Day 29
Monte Irago is the highest point (4,938 feet) on the Camino and I passed over it today! In mountain terms, that’s not super high but it’s still up there far enough that you feel parallel with the clouds and everywhere you’ve been or will go is DOWN. With neon grapefruit-sized mushrooms and lacey moss and dead-quiet slate-roofed villages, it’s all very fairytale-ish up here in the mist, like there might be trolls or wizards about. Contributing to that vibe is the 2,500-year-old rock pile, built one stone at a time by pilgrims and whoever came before us, called Cruz Ferro. It has a big cross on the top of it now but in the grand scheme of things that’s a recent development. The bouquets of good-luck herbs and sticks attached to doorways in villages like El Acebo are another echo of pre-Christian practices here. An old, eerie, and pretty place, this Monte Irago. One of my favorite days on the Camino so far. This is a Spain I’ve never seen before.
