Oct 9
I slept poorly last night. Chalk that up to consuming caffeinated beverages too late in the day. This eating meals much later is hard to adjust to.
After my four-night stint in a hotel room with a private bath, it’s time to get back to communal living.
I repacked my belongings and walked down the road to the intermodal station. A beautiful new complex designed to move lots of people into and out of the city by train & bus.
I arrived early and enjoyed a tarte de almande (almond cake) and a coffee in one of the two cafeterias in the complex. The platform for my bus to Finisterre has just been posted, so I’ll relinquish my seat and power port.
Our comfortable motor coach pulled out of the station at 10:01. As we went over the first hill, I realized the illusion of just hanging out in the historic quarter of a city. Santiago is a bustling city.
We headed out of the city and through various towns and villages. We took some corners that you had to feel were included in the calculations for how long the buses could be. Any longer and they would have not been able to negotiate.
While most of riders were pilgrims like me, the bus also serves as a commuter bus with locals hopping on and off every few kilometers.
I first spotted the coast near Muros and the last 30 minutes of the ride followed the coastline first to Cee and then along the peninsula that includes Finisterre.
The bus pulled into Finisterre and right across the street was a place called the Hippy Bar. I ventured in just as two German ladies at the adjacent table had a beautiful, huge salad delivered. I’ve been starved for vegetables, so that’s what I ordered.
When I finished lunch, there were still about 15 minutes to kill before the alberge opened at 2. I decided to go get in line so as to improve my chances of not getting an upper bunk.
I was the fifth person to arrive. We started introducing ourselves and I learned that one woman was from the Czech Republic, one guy was from The Netherlands and the other two young women were from Seattle and Portland!
This is a nice alberge with bunks for 32. I’m in a pod of 4 bunks and currently only the bottom four beds are occupied.
Maddie, the girl from Seattle, stopped by and said she was going to hike out to the lighthouse and asked if I wanted to come along. We took a trail along the Atlantic side of the peninsula and it ended up going to the top of a 740 foot hill. From the top, we could see the lighthouse below another few hundred meters.
We went down the hill to the lighthouse, had a drink, took photos at the 0.00 kilometer Camino marker and then I threw my stone into the sea.
