Sarria – Portomarin – Palas de Rei
Galicia is an enchanted region of Spain with a Celtic tradition. The mountains, and rivers bring a different dimension to El Camino.
Chemim in France, Camino in northern Spain, now I entered the Camiño in Galicia.
It can sound hard to many lovers of El Camino, but El Camino ends in Sarria. After walking 1400 km, I can say that. I am so happy that I stopped in Samos to see their monastery. The last reflection for a long spiritual journey.
Alejandro, Mario, Marcos, Gonzalo and Lola have brought me great moments of joy that I will never forget. What a group! All doing the Camiño searching for a moment where life is revealed itself to them. Every second, every minute, every hour, our encounter has had a heavenly intercession.
Why Sarria is the end of El Camino? Arriving to Sarria I was suffocated by tourism. Buses, taxis, people every where. After 15 km walking and see people with clean shoes, invisible backpacks, dropped everywhere. They were dropped in the city, in every intersection, in El Camiño. Taxis waiting for people just 100 meters from where they were dropped to go 10 km up el Camiño to continue. It just take away the essence of El Camiño.
Today, after 20 km walking from Portomarin to Palas de Rei, a bus passed me full of tourists and dropped them 125 meters in front of me. I kept my speed but because they are so many, they did not care to let you keep your speed. Many times I had to say: excuse me. It is critical when you have been walking all day (30-40km) and you need a bed to sleep. Those in taxis and buses are picked up before the villages, and then dropped by the albergues. I have been lucky to find a place to sleep, but I have seen others with no such a luck. They have to continue walking to the next village or pay for an expensive place.
Gonzalo told me today that I should talk today about the beauty of El Camiño experience, but the above is a reality too. Many times today as I walked and run the hills of Galicia, and I had to fight this in my mind. Tourists were a negative distraction. No everyone that say to you, I did El Camino has done it. No from taxis, no from buses. It is not only 100km. It is a life!