El Camino – Day 8 (Siguero to Santiago de Compostela)

by marjasisu, posted in Reflections

And, we’re done. Our inaugural El Camino walk — 114km (71 miles) over 8 days on the route called Camino Ingles — ended today where they all end, at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Adding detours and wrong turns, we walked about 80 miles. Our last eight brought more wind and rain, and an unexpected Hallowe’en treat. Our international walking companions were Swedish, Belgian, and Spanish — but once at the cathedral, we heard many other languages. Interestingly, we didn’t meet anyone else from the U.S. on the trail. Also interesting, little English is spoken by rural locals compared to many other parts of the world. (I didn’t mind, but would have to brush up on my Spanish if I come back alone. My knowledge of Italian didn’t go far.) I’m tired as I write this at night, but I committed to blog daily, so here goes!

Last night’s lodging came with a kitchen and unexpected light breakfast.
As we left, we encountered our Canadian friend Dorothy, ready to start out and prepared for rain. At 77, she is on her 9th El Camino walk.
A taxi again picked us up to bring us to the spot where we left the trail yesterday.
Again, signs of autumn…
…and we were prepared for the rain that soon came as we walked through picturesque hamlets.
I watched the distance markers go under 10 kilometers. As a long-time runner, I know that a 10k is 6.2 miles. So just over six miles to go!
Ginny really does look like a pilgrim in her rain poncho as she sits on a rock to take a swig of water.
Rain is dripping from her rain hat here, as it really came down during this climb.
We passed some wet mementos along the way, in remembrance of someone who died.
Isn’t it interesting how even water-logged scenes can be beautiful? Love the old rock walls.
Rain sure brings green, even in autumn.
The ivy wrapped around these tree trunks made it even more green.
After getting soaked, we were glad for this cafe, in spite of translation errors.😄
The cafe had this goofy pilgrim thing in front…the kind where you stick your head on top. At least my hat matches.
Then back into the wet forest.
It was magical, and would get more so!
Maria is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her underneath colorful flags. The route soon got even more colorful.
Maria warned the “enchanted forest” was coming, but we didn’t know it was literal. (That’s what the sign on the tree says, in Spanish.)
It’s Hallowe’en, so we played along and took turns posing as a witch. (A good witch, of course.)
It was that kind of day where the rain would stop for a while so you would remove your poncho, only to have to don it again. And then the wind came up. Ginny had a time of it trying to get her poncho back on! Yeah, I laughed…
… but I did help her out eventually.
I wish I knew the story of this clearly old trail marker.
I also wonder who added the fake dog next to this one!
As we entered Santiago de Compostela, it was hard to appreciate the milestone while battling wind and rain. But I did notice the nice cobblestones.
The rain finally abated as we went deeper into the city and nearer the cathedral.
We began to see metal shells placed into the sidewalks, replacing the yellow arrows we’ve followed for 8 days.
Veteran and El Camino volunteer Maria suggested that we get our commemorative credentials first. It was like a DMV line. You wait until your number comes up and go to the designated window.
Ginny receives her credential.
We also got a version in Latin. Cool.
Then we made our way to this monastery/seminary, which has been renovated for guests.
Here’s the innocuous guest entrance…
..and our somewhat austere but very serviceable rooms…
…and a surprisingly nice dining room, where we enjoyed a wonderful pilgrims’ lunch for a great price.
The monastery courtyard makes it clear that ” you are here.” (How many feet is .135km? Not many.)
On display in the monastery, this clearly old and cracked yellow arrow. Walking El Camino was most popular in the Middle Ages, when at least 500,000 people walked every year. I wonder how old this stone is and how many people walked these halls.
The display of flags near the cathedral reminded me where we are. (As if the language isn’t enough.) That’s the Spanish flag, 2nd from left. European Union (EU) flag on the right.
The yellow line shows the route we have walked in the past 8 days.
When you look at the map of Spain, our walk doesn’t look like much. But it was enough for us, and a great introduction. We can already imagine doing longer routes on El Camino.

I will save the experience of visiting the cathedral itself for the next post. It really is something to walk into that big square and realize how many pilgrims have done that before you. And then to enter the cathedral itself. Unforgettable. But now, to bed. Tomorrow we take a tour to the “ends of the earth.” Well, at least to the Atlantic Ocean. Stay tuned!

3 thoughts on “El Camino – Day 8 (Siguero to Santiago de Compostela)”

Leave a comment