Welcomed with mostly sunny skies, students arrived this morning for our last day in Galicia. We had a fun and exciting trip planned that would take us along “Costa de la Muerte” (Death Coast) to Finisterre, what used to be thought of as the edge of the Earth.

On the way to Finisterre, we made a few stops at local sea-side towns. Our first stop was in Muros, a small fishing town on the coast, where students took pictures of fishing boats and a gorgeous landscape. Another quick stop was to see the Horreo de Carnota, which is the largest hórreo in Galicia. Traditionally, hórreos were like silos, meant to contain the corn for animals and built on stone pillars (to keep the grain from getting wet in this very rainy area).

After a couple of hours of traveling along the Death Coast (named because of the numerous shipwrecks that have happened along the rocky terrain) we arrived at the edge of the world! The students found a great place to sit for lunch and ate their sandwiches overlooking the expansive Atlantic Ocean. After they ate, many wandered around the area to check out the lighthouse, the sunbathing lizards, and the amazing scenery.

En route back to Santiago we made two additional stops. In Muxía we pulled over to get a glimpse of the Death Coast and to admire two rocks. Legend has it that the first rock we saw can determine if a person is innocent or guilty of a crime. If the person is able to move the rock he is innocent. If the rock stays still, he is guilty. Many of the students tried to move the rock, but we didn’t see any motion –hummm….. The other rock lies atop the “guilty/innocent rock,” and the legend of this rock is that if you have back pain you should crawl under the rock and your back pain will be cured. Many students crawled through the space, so you can ask them how their backs are when you see them on Saturday! Our last stop of the day was a little bit into the town of Muxía, where students had free time to look around and take some pictures before heading back to the school.

Once we got back, María and Gema, the Spanish teachers in charge of the exchange, pulled everyone into a classroom for a little surprise! Our students were each given a group picture and wrote a small note of thanks and appreciation to their Spanish student. When the Spanish arrived, they did the same for the American students, and in a very nice ceremony, María called the student pairs up one at a time to exchange their photos and notes with each other and hug goodbye. It was a very emotional experience for many of the students, and it was very obvious to see that many of them had formed extremely close bonds with each other in just under two weeks!

Tomorrow we leave for Madrid, and in the morning, students will have to say their final goodbyes to their host. As María said, it’s not really goodbye, just see you later. They will be in the US before we know it to make many more memories together in Acton and Boxborough!

Advertisement