march 3

This past Saturday there was an excursion for Erasmus students to the Valley of Baztan, an area very close to France and in the heart of Basque country. We met in the parking lot at the university at 9:30 in the morning and rode in the tour bus for more than an hour until our first stop. Due to the early hour of the trip, most of the Erasmus students uncharacteristically stayed in Friday evening instead of going to the bars, but I think that there were some that arrived a bit drunk from the night before. We rode through a tunnel through the inside of a mountain and up and down windy mountain roads with wonderful views of villages and the countryside, but unfortunately more than one of us were made queasy by the ride. Our first stop was at a cave called Las Cuevas de las Brujas (Witches’ Caves) a short walk outside Zugarramurdi (a small town). It was not huge, like the caves I’ve seen in the United States (like Mammoth Cave or even Marengo Cave in Indiana, but it was nice to visit and it had an interesting, dark but interesting, history associated with it. In 1610 there was a panic in which 300 people were accused of being witches or associated with witchcraft and 40 of the most “guilty” were taken to another city, Logroño, to be judged. They were accused of hating God, celebrating black sabboths with the devil, using metamorphosis, making storms in the ocean, being vampires, and pronouncing curses upon citizens of the area. In the end, 12 were burned, some were let go, and others kept in prison for the rest of their lives. When I was there, I think that there were some Wiccans or “nature lovers” there because there was a group of women from France who were wearing feathers and charms in their hair and on their clothes (hippy-like clothes too) hugging and walking around like the site was mesmerizing them. Apart from the history and the other strange visitors, I was glad to have the opportunity to run around outdoors in greenness and naturalness. There is a lot of green in the city, but it is a city. Most of it is grey.

After the cave, we visited a town famous for chocolate and I bought some dark chocolate coated orange slices. Mmmmm. After the chocolate we drove to yet another small town to eat lunch. It was a traditional Spanish/Basque lunch. Bean soup with break to begin with, a beef stew for the main course, coffee and a sweet (ice cream this time) for dessert, and a bottle of wine to be shared among 4 people during the entire meal. At my table, only one person wanted to drink, though, so he got the entire bottle. Apparently it was good…I didn’t think so.

After lunch we visited a natural park that once was a huge private property. Close to the house, there was a garden with trees planted from all around the world. China, Chile, United States, Korea, countries with very different climates were represented, but the trees all seemed to grow fine in the park. Our guide explained to us that the breeze from the ocean, which was less than a 30 minute drive, keeps the climate mild. I saw a tree from Chile, which made Ximena happy; a sequoia and cypress from southeast United States, which made me happy; and a gingko, which made Suyoun, my friend from South Korea, happy. I was glad to be walking with a friend of mine from the United States who had taken a botany class recently, and so understood the latin names. In this way we were able to translate the trees into English from Spanish (via latin) and understand a bit more what we were seeing. The park was our last stop, and then we headed back to the University, tired.