Between both of my week-long sailing excursions this winter, I squeezed in a four day trip to Spain to visit my friends in Getxo. Back in October when I first met Rafa, Saioa, and German while working with the Velux 5 Oceans race (as described here), they were amazed at how little I'd seen of the region even though I'd spent three weeks there. I had no choice as everyone of Robin's crew worked long and hard to get his boat ready for the race. I was encouraged to come back so that I could see all that I had missed. This weekend trip was my first chance to do so and I'd been eagerly anticipating it.I was stunned. Beginning with the above photo of Punta Galea (a modest walk from the harbor in Getxo), I sent the five pictures included in this entry to a friend back in the States. Her response was simply "So breathtaking...I almost cried."
A lone caballero on Playa de Larrabasterra (Sopelana)
I've long wondered where the ideal place on earth for me would be to live. Some of my primary interests, such as flying, can be transplanted anywhere. Others, such as kayaking, scuba diving, mountain-related sports, and sailing require a certain kind of geography and climate. While I might be relatively well traveled for an American, I do have the typical tendency to focus on European travel at the expense of anywhere else. Even so, the most desirable landscape I'd experienced to this point in my life is New Zealand. It's got every option I could want; warm beaches and captivating coastlines, snow covered mountains, and so much more to appeal to a nature loving person as myself.
There's only two problems with New Zealand as I see it. One, to go any where else is a huge undertaking. Two, they speak English. If I was ever going to plant myself in one place, I'd always dreamed of the intellectual challenge of living in a foreign culture amidst a foreign language. It could be a truly challenging leap of culture and language, such as Chinese in China or Russian in Russia or Amharic in Ethiopia. Or it could simply be French in Chamonix.
Until I find a better place, I've always thought to myself, New Zealand will represent the best conclusion I can make.
Then I met Gexto and Northern Spain. Warm beaches, snow capped mountains nearby in the Pyrenees, varying geography, and more. I don't have even the faintest idea of what residency issues might prevent such an idea from being realized but for now, I'm content and even delighted to proclaim the region of Bizkaia (Basque for Biscay) as the one spot on earth most likely to be my next home.
Still, I've got a world to sail around first.
The surf at Bakio
Rafa and Saioa were my gracious hosts and German joined them as one more enthusiastic guide to lead me to places that took my breath away. Together the four of us as well other family and friends (and a delightful band of children) toured the area around Getxo, either on foot or by car. Never, however, did we stray more than an hour away from Getxo. To think that such physical beauty is so accessible, available, and still unspoiled anywhere on Earth was a marvel to me.
With my friends I talked about how my next major project (after the round-the-world race) would be to build a house with my own hands. The question, however, had always been just where. The more I saw of the Bizkaia region, the more I began to realize this just might be where. Someone suggested that I could buy something on the coast and build a house with a great ocean view. While that would be ideal in some ways, it also seems it would absorb too great of a percentage of whatever resources I had at the moment in mere land acquistion. No, I responded, I'd rather move back a bit into the mountains and start with more land for the same price and build (or restore) something with a greater sense of privacy and space.
The view behind the Restaurante Eneperi in Bakio
On my last full day in Getxo, we drove back into the mainland to Mungia before turning north through a valley on our way towards the coastal town of Bakio. The ultimate goal was the world famous surfing beach of Mundaka. After we left the highway for the secondary road to the north, we passed small farms on fertile hills below forests of pine and eucalyptus.
"This!" I said with my nosed pressed to the window. "This is the kind of place where I'd love to build a house." Moreover, once we'd crested the hill and descended into Bakio, I stood transfixed at the beach for as long as my friends would allow, marveling at the natural beauty of the magnificent waves. Strong winds from the land blew into the face of the waves, keeping them flat for as long as possible before they'd finally begin to break at the crest in white foam with a fine spray of mist blowing back over the top. Each wave looked like a herd of charging horses with manes flying in the breeze. To think, I pondered, that I perhaps I might live in the valley just a few minutes drive away and be so easily able to wander down to this rocky outcrop to witness this majesty whenever I chose.
The day continued on with a lunch and a pause at the Restaurante Eneperi and then on to our ultimate destination of Mundaka, the best surfing available this side of Hawaii. Some would argue that it's the best surfing anywhere at all. We left and drove back down the coast as the sun began to set to have the chance to climb the 200 stone steps to the Iglesia San Juan de Gaztelugatxe before it grew dark. Afterwards, happily tired and enlightened to a new dream, I sat in reflection in the back of the car for the drive back to Getxo. I flew home the next day.
Sometime during the day, someone mentioned that the antipode of Spain is New Zealand. Suddenly it all made sense to me. Both countries share the same lattitude in relation to the equator and both are surrounded by the sea, so they'll have the same climate and much of the same breadth of flora and fauna that I enjoy.
No wonder I'm drawn to this region, I thought to myself, and no wonder so much here in Bizkaia reminds me of all that I love about New Zealand.
The 200 steps up to the Iglesia San Juan de Gaztelugatxe
If in the years to come any of you loose touch with me and intend to track me down, somewhere in the valley between Mungia and Bakio would be a good place to start looking.
