Letter from Cantabria

Candace and I have now traversed over 300km since first starting in San Sebastian and are now just crossing the provincial border into Asturias.  This seems as good a time as ever to start contributing to this joint project of ours, so far consisting of 97% Official CSK content.  

As a preface to these contributions, I will say that I have been wondering how to best add depth to the excellent work Candace has done keeping you, dear readers, attuned to our physical, geographic and emotional states.  My additions will mostly be written as letters to a close friend or relative with perhaps a short set up to give you the setting in which I am writing. So stay tuned for more from your correspondent. 

In closing, here are a few fun facts from our trip.  While we might have you believing that our regular conversations are mostly topics like Kantian ethics and (or with regard to) Spanish resistance in the decade following Franco's victory by a fireside over many bottles of sidra, here is a hotlist of how we spend our time on the trail:

• Pre-Pixar disney, Gilbert & Sullivan (read: HMS Pinafore & Pirates of Penzance), Irish folk and amateur beatboxing songs (we're getting good)
• Holding hands for 30 seconds before it gets too awkward/sweaty on the trail
• Being enticed/repulsed by myriad smells at any given time (to: honeysuckle, eucalyptus, the ocean, cafes with food out -  away from: fermenting hay, general reppelent farm smells, various Andrew smells -of which there are many- (Candace), marshes.
•  Detailed descriptions of the previous night's dreams
• Making "Santiago Sammies", sandwiches of tomato, chorizo and local, unpastuerized cheese
• Stopping for "just a glass of water" for one of those 3-course, 1-bottle of wine, 2 hour lunches at a local inn. 
• Feeling guilty/slow after aforementioned lunch. 
• 50 meter incremental updates from Candace for last 2 miles of each day. 
• Making animal noises at the many cows, donkeys, horses, llamas, sheep, dogs, cats, goats, geese, ducks etc. that litter the path. 
• Basking in the massive amount of life teeming around us at all times.