This morning we woke without an alarm. We lounged around and took our time getting ready. Mom used a blow dryer. She was pretty happy about that!
We drove up the 3km again to the lighthouse. This time we walked out to it and down behind to the rocky cliffs. This is where the bronze boot is. Unfortunately – and understandably – there are signs posted asking pilgrims to not burn their clothes. You can see on the hills close by that there have been fires. So, no burning my nasty white shirt.
We had breakfast on the patio of the lighthouse. The view was amazing. The tostadas and marmalade tasted better than before. Maybe because we were in the fresh air and finally had no one smoking beside us. It was windy and cool though. Thankfully they had blankets for us to use.
We checked out a couple gift shops at the lighthouse and then got in the car to head to Muxia. We stopped briefly at a gorgeous beach just outside of Finisterre and continued on.
Driving into Muxia was an adventure. When we arrived, the road went straight into the little village of winding, cobblestone streets. I am so thankful for our tiny rental car!! There were moments that I was sure we barely fit between the buildings! After driving randomly through the streets for awhile and laughing at the absurdity of it, we found the marina and parked. Across the street was the restaurant that we needed to go to to pick up the keys for our apartment rental.
A man named Oscar walked us a couple of blocks to the apartment. It’s a refurbished, adorable little place on the top floor with amazing views of the ocean and harbour. We watched in amazement from above as a full size bus actually made its way along the narrow street below us.
We spent some time walking through the village, stopped for fries and a drink and wandered back to the apartment for some down time. A supermarket nearby was handy to buy some groceries for dinner.
We were excited about the washer and dryer IN ONE in our apartment. We threw in a load and after a really, really long time, the clothes were still wet. We put it on just the “dryer” mode and BAM, it filled with water again. This presented a problem come sunset time as it was windy and chilly outside, and most of our warm clothes were still wet. Karis and I were able to scrounge up enough clothing to bundle up and climb the tall hill to find a good spot to watch. We missed the sunset by a few minutes but wow – what a view! The ocean, the village. Spectacular!
We descended the hill and walked to the end of the point where the monument to the Prestige tanker stands. A large ship that broke open and sank, releasing millions of gallons of oil into the Atlantic just off the coast of Muxia. It devastated the community for years. The monument is huge and it is common for people to watch the sunset through the space in the middle of the two columns.
We are back in the apartment now, nearly 11pm. This will be my final blog post as it’s almost the end of our adventure. Tomorrow we will drive back to Santiago for the day/night before flying out on Sunday morning to Paris. We are excited for a 6 hour layover in Dublin, Ireland! After a night in Paris it’s a long flight home though Halifax, Ottawa and then Vancouver. Karis and I will fly home to Edmonton after a night in Vancouver.
Thanks for following the blog! We sure like having it to look back on! 😊
Shannon
(with creative help from Mom and Karis) ❤️
