The Camino Finisterre & Múxia

Finisterre is the end of the world, and for anybody walking west, the beginning of the end. From the city center only 3km remain to the Cabo (lighthouse and restaurant). On the other hand, 31km remain for anyone wishing to turn North and continue to Muxía. The tourism office, just up the road from the Xunta albergue can provide you with the official document, the Fisterrana, declaring your completion of the walk. You are advised to have all of your stamps in order, for they are on the lookout for anybody who might have taken the bus.

This is the sort of place where salty air mixes with cheerful rendezvous and pilgrim farewells. Pilgrimage to this point, the most westerly point of continental Europe, predates that of Santiago. As unique as this might make it, Finisterre has managed to maintain a low profile. The harbor restaurants, now enjoying their recently rebuilt environs, continue to do grilled sardines and pimientos de padrón the way they always have.

Bus service returns to Santiago from in front of the municipal albergue several times daily and is easy to sort out. The schedule is posted at most albergues. Be mindful of the phrase "Enlace" which indicates a change in buses along the way and a potential delay when traffic is heavy. The drivers are serious fellows, and not very talkative. If you find yourself standing with a group of people on the side of the road, unsure of what is going on, be patient. If you are in more of a hurry, taxi service can get you back to Santiago as well.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, is a quick geography lesson. Contrary to perception, the walk to the lighthouse is actually Southerly. The beach approaching Finisterre, the Playa Langosteira, faces East. This puts the setting sun, and nostalgic glances towards home for North Americans, on the other side of the peninsula; a little over 1km from the municipal albergue. If you fancy a plunge into the Atlantic, naked or otherwise, the relatively private beach there will oblige... just saying. If you go, be extremely mindful of the strong currents which will quickly pull you from the beach when the waves roll in. The beach is unmonitored.

For those of you wishing to continue onward to Muxía, I have separated the notes and put those into "San Martiño de Duio." The elevation profile as well begins there.

There is a small donativo based pilgrim pit stop here, run by the same family that owns Fly Chewie, the photogenic donkey near Melide on the Camino Francés.

No services, but there is an access road here that leads to a beach.

Lires is the few places between Finisterre and Muxía where you can expect to pick up supplies.  It also has a beach within 1.5km.
There are four Casa Rurals that offer accommodation, and at the time of writing all were bookable online.

There is a bar, but you have to deviate from the camino by a few hundred meters to get there. The beds in town, at Casa Ceferinos, are not your typical pilgrim fare but they are quite nice.

While Finisterre can be seen as a popular hippy destination, Muxiá skips the show and gets straight to relaxing. Some say it is too relaxed and indeed you might be uncomfortable being able to sit for hours on the massive stones that surround the Santuario da Virxe da Barca at the far end of the cape. Give it a try though, it is one of the few places left where you can claim a bit of earth as your own for as long as you can keep your feet on it.

Near the Santuario are two more monuments, one natural and one man-made. The former is a stone known as the Pedra da Barca, it is one of several stones in Galicia that are referred to as oscillating because of their ability to rock with the wind. The latter is the carved sculpture of a fissure called A Ferida (the wound), a monolithic memorial installed to keep alive the memory of the devastating oil spill in 2002.

There are two small beaches in Muxía, both on the camino from Hospital and both fairly well protected from wind and waves.