Sara and Evan: We think we’ve walked enough for a while. We still wanted to visit Muxia and Finisterre, but not to hike any more for the time being. So we left our full backpacks and the duffel in storage and took our light daypacks for an early morning bus out to Muxia. We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves about the beauty of these rugged coastlines.
Visit to Muxia: It was a beautiful morning as we rode and then arrived in Muxia. We found a café for coffee and breakfast, found the Tourist Information office, and then walked a few kilometers out past the marina to the rocky coast. We sat on the rocks, climbed to the hilltop for a panoramic view, and meditated as we looked out over Atlantic Ocean. Today was the one year anniversary of Sara’s mom’s passing, so this quiet contemplative time was particularly meaningful. It seems that both Muxia and Finisterre claim to be the westernmost point on mainland Europe. After enjoying a lovely lunch, another Menu de Dia, we decided to head on to Finisterre and spend the night there. So we found the bus stop, and waited.
Visit to Finisterre (translated:”the end of the earth”): By the time we arrived in Finisterre, around 5:00, the sky had become overcast with a threat of rain. We found our hotel, and then set out to visit the lighthouse. It was more than a three kilometer walk, mostly uphill, and as we walked, the sky darkened and we saw others heading back toward town, but not others going our way. But Sara is great when she is determined. We were surprised to see so many people at the lighthouse, but most of them came in the cars or busses we saw parked there. Happily, the lighthouse sits pretty high on a hill overlooking the ocean, so we did not have a difficult down and up. The rain held off as we made our return walk to the town. Once there, we stopped at the supermercado for cheese, humus, quacamole and chips for diner. We purchased a bottle of wine from the hotel and had our dinner sitting on the patio overlooking the water and the town as the sun set. Beautiful!
In Finisterre on the morning of 10/24, it rained pretty hard, with a promise of more rain all day. We had already hiked out to the Lighthouse, seen “the end of the world,” and didn’t see much else to do in Finisterre on a rainy day. We therefore decided to head back for another evening in Santiago and a morning train ride to Braga, Portugal, the next destination on our Gap Year Plan.
