Once pilgrims have arrived in Santiago de Compostela they can still continue walking after a well deserved rest. El Camino de Santiago hasn’t finished yet. There is a beautiful extension or epilogue to el Camino de Santiago or The Way of St. James: the way to Finisterre and Muxia (el camino a Finisterre y Muxia).

There are around 90 km from Santiago de Compostela to Finisterre. Finisterre is a village and a cape in the Atlantic ocean. Finisterre means the end of the land, and this cape was the end of the known land in the Middle Ages. The final goal of many pilgrims is arriving in Finisterre and sitting down on the rocks of the cape in order to watch one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. It’s also a tradition to burn some clothes or anything that has accompanied the pilgrims in their pilgrimage as a symbol of renovation, a rebirth.

Pilgrims need around 3 or 4 days to get to Finisterre from Santiago de Compostela. This is a beautiful Camino much more unspoiled, less travelled and if you thought that when entering Santiago de Compostela you missed the beautiful postcard images of the city and cathedral now you’ll realize that those famous pictures were taken from the western exit of the Santiago de Compostela, the exit to the ocean.

If after Finisterre you still want to walk more, el Camino de Santiago still continues a bit. There are 30 km of really nice path along the beautiful coast to Muxia and its impressive church on the ocean rocks. Here you can get another diploma accrediting that you’ve walked el Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James until the end of the land!

“El Camino de Santiago doesn’t finish when you arrive at Santiago de Compostela, but it does continue after it.

Following the sun till “the end of the earth” (Finisterre), admiring an amazing sunset from the place where our ancestors thought the Earth finished, walk till it’s not possible to keep on walking, and realising that, after all, we have to turn back home, keep El Camino in our hearts and follow our walking through life…

But by then you’ve already learn that there’s always some arrow to follow, and most important, that no matter if you get the wrong path provided that you enjoy every step and every little thing that surrounds your own way.”

Contribution of Helen

Also available in: Spanish