You depart from Arzúa to Arca. On your route is the small town of Calle, a picturesque village that gracefully combines traditional Galician architecture with newer homes. Farther down the road you enter the hamlet of Santa Irene, sheltered amongst green trees and winding paths.
The town is named after Saint Irene of Tancor who was a Portuguese woman who lived in the early medieval ages. At an early age she decided to become a nun, though this did not sit well with her tutor, the evil monk Remigius. Remigius gave her a potion that made her belly swell and appear pregnant, though this enraged her suitor Britald, who hired an assassin who promptly killed her and threw her body into the Tagus. Her uncle, who had received a revelation about what had really happened, found her uncorrupted body in the river and took it to the local town of Santarem, where it would be venerated. The town houses a small 18th century chapel and a fountain with supposedly curative waters for crying babies and monthly female pains to honor Saint Irene. It may cure your thirst too!
You continue your Camino along green winding roads to our last stop before arriving to the small town of O Pedrouzo. Countless pilgrims have stayed in this town and its surrounding neighbors before the final kilometers to Compostela, and we get to do the same. Now it’s time to rest and prepare yourself for the final day of walking tomorrow!
