Day 6 -- Costa da Muerte, Laxe

We left Ames (suburb of Santiago de Compostela) in the morning and headed for the coast. We were on secondary roads but they are very good. After less than 2 hours we arrived at Laxe. It is a sleepy beach town. It is very picturesque but not very lively. Our hotel is wonderful. After the previous 3 sparse hotels this one is paradise. Right on the beach and the room is huge and very tastefully decorated + has a fridge and a jacuzzi. After we checked in, the receptionist gave a booklet with walking trails. There are a lot of them in the area. We decided to take a short one (5 km) called the Faro trail around a small hilly peninsular before lunch. It was very easy at first, but then somehow we got off the trail and it became very, very steep and difficult. There was no turning back so we kept climbing until we reached the highest point with a small lighthouse. Bo’s hand was bleeding because on the way up she tried to hold on to something and grabbed a very thorny plant. The way back to the village only took a few minutes because we took an easy paved road through the middle. Then we went to a tapas bar and had a plate of mussels, fresh sardines with potatoes and a plate of octopus. Fresh octopus is a big specialty of this area, but the big plate we had definitely took care of our yearly needs.
In the afternoon we took another trail through the village to a small church of Santa Rosa de Lima on a hill overlooking the bay. The views were gorgeous from there. On the way, we met a young German pilgrim who has been walking since August. He came from Santiago via a coastal route and couldn’t say enough about the beauty of the Galician coast.

At 9 pm Mark and his wife and two lovely daughters, Susie and Belinda came to pick us up at the hotel and we went out to dinner. We had fantastic mariscos -- marinated fresh salmon and cod, two kinds of clams and razor fish + salad, bread, cheese and wine. The food was delicious. Luckily the restaurant was right in front of our hotel so we didn’t have to drive home.