What Path do we choose?

Along the way to the Pilgrim there are different alternatives. You don't always have to follow the signs as if there's only one path to follow, often you have to choose between going down one path or another without knowing most of the times what they bring us.

Variants are many and well known. By boat soon the famous San Xil or Samos, hospitals or the Pola de Allande, historic road or Villar de Mazarife, Laza or Verín occur to me, and thus countless alternatives offered to the Pilgrim, each with its beauty, historical rigor or or to move the walker away from the ever-feared and dangerous national road.

Hidden in time, as sleeping, he slowly wakes up from his lethargy a historically forgotten route like that which leads the Pilgrim from Charity in the coastal western Asturias to Mondoñedo by the natural passage of Vegadeo and Trabada, instead of crossing the bridge of the Saints to enter Galicia through Ribadeo.

This increasingly transit route, but still far from approaching the influx of Peregrinos to that of Ribadeo, as I said before, is awakening from his lethargy thanks, above all, to the opening of two hostels of Peregrinos in strategic places so that these can do the three stages from Charity to Mondoñedo without having to make great distances and of course, the possibility of having accommodation tailored to their needs.

The Pilgrim who decides to take the option of Vegadeo by lock to Mondoñedo, will meet three perfectly marked deviations. The first after La Caridad, in Porcia, there are two shells, one indicates right and puts "Tapia" and the other left and puts "way", after Tol find another deviation, the shell that indicates to the right puts "Figueras" and the one that indicates to the left puts "Camino", and the last deviation, a few kilometers later, to the right "Castropol" and to the left.

Following the indication "Camino", and the same word is more than suggestive, the Pilgrim will suddenly find himself, especially in the summer season, with the end of the rush, the agglomerations at the doors of the hostels and the unbeatable dawn to run for bed during the next three stages. In addition to a rural area far from the tourist invasion of the coast. And you can stay if this is your choice in two hostels of Peregrinos where you can check first hand both the traditional hospitality of the Camino de Santiago and the respect for the Pilgrimage and the Pilgrim. These two hostels are the "sea and mountain" in Vegadeo, of a municipal character and extraordinarily controlled by Lilian Campos. And Casa Xica, private and where Jose Manuel Garrido offers traditional hospitality, José Manuel is a Murcian pilgrim who decided to settle in the small village of a'trapa to create an oasis and shelter the Pilgrims who decided to enter this bucolic route.

Lilian, José Manuel. What will be found in your hostels the Pilgrims who decide to make night in them?

José Manuel: The pilgrims who decide to do night in Casa Xica will be able to enjoy a warm welcome, have a hectare of land with river included by which they can walk and get lost mentally, there is a small bookstore with interesting books and the road they can use inside the house. They will be able, if they wish, to join the community dinner that takes place in order to share moments, interests, knowledge..... The following day, breakfast is offered to the pilgrim and he is fired personally. In short, the pilgrim will find a space of rest and peace in which to relate and share.

Lilian Campos: The philosophy of the hostel Mar y Montaña is the coexistence, sharing stories, we try that every day be of tranquility and create a family pilgrim, that the hostel will grow through the footprint of each pilgrim, (paintings, phrases in arrows, mandalas, recipes pilgrims), our doors are also open to neighbours who go to greeting pilgrims, (exchange of cultures, concerts of musicians of the area, Church room has room..

In total a union of welcoming the pilgrim.

And what could you say to that Pilgrim that he is hesitating between following his path along the Coast, or going through the historical variant?

José Manuel:To this pilgrim who doubts between Ribadeo and Vegadeo, I could tell him that by Vegadeo you will find one of those unfrequented, solitary and beautiful paths that although old is little known. Walk first to the Ria del Eo with beautiful images of it, it continues between cultivation fields and then gradually enter the mountains, with infinite landscapes of trees and mountains and with few populations until reaching the known Mondoñedo.

Lilian Campos: I would say that every road has its charm and experiences, and to those who have doubts because it is a good time to listen to their heart and know what they are looking for, our road offers an unmasked route, escapes from consumerism, due to the scarcity of bars and restaurants, you enter into small towns with old architectures, neighbors that carry on their faces the passing of the years, the agriculture of a rural landscape, the smell of the solitude below you, a walk

Now the decision is your Pilgrims, from this article we intend to give a little light to that historical route for the Pilgrim to be better informed, without pretending to influence his decision or his Path, since these are very personal decisions and are almost always made at the last moment.

Whatever the chosen option, Costa, with all the nice it already has, like the historic route through Vegadeo, we hope you always have a very good
Way.