Ituren Carnival: 31st January 2011 After a mug of hot broth, (caldo), traditionally made from boiled pork and chickens feet, we climbed the steps to the attic rooms above the town hall and plunged into a frenzy of bells and ropes, of sheep’s skins and brightly-coloured swaddling ribbons. No, don’t be misled by the pretty pinks
I just popped in on Amatxi yesterday and she was bent double over the kitchen table taking in the waist on her grandson’s lace petticoats. Carnival time is coming .. by far the most exciting and loved moment of the year for our village of Ituren. There is a general buzz everywhere, groups of youths congregating in farm sheds and clinks
In defence of the Spanish language and walking holidays we run in the Pyrenees I remember an article on how living near green spaces can be shown to improve mental health. Thanks Paul for routing it out for me! Add these findings to those of a previous article on my blog on how exercise is shown to aid mental agility and memory and it therefore makes
Ask Koikil what he does for a living and he will say that he is an unemployed smuggler. Like many of the people here on the Basque/Spanish – French border Koilki was a very young child when he first accompanied his father on his night smuggling missions over the Pyrenees into France. Born in 1955, Koikili’s family had a tradition of horse breeding and so he has
The Basque Carnivals of Ituren, Zubieta and Lantz in the tiny mountain villages of the Spanish Pyrenees have now been officially recognised by UNESCO as an invaluable part of Europe’s cultural heritage!* (The mysterious nature of the Basques, their inscrutable language and impenetrability of the Pyrenees has long kept the prying eyes of the 21st