Day 38: Finisterre to Muxia (31km/19.2miles)

April 30, 2017

Today started slowly, very slowly. I woke up at 9am since I was only going to hike 13.5km. I wanted to stretch out my last day of hiking, I didn’t want it to end! So I said I would stop halfway between Finisterre and Muxia, in As Lires. As you can tell by my title, I did not stop.

The weather was shit. No eloquent way of putting it. First it was cold and windy. Then sunny and hot. Then cold and windy. You get the idea… I put on and took off my jacket no less than 5 times. I got so angry, I wanted to scream! I kept saying to myself I should have stayed in Finisterre, I should have rested. I was getting so angry at myself.

I reached halfway around 1. It took me over 3 hours to go 13.5km. I realized that I took the long way so it was actually about 15-16km. I got lost at one point and took the road, and it ended up taking me the long way. So basically when I reached half way I was so over it. I sat down and had a sandwich, feeling defeated.

A fellow pilgrim sat down at the table next to me. She was heading the opposite direction, heading to Finisterre. She said she thought about staying at the half way point as well, but said that if it was sunny when she left- she would continue to Finisterre. I couldn’t help but wonder if I should do the same…

When I arrived at the albergue at the half way point, I realized it was sunny- and I felt energized. I asked myself “why would I stop here?” And the only answer I had was that i didn’t want my Camino to end. So I was basically just avoiding the inevitable. Once I realized this, I knew I needed to keep going. I needed to face my fears head on. I didn’t want to stay simply because I was afraid.

So I pressed on, and I even met a new friend! His name is Monte. The poor guy followed me earlier in the day when I took the long way, haha! We laughed about how we both are not good at directions! 😂

It was nice to have company for the second half of the day. We exchanged Camino stories, talked about our Camino families and our favorite moments. It was nice to end the Camino by summarizing what i experienced, and sharing what he experienced as well.

I arrived at the municipal albergue and thankfully it was open! I got my Muxia certificate (another certificate of completion.) and then took a shower.

Monte and I headed out for dinner around 6pm. I was SO happy to hear that Christian was still in Muxia, so he joined us as well. We had lovely conversation over a couple glasses of wine. I am surely going to miss €1 glasses of wine, ha! I am also going to miss the deep, philosophical conversations I have here. I hope I am able to do that more when I am home. I find myself happier when I can have a profound conversation, rather than talking about surface level, materialistic topics. We even disagreed at moments, when discussing religion versus spirituality, but if anything it made the conversation better. Hearing different perspectives and having people around me who can be OPEN MINDED, is so refreshing.

We went for a quick walk, and then realized we had to be back at the albergue by 10, when the doors close. I feel like I have a curphew again haha! So we ran, literally ran up a hill, to get back on time 😂

I managed to fall asleep fairly easily, which was nice. I will spend the next 2 days in Muxia until heading back to Santiago on Wednesday. On Thursday I have a flight to Barcelona. So excited to see another coast of Spain!

I would be lying if I didn’t admit I am feeling a bit somber. Not quite sad, just somber. I feel like I have whiplash from all the movement and now I am just sitting still. It’s hard to sit still when I was hiking for 38 days. That is going to be a lesson– how to go feel peace when I am still.

The next days I will post more blogs about the Camino. I want to write a seperate blog about my family, with a photo and description of each person. I will also write a blog about the lessons I learned. Finally, I will write a blog about items I wish I brought/left behind.

Still more to come!

Heading to muxia!