Month: April 2019

Day 18, April 22: San Ciprián to Faro

Early in the walk

Post by Wynette: We weren’t up for walking 15 miles today. (Are you surprised?) But that was the distance to Faro, the next place with a place to stay after San Ciprián. So, hmmm. What to do? Call a taxi! Taxi driver named Angel took us 6.6 miles. Because of taxi we didn’t have to walk through a not-great stretch by the Alcoa Aluminum factory that keeps many in San Ciprián employed, including our young airbnb landlady. Angel only charged us 15. These low prices make me feel guilty.

We started walking at sea level by a little beach and soon we were high above the water. Today had a lot more up and down than we’ve had lately.

More beauty on the way back down

We walked a little over 8 miles. At that mileage we are always happy to get to our place for the night. Tonight’s is an especially nice one. We got here around 2 so lots of time to relax and enjoy it.

Our hotel, Complexo Alameda
Sure a nice view

The drawback here is that the closest place to eat is a mile and a half round trip walk and the hotel owner thought it was closed on Monday anyway. Luckily we have one boiled egg, a little cheese, a little bread, an apple, some muesli, some nuts, and some chocolate. The hotel owner gave us a carton of milk and also served us coffee. So we’re doing just fine without our usual menú del día.

Camino Natural de la Ruta del Cantábrico

For the first 12 days we were walking the Camino Del Norte, continuing our 2018 Camino. At Ribadeo we switched to the Ruta del Cantábrico aka Ruta de Mar aka Camino de Mar. It is a 90 mile (150 km) trail developed and maintained by the government of Galicia. A lot of it is flagstone walks and stays close of the coast. Some is quiet roads, some is forest trails. This photo is not cherrypicked, there are lots of places like this. The signage is mostly very good and you could probably walk it without a map but we have a gpx track of it also. Every once in a while we are really glad to have the track to reassure us we haven’t gone astray.

We couldn’t be happier with our choice to walk the Ruta. It is beautiful and easy to follow and goes through interesting towns. There are no pilgrims because it is not an official Camino yet although they seem to be trying to make it one. We’ve seen lots of local people out taking a walk, but we haven’t seen a single person doing it like us with backpacks. Also no albergues but we don’t stay in them much any way so that is not a problem.

Day 17, April 21: San Ciprián

Post by Wynette: We are having a nice rest day in San Ciprián. Slept as late as we wanted. Had breakfast.

Charlie cutting up fruit for muesli. Check out our cute gas stove.

Did a load of washing then hung it out to dry.

Red bud tree matches the clothes pins!

Walked into town (1 km) and had an excellent menu.

We were pleased to get fresh peas and ham as a choice in the first course. We are finding it a challenge to get enough vegetables.

Walked through the town along the beach. It was cool and breezy at that point.

Very few people doing beachy things, but a few.

Walked to the beach on the other side of the tiny peninsula.

This side was wilder and rockier.

We had fun looking in the tide pools.

Sea urchins.

Finally got to the light house.

Make that light houses.

Then walked back through the old village.

Others took advantage of the sunny day to do laundry as well, even though it was Easter. It was getting warm. We were seeking out shade to walk in.

Morning Sun

We had another beautiful walk along the coast this morning and I was experimenting with how my camera would work with the sun breaking out from behind the clouds. Then Google photos did me one better with its stylized version.

Not real but then I know my iPhone camera warms up the colors so the original maybe was not real either.