Final Day in Finisterre

Our final day on the trip was a bus tour to Finisterre. While it felt weird to be on a bus after nearly a week of only walking, I’m glad we went to see this city on the coast. Before we got to Finisterre we stopped at a small, old town outside of Santiago.

A historic bridge, Ponte Maceira was said to have collapsed before the Romans who were persecuting the disciples that were transporting the remains of Saint James.

A water mill - mills grains using power from the river.

Another beautiful sighting in Ames.
Continuing on with our tour, we stopped by an amazing scenic viewpoint where we got to stop and take some photos.

The ocean from the scenic viewpoint. In the middle right of the picture is a lagoon between the ocean and the land.

Some of the wind turbines that were seen all across the mountain tops. In the background is Granite Mountain, which is entirely made of granite and is the highest point in the area.

After the scenic viewpoint, we finally made it to the 0 kilometer marker in Finisterre. This point was the end of the Camino and the historic “end of the world.”

0,000 km marker. While we took a bus to reach this point, I felt very emotional as soon as I saw this marker. Making it to this beautiful end of the Camino was very special to me and when we arrived I knew that I would like to walk as a pilgrim to this point someday in the future.

Amazingly clean, blue ocean water.

The end of the world.

After visiting this special place, we went and visited a local fishing museum. In the museum we met an old local who was very enthusiastic about explaining the fishing history of the town. While he spoke hardly any English, it was easy to understand what he was explaining to us through his animated acting and story telling (and our tour guide as a translator.)  After the fishing museum, we went and had lunch at a local restaurant, where everything we ate came from somewhere in the area. The seafood was amazing and insanely fresh, along with everything else we had with lunch.

One of many dishes included with lunch - seafood paella. Scallops, clams, razor clams, langoustines, big shrimps, squid, and pulpo (octopus) in a traditional Spanish rice dish.

After lunch we were all very full and tired, but we had one more stop along the coast. We visited an area with another old church and an old lighthouse. It’s hard to explain the beauty of the location without seeing it in person, but pictures help.

The rocky shore.

Lots of life in the crevices of the rocks. Here we saw a few small crabs, many sea urchins, lots and lots of barnacles, mussels, and clams, along with many other creatures that I still need to learn more about!

An amazing view of the area with beautiful blue and white waves crashing against the rocks.
After walking the Camino and separating myself from the stresses of regular life, I felt as if I could fully appreciate the beauty of Finisterre in a way that I couldn’t before. All the aspects of the land were immensely satisfying and by the end of the trip I felt very peaceful. The entire experience was life-changing and we had such an amazing end of our trip in Finisterre.