Day 37 - O'Cebreiro to Triacastela

155 km to Santiago de Compostela

We started late, it was almost 9 am.  When we came out of the hostel the fog was very thick and there was some drizzle.  The path was going up the hill.  Wait! Up the hill?  We were supposed to be going down.  We walked up for about 20 minutes through some evergreen woods, there was still snow on the ground.  Then down a bit and we came out of the woods and like turning a switch on, the fog was gone, the sun was out and we had amazing views.

As it happened we really did not go down for a while.  We walked  on the mountains for four hours.  Up and down, in fact we reached a peak, el alto del Poio, which is a bit higher than O'cebreiro.  At around 2 pm we arrived to Biduedo.  Then we had to decide; stay there or walk another 7 km to Triacastela. 

We were tired but we decided to go ahead.  The 7 km are a very steep path downhill.  Sometimes I think it is harder to go down than up.  There are more injuries going down than in any other terrain.  Black toes (bruised toenails), shin splints, etc.  It took us another 3 hours to go down.  We finally arrived, very tired, to Triacastela.

Many years ago there were three castles in this place, thus the name of Triacastela.  Unfortunately nothing is left from those castles. The town is fairly small with a population of 900 but it has several albergues and hostels to accommodate pilgrims.

There was a significant change today.  In the past we have walked mostly alone.  Occasionally we talked to other pilgrims but not very often.  But now that we are in Galicia the number of pilgrims increased dramatically.  We saw people that we met before; Jan and Carol from Florida and our young friend Mattias.  But now we met a very young German girl, Katarina, an older couple, Marian and Ian from the UK. 

We also met two young Italian men at a rest.  I ordered a small bottle of sidra and they did not know what it was so I let them try it.   We left and an hour later they caught up with us.  One of them, Samuel, had brought a bottle of sidra for me.  That was a very nice detail.

Later on we met a Spanish man, Emiliano with his girlfriend, Eliza, from Brazil.  Eliza was having trouble because her boots died an el Camino's death and she had to get new boots.  Ouch.

So today can be summarised as mountains, amazing views, steep downhill, lots of pilgrims, tiredness, sore legs and happiness and satisfaction.

Santiago el Mayor, one of the first disciples, friend of Jesus, protect all those pilgrims who travel to your tomb.  You know the very special favour I am asking from you, please consider it and pray for us.