Camino Day Thirty-One- O Cebreiro to Triacastela (13.5 Miles)

We left the mountain village of O Cebreiro in the dark, with heavy mist and fog, and our flashlight to guide us along the Way. We climbed up to the peak of Alto de San Roque and battled the elements as the bronze Monument to the Pilgrim does for immortality. From that point all the way to Triacastela, we traveled downhill on a very nice forest trail of Oaks and Chestnut trees even though it was a bit steep at times. The Way was more crowded than usual and this will probably be the case from this point on. Fifty percent of the Pilgrims start from the area around Sarria and can still qualify for the completion of the Camino and therefore earn the Compostela Certificate.

The countryside we traveled through was filled with one small village after another. The villagers were mostly dairy famers and their homes were two story structures with the cows housed below and the housing above. Most every house had a some sort of tractor parked in the covered area of the barn area. The roadways through the villages were covered with the cow manure along with the smell as the farmers daily moved their cows from the barns to the fields and back to the barns. John wanted to hose the streets off.

We arrived in Triacastela to a nice hotel, a great room, and headed to lunch. We had Noodle Soup and Paella and walked the town. Showered and relaxed in the room, and worked on the blog. We thought there would be a mass at the church in town, the Iglesia de Santiago at 6 pm, whose foundations are from the 12th century, but there was none. So we walked through the churchyard which holds the parish cemetery and meandered through the town. We ended at the bar for a drink- gin on the rocks- before dinner. In the bar we met Lou, from British Columbia and a rabid Toronto Blue Jays fan. We had fun talking baseball with her and said our Mariners would see her in Toronto in a few days!!!