O Cebriero and Triacastela, Spain

Patsy is done with her antibiotics, hopefully she will feel a bit better from now on. They made her nauseus and susceptible to sunburn.

We are in Triacastela, about 130 km from Compestala de Santiago. Almost at the end now. We crossed the last of the mountains today and yesterday. We were lucky to get beautiful weather both days. I got some great photos. Actually, the day before Patsy insisted that we do the scenic route out of Ponferrada. I think we climbed as high that day as the great mountain at O´Cebriero yesterday. Both days were great but Patsy was burned out by the time we got the necessary mountain, so we only did 10 km yesterday and spent the night in O´Cebriero. It was nice, though. It rained during the night and there were a few clouds still around in the morning, but it is hot now.

We are feeling the end of our Camino and I am not sure what I think about that. I am really into the walking each day. A Dutch woman I spoke to yesterday came from La Puey in France and she was saying the number of people on the Camino is in stark contrast with the French part of the Camino, and she was feeling the stress. It really makes me want to hike the Vezelay or La Puey routes!

We have been travelling though small dairy farm country. The villages in Spain are just making it, many of them. I am sure many young people move out to the big cities. I suspect the business from the Camino is all that keeps some of them alive. O Cebriero has a population of 50, all doing tourist business. There is a highway through there and at least 3 tour buses were parked there at one time. It is about as high as as major highways in Spain go I think.