A couple of spare days

Santiago-Muxio-Finisterre

Day 42-43

Santiago is a very complicated city to visit as there are not many street signs and the buildings all look the same. A bit like an Escher print. It is a lovely place but if you see a café you would like to visit but have things to do first, you can’t find it again.

Scallops and octopus are the Galicean dishes of choice. Unfortunately, because of the increase in pilgrim tourism, a cooked scallop will cost you 5 Euros but you can keep the shell as a souvenir because historically, when pilgrims finished their journey, to prove they had finished they picked up a scallop shell from the coast at Finisterre.

Today, the place to finish your Camino is in Santiago although history states that it was at Finisterre, meaning the end of the earth and so some hard core pilgrims continue on.

Took a day tour to Muxia pronounced Mooshia, the last place James the disciple visited. He was supposedly disappointed that his preaching was not widely accepted but the Virgin Mary visited him in a boat made of granite held aloft by angels and told him that he had done enough and could go back home to Jerusalem. However, when he returned home he was beheaded. Note: not going to confirm this tale as it makes a great read as it is. Moral is: don’t trust a woman in a granite boat.

Muxia is also the place where in 2002 an oil tanker broke in half and millions of gallons of oil began washing up onto the coast decimating the livelihood of the town for 2 years. Locals called it la marea negra, or the black tide.

Muxia is also well known for being the final scene of the movie “The way” which was part of the inspirations for attempting the Camino.

Finisterre means end of the world because, from this point, the Romans could only see ocean and believed that it was the end of the world. They also made sacrifices so that the sun would always rise and not fall into the ocean and disappear forever. The problem with taking a day tour is that they fill the day with some really lame stuff and you feel like a sheep. Went to a beautiful fishing village where we could eat at one of the many restaurants for a large tourist fee. We went to the supermarket and bought a baguette, some Spanish ham and cheese with a little bag of pitted olives. Cost 4 Euros. Drank Champagne and had our lunch at the beach. So much better.