Author Archives: bill

Arrasate-Mondragon -> Arantzazu

On the last Sunday in September, Iñaki Extebeste, who Claire and I had met at the recent IUFRO conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada, picked me up in the morning. After a detour back to Arrasate aka Mondragon (attention Uprising Breads and CRS Workers’ Co-op alumnae!) to collect his partner Amaia Pavon, we headed deeper south in Basque Country to Arantzazu where there is a monastery, basilica, conference centre and hostel.

They explained that this site has been very important in the history of Basque culture. For one thing, it was a safe place to meet. And if I understood correclty, it fostered a renaissance of art, language and identity. Think of Solentiname in Nicaragua.

The combination of architecture, sculptures, murals, and paintings with the location on a precipice in a wooded, mountainous valley, creates a powerful impression. I found myself thinking of my late father-in-law, Zeljko Kujundzic. His kind of place.

The Misterioa is a unique feature uphill from the basilica. Outside and inside are paintings of saints, heroes and martyrs, including Mandela, Gandhi and King. It takes effort to recognize them, because they’re painted on the back surface of glass in a gauzy manner. Reflection and mediation are required.

We headed up past the site on a trail many hikers were descending, then we veered off into the woods to take a roundabout loop. Beautiful, and of course, very enjoyable to have the opportunity to walk among trees with a forest scientist!

Eventually we arrived at a saddle in the mountains at the top where there’s a cider house/bar/restaurant. Iñaki & Amaia got us drinks and we sat down at a picnic table outside to share our various goodies. They had brought a delicious assortment of food, including; grilled peppers! What a wonderful lunch. They kindly drove me all the way back to Zuloaga Txiki before heading home themselves – a lot of driving. I am very grateful to Iñaki and Amaia for deepening my introduction to Basque culture.

Market day in Tolosa

On Saturday I walked in to the market. A man I bought cheese from last year recognized me and the general scene was even more lively than it was last year. There was an eco-fair, an African fair trade booth, and the Tolosa choral group was out in force, with traditional Basque musicians alternating reed/drum instrumentals with their songs; fantastic to hear so many people singing, let alone in Euskara – Basque.

Like last year, there was a protest in the triangular plaza against health care cuts. After chatting with some of them, I helped dismantle their banners and haul a wheel chair with a mannequin in it up a couple of flights of stairs, then bought a colourful shirt from the group to donate to the CCPA’s annual fundraising auction.

Around the corner I found Luisan roasting pimiento peppers while his friend Antton handled sales. Their minimum bag weighed several kilos, but I managed to persuade some young British English teachers to share one. I wish I had given them more – it took me 3 hours to peel & de-vein/de-seed the batch I gave to the kitchen at the hostel where I’m staying 😮 Very tasty, though!

Found a shoe repair shop so I ran back to the hostel for my walking shoes, one of which had blown out and was at risk of falling apart. It was too late to catch a guided tour of the TOPIC puppet museum, so I headed back to the hostel & up the narrow 3 km switchback road to Hernialde for a picnic at a lovely viewpoint with stone seats.

The woman at Ostatua Hernialde remembered me from last year, too. At times I feel like the Gadjo Dilo – Crazy Stranger – in the Tony Gatlif film!

Orientation at Eskulan

I arrived in Tolosa on Thursday evening after a night in Bilbao and a day/overnight in Deba.

Deba is a short bus ride from Mutriku, where I stopped by Bar Cristina to thank Pedro for all the helpful advice he had emailed me before I started my trip. What a kind, modest and generous guy! If you are ever in Mutriku, please say hello – and patronize his establishment 😉

In between the east-west Euskotren line and the north-south RENFE train line, I had a very enjoyable rendezvous with the painter Juan ‘Juankar’ Cardesin in the Herrera barrio before heading south.

On arrival, I walked from the Tolosa-Centro station and checked into the Zuloaga Txiki Aterpea hostel I visited last year. Very nice to see everyone again! On Friday morning I walked from the hostel ~1 km back to the train station and caught a train to Billabona-Zizurkil where Juan Barbé picked me up. It was great to reconnect.

At the Eskulan studio up the road in Zizurkil I met his associate, Javier Viñarás; he and Juan were in the middle of producing 100 sheets or so for a silkscreen artist, making 4 sheets at once: cotton rag with Euro cuttings mixed into the pulp.

Juan pulls & couches the sheets; Javier hangs all up to dry. All at a steady rhythm. My first day was really an orientation to the shop, helping here and there to shuffle the heavy stacks of wet sheets, and observe.

We went over to the fibre & paper warehouse to sell a giant roll of cream coloured amate paper to a French-Basque photographer, Patxi Laskarai, who is doing a commission for a hotel. Then after touring Juan’s current stash of Kozo, raffia, gampi and other raw materials, checked out the bike Juan is loaning me. Perfect for the commute! Then we went for lunch with his wife, Carmen. She has done a lot of printmaking, and the monotype I saw was lovely.

After lunch we visited Juan’s friend Juantxo, who is a welding wizard. His shop was heaped with projects in progress, and the living space upstairs, with features like a 6′ high curved steel wall, was inspiring.

We picked up the pulp boiling pot he was repairing (which needs to resist boiling lye) and checked on the current state of a custom Hollander Beater he’s fabricating for Juan, with curved blades offset from each other. A scarey looking machine, but inspiring!

One of our last stops was to buy a better pair of boots for me. Now I have gumboots with safety toes 😉 It was too dark by then to cycle back to the hostel, so Juan kindly drove me back, and showed me the best and safest route to bike or walk along the river and railroad.