Camino Del Norte

After a 3 hour bus ride (we took the looong way) to Finisterre, also known as Fisterra, also known as “the end of the world”, we arrived at our final destination and a perfect ending to this journey. About an hour or so before sunset pilgrims hike to the lighthouse where they sit on the rocks and watch the most beautiful sunset. My last visit here I used this time to contemplate my Camino, lessons learned, revelations made, what I wanted to change about myself, how to better serve others, what boundaries and choices are needed to foster growth personally and spiritually. All the deep reflective stuff. I’m not sure how this visit will go, I’m with a good friend this time and sometimes that means you just admire Gods art and enjoy it with a glass of wine. Sitting in deep thought, in silence, paired with drinking wine is not something I’m capable of. Neither is Holly 😂
People come from all over the world to do the many Caminos through France, Spain, and Portugal. All paths lead to Santiago. Some pilgrims stop there and call it good. I have several times. Some walk the additional 4 or 5 days, which I have done once and bussed now 3 times. The walk here is not easy. You’d think after all the conditioning over the length of a Camino (some caminos are 5 days, some 2 weeks, some over a month) on the road it would be, but it wasn’t. I have the Compostela for Finisterre and don’t desire another one. Plus it rains a lot here. You know how I love the rain!! It’s 5:45 now, sunset is at 8:17. We will leave around 7 to make it to the ZERO KILOMETER mark!!
Then I’m not going to walk for awhile you guys. I’m going to enjoy my home, cook wonderful meals for my husband, visit and love on my family & friends. I’m grateful for my colleagues, Kim and Jennifer, who helped me out at work and made this possible. I sooo miss the littles, Jenna, Rose, Warren and of course sweet Caden. I want to squeeze them all. I’m also really excited to get my now much firmer butt back to work!! Seriously, I love my career and my clients. So much so, I can’t imagine ever retiring. I’m truly blessed.
When we got here today it was too early to check in so we dropped off our backpacks and explored the little seaside town. Weather was overcast, cool, and comfortable, a nice relief from the heat the last couple days. We had something to eat and went to the room to pack our smaller backpacks with essentials for this evening. The proprietress gave us two wine glasses to use and a corkscrew which was super awesome of her!! I took one look at the corkscrew and thought, where in the heck is my friend Libby? I showed it to Holly and asked her if she knew how to use it and she immediately said yes. Thank god I have friends who know how to open wine! We will go buy our supermarket wine soon. So classy, but the wine in the stores here are really good and really cheap! Our room has a little balcony and a view of the Atlantic, it’s a small room, but nice, and clean. I can’t express enough how excited I am to go home and not feel like I have to check for bed bugs every night!! I kid you not, every single night since the night in Bilbao, I check, at least twice, sometimes 3 times. Those little critters aren’t getting me again. Yes, I’m still a little traumatized from it. Yesterday, once again, I washed EVERYTHING. My packing cubes, jacket, little backpack, all the clothes I have except for what I was wearing. I’m obsessed. When I get to the airport I’ll have them wrap it on the plastic wrapping machine and leave everything in it for at least a couple months in our garage. I think those little bastards can live a long time. I don’t think I have bugs in my pack, I’ve been meticulously checking and have seen nothing, ever. But, I’d hate to be wrong! I get my clothes from my suitcase tomorrow!!! The storage facility in Santiago will deliver to the hotel in the morning. I will have all my hair and makeup stuff, different clothes, and I will transform to back Realtor Tammy from pilgrim vagabond Tammy. It’s going to feel weird. It always does. Whenever I do this and walk around Santiago I feel like a tourist and I don’t like it. In Santiago, I’m a pilgrim. But once I hit the airport, I want to look halfway decent. Even though I’ll probably favor my comfy stuff like leggings and running jacket! But, my hair will be done, I’ll have perfume, makeup applied. No one will ever know of the sweaty, dirty, no makeup face, bed head, ponytail person I have been for over a month. Sad. I sort of enjoy that part of the Camino. It takes me 15 minutes to get ready in the morning. Clothes on, teeth brushed, deodorant, ponytail and clips in, sometimes lotion when I feel like it, toe socks and Darn Tough socks on, shoes on, done. Start walking. So simple. So freeing. No one looks at me like ‘she’s really let herself go’, they actually think I’m pretty!! Isn’t that crazy? All these years of covering up my face with makeup, doing my hair, never leaving the house without doing the routine. It’s a lot. It’s too much sometimes. Americans are different this way. It’s almost expected. Here, no one cares. Really. They accept you just the same. People who have seen photos of me both ways, like the pilgrim Tammy better. Blows my mind. Think of all the money I could’ve saved! Lesson Learned, Less is more.
Now that we are back from our 6km (total) walk to and from the the lighthouse, let me tell you about it! Last time I was there you could hardly find a place to sit. This time we had choices galore. We found what looked like the perfect picnic spot, blew up the little seat and pillow Holly brought, laid the poncho out on the ground, got the wine and wine glasses out and chocolates. It was perfect. Then we noticed a smell. We picked the septic system to sit on 😒 we almost moved but we were laughing so hard because of ALL the smells we have smelled along the Camino between cow pastures, organic farming, and smelly people, it was 100% fitting. We snapped a ton of photos of the sunset and a few of us posing at the 0 KM marker. I thought Mass, arriving in Santiago, getting our Compostela and certificate was the perfect ending, and it was, but this, this soothed the soul. We laughed about moments on the Camino, places we had been, and really laughed when we realized the bottle of wine we picked was from Bed Bug Bilbao!! I’m sure Bilbao is a great city, but I’d rather not go back hahaha!! The sun set, the wine was consumed, and our walk back down into Finisterre in the dark was amazing. The experience this evening was icing on the cake. We sat at the end of the world, watched the boats, the sun put itself to bed, and realized in this moment, it’s really over. Lord I pray you give us safe & smooth, travels home, and a memory that never forgets our many blessings here and at home. God is so good.Read more