Biduedo to Samos

DAY 32: FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2017

It’s a foggy morning. This is the Camino path going out of Biduedo.

Many of the stone buildings have slate roofs.

Another village to wander through.

This mosaic is embedded in the road in front of the town church in Tricastella. It shows the three castles the town was named after that no longer exist.

Tricastela church with cemetery surrounding it.

Little park on the way out of Tricastela.

Rest area with a natural spring coming from the side of the mountain.

The Camino winds through many very small farm villages.

The camino often follows rivers too.

I don’t know what this yellow flowering tree is but I love seeing it.

These women are from Italy — northern Italy, Genoa and Rome. They had been on the Camino for two days and continuing for two weeks — just a short get-away trip.

Coming out of the hills, you can see the monastery of Samos. The original parts exist from around 690AD.

A view of the Monastery from the town.

We toured the Samos Monestery. In its heyday it housed about 80 monks and 200 students. Today, there are a total of 9 monks living here. There is one brother, one novice and seven priests. The priests are all assigned as parish pastors in other churches. How can they afford to keep the massive building in operation you may wonder as we did. Well, in Spain there is no separation  of church and state. The government subsidizes the facility because its considered a historic place as most churches are.

In Samos we crossed paths with Robin, Kristy and Michelle from Nova Scotia, Canada. They were our roommates in St. Jean and in Orrison.

We had dinner with Bob and Bonnie from Carmel, California. Bob is former lawyer who after 35 years of practice became an episcopal priest. He runs marathons. Bonnie only does half marathons. (They enjoyed hearing my Grandma’s Half Marathon story — hahah). They are staying at the same Hostel as we are and we also toured the Monestery with them.

These are our digs in Samos. I am just super thankful that I’m not in a bunk bed. We are heading for Sarria next which is the last 100K of the Camino. Many people start in Sarria. We have made our reservations for the remaining 8 days or our Camino. Beds are scarce because of the record breaking number of people doing the Camino at this time.