No hay mas camino que amistad

There is no other way than friendship, this is what we were taught at Guemes. The folks at Guemes had a lovely talk with us, sharing their story by means of a peregrino that had to translate, it was really heartwarming... and we can share the full story over a braai one day :) The timing was also really apt, as the next day we were heading to Santander, which was the end of the road for many of our new Amigos :( and we were due our weekly work break, so we were sure to fall out of rhythm with our group...

From Santander we took a bus to Santillana (santijana) where we stayed for 3 nights, one in a Albergue and the other 2 in another establishment. Santillana is a preserved medieval town, it's beautiful, but now it has become a tourist trap. On our day off we decided to run/walk to Suances (20km round trip) and this was our kind of place, a beach town with surf and really good coffee and Napolitanas (chocolate roll meets croissant), the next day I had a workday and all went well, but we were itching to start walking again!

The following day we walked to Comillas, and reunited with some of our previous amigos! We also found that our new group was much better in English, so this was really great. Well except for Elizabeth... our new Chinese amigo... we met her really early on in the day. Her name is not really Elizabeth but our Canadian friend gave her this name after a couple of days of trying to figure out her name. This lady has no English or Spanish language skills and no guidebook and a big backpack (Colette and I also call her small pack) but she is doing the Camino! Very brave! She has become our friend, and sometimes in conversation she just talks a bit of Chinese and we all just smile :) it's so bad she doesn't even know the word bed or sleep, she just puts her hands next to her head and we know she means where is the Albergue... we think, lol. The people really are the biggest blessing on the Camino, so many souls, all really caring and great companions, people we will always remember... but too many to mention.

From Comillas we walked to Colombres and today we arrived in Llanes. Everything has been really beautiful, a bit more tarred road than we would prefer, some tough walking and some nice walking, I won't bore with details, instead see the photos below.