Day 21: Ribadesella to Colunga – 12 miles (19 km) Today, along the way, we met a group of five French pilgrims who, like us, started walking El Camino del Norte last year and are planning to arrive in Santiago in a few weeks. 

The journey today took us through valleys and cliffs. There were more cyclists on the trail, and this year it is common to see them on electric bikes.  

We spent the night in a small hotel that was once the home of an Indiano. In this region, the legacy of the Indianos still lingers in street names, restaurant names, and in the mansions that appear unexpectedly in small towns. The Indianos were the Spanish who made their fortunes in the Americas and later returned to Spain, especially between the 17th and 18th centuries. With their wealth, many built striking mansions and helped reshape the local economy. Today, some of those mansions are hotels, schools, or even museums.   

 A local guide explained that many Indianos supported the construction of churches, monasteries, and convents to obtain pardon from the Church for sins committed in the Americas. It was one of those details that made you want to look more closely into the history behind these buildings.