Day 37, Sunday, May 19: Finisterre to Lires + to Lires’ beach (21.1 km, 13.1 miles)

Yes, if only you’d been with me today! You would have talked with

• a little snail casting a large shadow as she made her way down the trail, brave little thing…
• some roosters “guarding a lemon tree”
• an overgrown lizard with a ton of self-confidence and not one bit of fear
• a kitty, a dog, a bunch of goats, a donkey, some sheep

If you had been with me today you might have

• sampled some wonderful grilled vegetables (to die for!) and had a big hunk of Galician bread to go with them
• sipped some café con leche and maybe even guzzled down a beer
• sat in the sun to eat the veggies and drink the libations
• listened to an old-timer out for his daily constitutional in one of the villages tell me that, no, he couldn’t agree that his town and area were “preciosos” or anything special at all, but you would have heard him tell me, “We are born here, we die here. That’s the way it is,” and you would have gone away wondering if you, too, take the beauty in your life for granted and you would have resolved to change your ways
• chatted with 75-year-old Vicente for a while as he charged up the hill until he left you in the dust and you wondered what you might do to be so fit at his age
• thought a lot about how it’s going to feel when all of a sudden you don’t know exactly what you’re going to do in the morning once the task at hand does not include packing up your house, tossing it on your back, and making your Way….

Mostly, though, you would just have been stunned once again by

• the beauty of the woods, the singing of the birds, your good fortune to be capable of doing what you were doing without having any particular problems
• the friendliness and generosity of people who live along the trail and set up tables by their house offering fruit, cookies, tea, water, dried figs… for a “donativo” if you cared to leave one

And beyond anything else, you would have dallied and stalled and found all manner of excuses to linger at the beaches, to photograph the waves splashing on the rocks, to picture yourself wading or even swimming (were the water about 25 degrees warmer than it was!). You would have taken one picture after another because you just had to share the views with family and friends.

And you would be right now–just like me–giving serious thought as to whether or not you will walk the 2 kilometers back down to the beach to see if you just might witness a beautiful sunset, even though the sun doesn’t set until 9:56 and in spite of the fact that you’ll have to walk 2 kilometers back up to your albergue in the dark… because, you’ll ask yourself, when will you have this opportunity again?

I wish you were with me! We’d make that decision together… and maybe get a little glass of wine down there by the beach….