below.

Chelsea and I took the bus (2hrs 15min) from Santiago to Fisterra, the town on Cape Finisterre, a peninsula in north western Spain on the Atlantic Ocean. The area is known as Costa da Morte, the Coast of Death, in Galician (The local region’s language) due to the large number of shipwrecks in the area.  The town’s name, Fisterra, comes from the Latin, Finis Terrae, Land’s End. C and C’s ranch where they work in Prescott, AZ is called Terra Farm and Manor. Since it is off the grid, 9 miles out a forest service dirt road, 45 minutes from town, it too comes from Terrae, Latin for Land. Fisterra is an ancient fishing village, population is roughly 4,700. Gary and I have chosen to stay here on 5 different occasions over the years and were happy to see the kids enjoying the area as well!

Chelsea and I enjoyed two days and nights in Hotel Costa da Morte overlooking the ocean a couple small blocks above the center of town. We beach combed Longosteria Beach on the north eastern side of the town which is on a bay. We found wonderful seafood and goat cheese salads down by the marina, a couple minutes’ walk from the hotel. We shopped the small trinket and clothing stores and visited with pilgrims just coming in on foot from Santiago, as well as incoming tourists and additional pilgrims, like ourselves, who arrived via a bus. Chelsea and I spent time alone, together and rested.

Gary and I walked the Camino for the first time in 2015 with a woman from Oregon, Lisa. I noticed on Facebook she was doing the Camino Portuguese this year. She was supposed to be done days before we arrived in Fisterra, but changes in both our schedules made the stars align. The Camino Provides! We randomly arrived in Fisterra on the same day, after 9 years of not seeing one another. It was fabulous to meet on the Camino yet again sharing my family and stories with her and learning about her life after all these years. Our parting words: “See you in 9 years!”.

G: Cooper and I headed out of Santiago a little after 7am. We knew we had about 22 miles ahead of us and the forecast was for sunny and 80 degrees, plus humidity, which we are not used to. We had quite a bit of road walking as we departed the city. Soon enough we were back in the rolling hills of the Galician countryside. 12 miles in we reached a bigger town. It was only 11AM so none of the restaurants were serving lunch yet. After 4 or 5 attempts we went to the grocery store and decided to head out of town for a picnic.

The day was warming up and we still had 10 miles to go. The countryside was beautiful but we were mostly exposed to the hot sun. At the top of a pretty good climb we stopped at a cafe and got a coke with a glass of ice. It felt great to sit in the shade with a cold drink. A few miles later we were at Casa Vella for the night. We really enjoyed the community dinner with 8 other pilgrims. The 8 had walked 4 different Caminos, Frances, Portuguese, Primitivo and the Norte. There was 1 American, in addition to C and I, of the other 8 people. A fun diverse group of adventurers.

Our second day was 15 degrees cooler and light showers off and on till mid afternoon when the showers stopped. Coop and I walked the 15.5 miles to our destination with a stop for breakfast. It was only 1pm and as we ate lunch we decided to move on to the next town, 10+ miles ahead. We were able to cancel our original reservation and make a new reservation in Cee (pronounced Thay in Galician), our new destination for the day. We arrived in town by 5pm on this Saturday. We headed out to find some food. In true Spanish fashion no one was serving food late afternoon. We found a pizza place we thought opened the kitchen at 6, but it turned out to be 7 as well. Oh well, the bar portion was open so we on the patio and socialized with new friends.

Doing the extra miles on Saturday left only 7.5 miles for Sunday morning. We were up early and arrived in Fisterra about 8:30AM.

E: Cooper and Gary walked into Fisterra on Sunday morning and we all donned our packs and walked to Mar de Fora Beach on the north western side of the peninsula. The two beaches are only 15 minutes walking distance apart as the land is less than 1 mile wide. We all stripped down to our undergarments and dipped into the chilly, blue, expansive Atlantic Ocean! A historical tradition after completing one’s walk to the end of the world! Surprisingly, it was cold but not unbearable for us desert dwellers!

Chelsea and I stayed 2 nights in one hotel (Costa da Morte mentioned above) then we moved to be all together the next two nights by Longosteria Beach, at Hotel Mar de Fisterra, due to changing our plans and not being able to get into Mar de Fisterra the first two nights. It turned out to be fun to be in two different sections of the town. After a 7:30PM dinner by the marina with the guys, we all walked up to the lighthouse for the 10:15PM sunset and traditional pictures at the “0.0” Camino marker. From Mar de Fisterra, the lighthouse is just under 5 miles up and back.

We have all been restaurant hopping; continue to reconnect with pilgrims each of us have encountered along The Way at some point or another; we are napping; journaling; shell searching on the beach by this hotel and enjoying time as a family and as couples. Gary, Chelsea and Cooper leave tomorrow to walk the 19 miles to Muxia, our final stop on this Spain adventure. I will take the bus and meet them there. We will write more and share pictures on Muxia in a few days. Then we are all off to Dublin to be tourists for a couple days before flying Dublin, through London, to Phoenix on June 17^th.

What we find in a soul mate is not something to tame, but something wild to run with.

Robert Brault