Day 17 - Down is Hard!

The fog rolled into O’Cebreiro overnight. It was very thick when we woke up, so we decided to wait to see if it would lift. By 9:30, when the end of the fog was nowhere in sight, we decided to leave.

The fog was so thick that we were covered in water droplets as we walked. We had a harder time finding the waymarkers, but it was kind of fascinating to walk in such a thick fog. Good thing this part of the trail was not along a busy road!

We found an 8th century church along the way called San Esteban. We went inside and got sellos. Sellos are stamps in your pilgrims’ credential. The credential is like a passport with stamps that show the places you have been along the Camino. You get a stamp every night when you check into an albergue. They are also available at most churches and bars. When you enter into Gallicia (starting about 120 kilometers from Santiago) you must have two sellos a day.

At one of our snack stops, we had local cheese topped with honey. We also had an empanada atune (tuna and veggies in a bread pocket). We really try to find out what the local fare is and have that to eat. Some stuff is great (cheese!) and some is not (squid in black ink sauce), but we can say we’ve tried the regional dishes.

Most of today’s walking involved descending from the climb the day before. One might think that descents would be easy, but they are a lot of work! You have to roll your foot to keep from stomping down the trail which is a knee wrecker. You are also using leg muscles that, at least for people from Texas, rarely get used. You also have to work a lot harder at not falling. The terrain is usually rocky and sometimes treacherous.

The area we are walking in is very rural, and livestock seems to be the main economy. This means most of the day is spent dodging cow plops (or actual cows) and swatting flies. The smell is pretty “earthy” too.
When we reached Triacastela, we were led by a local woman to a brand new albergue called Lemos. It was very nice and even had an elevator, a happy sight for tired legs!
We ventured down the road for dinner to Complexe Xacobeo where we had excellent steak and local sausage (with potatoes and bread of course). Everything along the Camino is served with potatoes and bread. Seriously, everything.