El Camino Magnifico... y muy frio

I’ve never much enjoyed small talk. I like to have deep 

conversations about the countless mysteries of life on this confusing, marvelous planet we call home. Nothing makes my eyes glaze over more quickly than surface chitchat about things like sports, or the weather. 

So it pains me somewhat to write a blog post about the weather... but it is, quite literally, headline news here in Spain this week... and as someone who has spent all day every day outdoors for the past month, I have a new and profound respect for weather forecasts. 

This is the view I woke up to outside the hostel window near  O Cebreiro, northwestern Spain, (elev. 4200’) on April 30, 2018: 30 degrees F and SNOW!

This late spring snowstorm is so unusual that there was a Spanish news crew filming pilgrims on the Camino trudging through the snow. 

On my last Camino in April 2017, I enjoyed (and took fully for granted, as most California natives would) what’s considered normal springtime weather in Spain — moderate temps and bright sunshine on all but a few partly cloudy/rainy days. In fact, getting overheated was my biggest challenge last year, and I spent the majority of the Camino drenched in sweat even while wearing my lightest hiking pants and shirt. (I may have mentioned that hot weather kind of affects me like kryptonite.) 

This year, after the first 2.5 weeks of mostly rainy & cold weather (and way too much Camino mud), the clouds departed and we had a week or so of bright, if still unusually chilly, weather. I happily stuffed my new waterproof raincoat (the one I’d had to buy here after my rain poncho failed me in Week 1) way down into bottom of my backpack, feeling pretty certain I wouldn’t need it again on this trip. Finally, spring had sprung in Spain!

Mama Natura clearly had other ideas. As the Camino route slowly left the meseta, and meandered into the foothills of the beautiful Cantabrian Mountains, the weather forecast again called for several days of rain the last week of April. 

The red arrow below shows where I am now— just past Triacastela. In 34 days on the Camino, I have walked about 675km/420mi. 

The past two weeks on the Camino have been truly spectacular. The views in the mountains are amazing. I have been walking slightly longer days & been busy getting to know various pilgrim pals, so it has been easy to neglect this blog. Rather than try to catch you up, I’ll just let a few pictures from the past two weeks or so speak for themselves. 

The spectacular Bishop’s Palace in Astorga, built 100 years ago, designed by the brilliant master of modern neo-Gothic architecture, Antonio Gaudi:

Heading into the Cantabrian Mountains of northwestern Spain:


Giant stork nests are everywhere in Spain!

At a random donativo rest stop in the middle of nowhere...

Sometimes we have to share the Camino with local cows. 

I actually loved the snow this time around. It was cold enough that I didn’t get all sweaty from trudging uphill, and the snow was cold and dry rather than wet like rain. It was never so heavy that it obscured the trail like it did my first day, so I really enjoyed it. 










It continues to be a wonderful (if chilly) journey.