The Jaquez Post

The  Parador   de  Santiago, known as the Hostel dos Reyes  Católicos , is a mix of art, history, and tradition. It was the pilgrims´ ambition, an emblem of Santiago, and it marks the end of the Camino  de  Santiago. Construction on the building was commissioned in 1492, which coincided with America's discovery. Prior to becoming the luxury hotel we have today,  the  Parador   de  Santiago was originally built in 1499 and finished in 1509, and was used as a Royal Hospital for pilgrims traveling the El Camino  de  Santiago en route to the  Catedral   de  Santiago.The Royal Hospital´s mission was to attend to the pilgrims that came to the  Galician capital via the way of the Saint James pilgrimage. The  Parador  has two main  cloisters . One is named after San Juan (also nicknamed the "kitchen cloister" because the kitchen was located here,) which held the nursery as well as being a ho...

For a magical exploration of a well-preserved Iron Age village in Galicia, a visit to Castro De Baroña, only discovered 86 years ago, is a must see. The village was inhabited from the 1st century b.c. to the 1st century a.d. Fortified settlements of pre-Roman times, known as castros in Spanish, were shared among people and animals and had no windows. The family dwellings were round, surrounded by an enclosed wall, and covered by a thatched roof. The castros were built on hills for optimal defense. They were said to have magical dimensions as building higher was said to offer contact with the sky and beyond. The Iron Age in central Europe started in 800 b.c. and ended in 375 a.d. During this period, which followed the Bronze Age, iron became the principle material for making tools. During the excavation of Castro de Baroña fishings hooks and fishing tools were found. Around the 6th century the Iron Age spread westward through Celtic expansion. Galician's link their regio...

Food is fantastic, but when the food is made from products of the land, it tastes so much better. A few days ago my friends and I went on a walk to find some good food. As we walked by the different variety of restaurants, there was one that caught my attention. Just the smell of burning charcoal made me extremely curious where was that smell coming from. It didn't take long to find the restaurant only following its scent; we only walked around for ten minutes. O Fogar de Galicia was the name of the restaurant, when I walked In the first thing, I asked the server was what they specialized in, and the man said steak. At that moment, it felt like a child waiting to get a new toy. My expectation for this steak was very high; just the smell alone made me so hungry. Inside the restaurant it had like an old fashion modernized theme, the tables were made out of wood. It looked like they just cut a piece of a tree in half. First glance at the menu kind of everything seemed expensive for ...

All I can say is wow, Supermercado de Abastos is a kind of farmers market. In this market, it offers so many things such as fresh fruit, fish, meat, and the thing I liked the most was the food the market served. As our professor was showing us the way to the market, I was confused because I thought we got lost, but no, the market was hidden. As a New Yorker, I've never been to a "Farmers Market" before and going to this market made me realize how the community of Santiago comes together every single day and buys products made locally. As a walked through the first isle it had a variety  of fruits and meats, my roommate and I wanted to buy snacks for our dorm, and when I passed through the fruit aisle I asked the woman working there, how much are apples and she said it was a euro thirty for a kilo which is around two pounds. My roommate and I bought two kilos, which was ten apples. I was instantly shocked because, in the United States, ten apples would probably cost arou...

“It’s fantasticating it’s had an amazing atmosphere, the food was terrific the views were breathtaking”(Victoria La Manna). This past weekend I experienced a fantastic trip to Portugal. It was my second time visiting the beautiful country of Portugal. The first time I went, it was only for a few hours, my family and I left the airport during the layover, in the city of Lisbon. I honestly didn’t have the full experience of this gorgeous country since it was only for eight hours. But I feel like I explored so much more, from the birthplace of the first king of Portugal to visit the city of Porto. The first stop we made was in Guimarães in that small city it was the birthplace of the first king of Portugal named Afonso Henriques he was born in the year 1139, and he also founded the country of Portugal. We walked around his castle, and it was awe-inspiring. It was built during the Medieval era. After we finished our walk around the castle we were allowed to walk around the city, Guimar...

 Galicia is such a beautiful territory, but so far one of my favorite places we been to was Coruña. The city of Coruña is gorgeous from one of the longest boardwalk in Europe to the oldest working lighthouse. We traveled from Santiago de Compostela to Coruña by bus, and it took about an hour to get there. The first thing we did was drive by the boardwalk, and it was wonderful because there's nothing like it. The drive on the boardwalk was almost fifteen minutes, but it lead towards the Roman lighthouse called The Tower of Hercules it is the oldest working lighthouse in the world. Riazor beach earned the name "Coast of Death" because of all the shipwrecks that happen in this area. The lighthouse was built in the second century, and its primary purpose was to help ships navigate  Coruña dangerous shores. The Romans also thought that this was the end of the world literally. The lighthouse is almost a hundred and eighty feet tall, and each side is a rectangle. When we got...