Day 26 (6/6) Palas del Rei to Arzua

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

This was the biggest day (in terms of mileage) on the Camino in 2026. Because we stayed on the eastern outskirts of Palas del Rei the night before, it tacked on more mileage today, making the first and only 20+ mileage day.

Honestly, not too much to say about today other than we did a ton of walking. And then some more walking. And then we hit the 10 mile mark and did more walking. Sounds like everyone was feeling pretty fresh up until about mile 16, which is when people's bodies started giving signals that it was time to stop walking. Only it wasn't. But eventually it was. After several more miles of walking. 20.5 miles, to be exact.

With the exception of some light rain for the first 90 minutes, I was excited that we had good weather for today's walk. If it had been boiling lava hot as it was in the middle of our trip, it would have made the 20 mile walk that much harder.

We were among the last to arrive at Hotel Arzua around 5:30. I'm going to finish this post tomorrow, but I can't conclude this post without talking about the "laundry anarchy" that happened while I was in Hotel Arzua. Stay tuned.

Also, welcome Faith and Clara--they're students who did the 2024 Camino program (and Faith also did 2022 and served as a hospitalera)--they enjoyed their experience so much that they're back for an encore! It's so great to see them reconnect with the Camino and for our students to have an opportunity to meet and interact with them.

Day 25 (6/5) Portomarin to Palas del Rei

Happy Party Shirt Friday!

Another great walk with the Giraffe Brothers. We had a little chuckle in that Portomarin is technically off route--you cross the river and climb up a big ass hill into the city, only to turn right back around, descend a big ass hill, and cross another bridge to continue on the Camino.

It was a foggy morning--we climbed out of the clouds into a forested area with beautiful dappled light. After Sarria, the trail gets way, WAY more crowded. We felt like we spent the first half of this walk dodging other peregrinos. The Ragnar race series refers to passing people as "kills." For obvious reasons, I don't like that, so we changed the concept from "kills" to "buen caminos," and if you pass someone in your own group, it's a "buen camino, amigo/a." From lunch to the end of the walk, we had 90 buen caminos. Buen camino is the standard trail greeting between pilgrims. It's also a less aggressive way of saying "excuse me," as you're trying to pass.

Relatively uneventful walk (although great conversation), but a major trail highlight was getting to see a 3-day old pony. Jeff notes in his social media post that he's carried cheese in his pack older than the pony. 

We arrived at Hotel Calixtino (a few miles out of Palas del Rei) and some students gave an excellent presentation on sustainability and responsible tourism of the camino.

Among the questions and curiosities raised during their presentation, we learned that there were more than 530,000 peregrinos that completed at least 100K of the camino in 2025; the number is actually probably much higher because not every peregrino finishes in Santiago de Compostella or receives their credential. 

The group brainstormed different ways to disperse overcrowding on the trail, which could include increasing the required trail minimum from 100 to 150km to further disperse pilgrims along the trail or incentivize peregrinos (or albergue owners or cafe owners) to take more interest in routes other than the Camino Frances. Also, trekking poll rubber tips--get 'em.

Shoutouts to Elena's Mom and Sophia's family--thanks for reading.

Day 24 (6/4) Barbadelo to Portomarin

(written on 6/5)

So, so close to catching up.

The walk from Barbadelo to Portomarin is pretty chill, although there's a significant downhill as you descend toward the river. Portomarin is a cool town. 

From Caminoways:

In the 1960s, an event unfolded that would forever change the face of Portomarín. The construction of the Belesar Reservoir led to the damming of the Miño River, threatening the original village with submersion. This village, established in the Middle Ages beside a Roman bridge, faced an existential crisis. The response? A bold and unprecedented move to relocate the entire village to higher ground.

The relocation of Portomarín wasn’t just a matter of moving a community; it was about preserving its historical soul. Key historical structures, like the 12th-century Romanesque church of San Xoán de Portomarín and the Capela de San Pedro, were carefully dismantled, stone by stone, and reconstructed in the new village location. This monumental effort not only saved these historical gems from the rising waters but also symbolically resurrected the town’s history and identity.

Photos from Cory I

Day 23 (6/3) Fonfria to Barbadelo

After eating breakfast at the albergue, we all boarded taxis to skip a ghastly downhill 7km walk and were dropped off in Triacastela. This was the day in 2024 where Jeff, Kimmy and I inadvertently zigged when we should have zagged and added an additional 5-6 miles to our walk, We avoided that mistake this year.

Neither Cory nor I took particularly good photos today. I'll have to hit the students up for better images. I'll say that between the two routes (Samos route from 2024 or the route through Montán 2026), I think I preferred the 2026 option. Good views, good cafe stops, and 2 hours shorter. I mentioned in an earlier post that we've had a few mid-trail breaks at places where our auras definitely get fluffed, and today was like, the most epic aura fluffing. It was a very cool commune with sustainable practices and I loved its message of sharing peace and love and joy, but also lots of aura fluffing.

I also broke my own rule of never going off-route to chase a cafe or a sightseeing destination (I'm very lazy) but we did find good tapas at a riverside cafe in Sarria that was like...2 minutes off route. 

Worth noting is that Sarria is just over 100km to Santiago de Compostella, and in order to get your pilgrim credential, you have to walk at least 100k, so many pilgrims start their walk from Sarria. We moved through Sarria to Barbadelo (it's the one albergue that has an open pool!), but as a peregrino (pilgrim), you can see the massive influx of folks walking the Camino from Sarria to Compostela. More cafes, more souvenirs, and more trail traffic.

Day 22 (6/2) Herrerias to Fonfria

(written 6/5) 

Happy Birthday, Mama G! I love you and appreciate you.

This day might be my favorite day on the Camino based on the beauty of the walk and the novelty of the towns we visit. We left las Herrerías fairly early because the walk is pretty burly in terms of elevation gain.

Kellie: "Cory, help me write this blog post."
Cory: "It was like...moist that morning. From the rain."

I think we have the beginnings of the next great American novel.

One of these days I'll actually post the elevation profiles and maps of the various stages of the Camino, but today is not that day.

We climbed up and up and up and up until we reached O Cebreiro. Like 2024, there was someone playing the bagpipes to usher us into town, which is a very fun way to reach O Cebreiro. From CaminoWays:

Perched at 1,300 metres above sea level, this charming spot marks the gateway from the region of El Bierzo into Galicia. O Cebreiro is a small yet remarkable village, full of character and history.

Nestled between the O Courel and Os Ancares mountain ranges, O Cebreiro is home to traditional mountain dwellings called ‘pallozas’. These unique pre-Roman homes can only be found in this part of Galicia

‘Pallozas’ are circular or oval, with granite or slate walls up to 1.70 meters high and thatched roofs. These houses are examples of Celtic design and offer a glimpse into ancient life in the region.

By the early 20th century, O Cebreiro’s church and inn were in ruins, while locals still lived in ‘pallozas’. The priest of O Cebreiro, Don Elías Valiña Sampedro, secured funding to restore the church and village. They built new houses, rehabilitated the ‘pallozas,’ and transformed one into a folk museum.

Today, nine ‘pallozas’ are preserved there. Four are managed by Galicia’s Cultural Council and function as an ethnological museum.

It's definitely got some tourist kitsch to it, but kind of the perfect amount of kitsch. Our group easily spent 90 minutes to 2 hours enjoying the town. One of the highlights is a traditional soup from the area: Caldo de Gallego.

After O Cebreiro, we continued to walk toward Fonfria, where we stayed at the same great albergue that we did in 2024. I believe the owner of this albergue (Miguel?) is the president or holds some sort of leadership position within the association or private albergues. He runs a great establishment. We got to have some Gallecian cheese, and Cory played a song/guitar duet with one of the employees (from the Philippines) who requested Wild Mountain Thyme to practice his singing and his English.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a witch ceremony this year, but we DID get a dinner concert from the bagpiper. It was rowdy and fun and there was much rejoicing.

Day 21 (6/1) Molinaseca to Herrerias

As much as I want to make this a quality post, it's after 11PM and we had a long 13-miler on concrete and limited shade, so first draft will be brief and then I'll gussy it up once I can ask Jeff/Cory/students to add more details. <goes to sleep>

<revisited on 6/4>

Okay, let's try this again from the top. From Molinaseca, we met the students at their albergue and boarded a bus to Ponferrada, where we walked around the Castillo de los Templarios. 

From CaminoWays.Com

The Castillo de los Templarios (Castle of the Knights Templar) in Ponferrada, Spain, is one of the largest and most complex medieval fortresses in northwestern Spain. Originally built over a Celtic hill-fort and a Roman citadel, the fortification was gifted to the Knights Templar in 1178 by King Ferdinand II of León. Its primary military objective was to protect pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago.

Also from the internet:

The Spanish Templar Knights were an elite order of warrior-monks who played a pivotal role in the Reconquista (the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula) and protected Christian pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Spanish Templars were not a separate, independent organization but rather the Iberian branch of the global Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. They were deeply integrated into Spanish medieval society: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

We were only in Ponferrada for about 40 minutes before we re-boarded the bus and shuttled to Villafranca del Bierzo, where we started our walk to Herrerias. We had a nice trail stop (and I finally picked up some pocket Tabasco for underseasoned (it happens) tortilla emergencies).

This is the section of the trip where "creepy babies of the Camino" also become more prevalent. 

I walked with Cory, Jeff, and Aaron--we've started calling Jeff and Aaron the Giraffe Brothers because they are quite tall, take long strides, and come in handy when one wants to eat local cherries that are high in the trees.

We had one major devastation on the walk. Despite a positive experience at Rock and Roll Pizza in 2024 (Berkeley will remember this site vividly based on the clipping), we rolled in 10 minutes after they closed (2:10), so we weren't able to order food, but still ordered drinks (Aquarius--duh). Since they were closed AND we ordered drinks, we thought it would be okay if we used their picnic tables to drink our drinks--bought from their establishment--and a few trail snacks. It was not.

We made a charcuterie board out of leftover nuts, muffins, anchovies, and granola bars (we were pretty low on snacks, so had to get creative), and the cafe attendant came out and said, "This is a little much. So-and-so can use our tables because he bought food from us." LADY, WE TRIED. AND WE BOUGHT DRINKS FROM YOU. 

We ended up across the street, sitting next to the dumpster, on palettes, trying to manage our charcuterie board and replaying the interaction over and over again to figure out where we went wrong. There was also an incident involving orange peels, but if you have to ask, you're not ready to know.

Store stop karma does exist, though. Not too long after the R&R Pizza disaster, we found a unique little cafe/albergue called "Casa Cantadora: The House of The Elven King's Heart. House of the Sun, the Light." It's absolutely as new age as it sounds. Our aura got fluffed big time. But that wasn't even the most aura-fluffing cafe stop we've had on the trip--more on that in a future post.

The best part about this stop was that it had river access, so we were able to soak our feet in the water for a few minutes before proceeding onto Herrerias. I remembered Herrerias from 2024, although we actually stayed in Ruitelan. Herrerarias--specifically, the Paraiso hotel--is nestled above a sheep field and is a perfect place to enjoy a nice dinner and a game of bocce ball--both of which we did.

Due to space limitations, Cory and I and a few students were lodged in another albergue about 10 minutes up the road (Casa do Ferreiro), which was also very nice and quaint.

Day 20 (5/31) El Acebo to Molinaseca

Despite not going to bed until well after 4AM (courtesy of the Western Conference Finals), we rallied and were out the door by about 8AM en route to Molinaseca. Deya made a special effort to get us lodged in Molinaseca because we loved it so much in 2024 but weren't able to stay the night. 

The walk itself was pretty chill, with the caveat that I stayed on the road most of the time because my knees are absolutely toast on downhill walks--Cory brought me a second knee brace when he arrived. The views were spectacular the entire walk, and crossing the bridge over the river into Molinaseca is pretty magical. 

Nearly all of the students arrived ahead of us, and it was fun to see a big swarm of them playing hackey sack, reading, or relaxing by the river. Jeff rallied a crew for some bocce ball while I listened to my audiobook and napped briefly because staying up until 4AM to watch basketball is a young person's game. 

Cory got to play guitar in the plaza and our group had a fabulous dinner by the river before calling it a night. 

Personal note for future travel: the group's albergue had limited space and limited private rooms, so Cory and I ended up in the hotel Palacio (right on the river) and it was an *amazing* room with a reading nook that overlooked Molinaseca's cute little streets--10/10 would recommend.

All photo credits: Cory I.