Sunday, June 02
It felt amazing to sleep in again today, I must have done some shifting in the night because the two double mattresses comprising my full bed had developed a significant crevasse overnight.
After a stop by the nearest bakery (literally a block away) for coffee, a chocolatine, and some grub for the afternoon, I broke out the hiking backpack from Corsica and filled it for an easy afternoon hike. My destination: the south end of Jaizkibel.
I'd previously been to Pasaia around Easter with a friend to do a hike from Pasaia to San Sebastian (see entry xx) but a part of me has been wondering what the other half of Passais (across the channel) was like. So today was my chance to cross over the water and find out!
It's looking like a great afternoon here in Pasaia!
While walking from the parking lot, I passed by this little procession of people dressed up with drums and bagpipes.
The layout of these cities in Gizpukoa feel like a good mix of old, new, dense, and private.
That's where I'm headed today, though I'm realizing I could just drive there instead of the ferry boat I'm planning on, but I digress...
I don't know what the spire is for, but this area of Pasaia seems like a decent place to live
I look away for a minute and all of a sudden in comes a huge ship escorted by two tug boats!
Last time I was here, I had stayed on this side of the passage as people lined up in the square for the ferry. No I'm the rube in line 😅
A little geological explanation about Pasaia and Jaizkibel, if only I could read Castellano or Basque...
Turns out the ferry was super popular when I showed up, it took about half an hour in line to make the 2 minute journey across the channel. But fun fact, the ferry works with the local transit card or you can pay in cash.
The little ferry that could! It's a narrow passage that hardly takes anytime to traverse, so most of the wait time is associated with loading/unloading passengers. I ended up having the honor of just missing the cutoff for the full boat and having to wait for it to come back 😅
But being the first person aboard also has its benefits, like having first pick of seats. I made my way to the stern to have the unobstructed view for our two minute cruise.
The section of Pasaia I made my way to is called Donibane and featured a nice little plaza with lots of charming buildings and a narrow road. I'd have stopped to have a bite/drink in the plaza but all the outdoor tables were full so I pressed on to my hike and saved the drink for after.
Coming up on the main plaza of this little stretch of town, the place is cozy! The street is fairly narrow given the houses are sandwiched between a cliff and the water but the stone buildings add a certain amount of grandeur to things.
I popped my head into the church since it was on the route, I guess the nautical theme shouldn't be a surprise given one could take a running jump into the water from the church doors.
There was either a museum about sailboats or simply a place featuring sailing classes right here. Either way, the boats strung out in a line look nice.
As I made my way further along the passage, I realized that some of these houses were more or less at the far end of a very long pedestrian route but featured driveways. I'm trying to imagine what it'd be like to live somewhere so far along a narrow, busy road 😅 but I suppose if you're working close by (it's maybe a 20 minute walk to where the bus might have a stop) and buy food at the market then it's probably a nice living space
Not why it's called the passage but still a neat stone porte
It was fun to look across and have a different perspective of where I'd been just before Easter. There's a museum over there dedicated to building whaling/tall ships by hand plus a giant steel ship called Jaizkibel.
The inscriptions on the plaque were heavily scratched out, so I didn't catch everything about this art piece. But I think it's related to left-wing activists assassinated by the Spanish police. The last line of the plaque says 113 bullets were recovered from the bodies.
It was awfully tempting to stop for some grilled sardines, but I figured I'd wait till after my hike.
Getting out to where the passage starts to open up to the bay; I remember climbing that staircase!
And of course, a bit of local wildlife.
Following the walking route, there's a fork as you reach a rocky beach: one road goes up sharply and the other winds its way along the water. I stuck to the water first and came across some bafflingly poor stairs (flash back to my other hike in Pasaia and how the Basque just don't seem to understand the concept of steps) before reaching a dead end. Well, I say dead end but there were some determined anglers who's braved the slope to get to uncontested casting spots.
Let me take the unpaved path first, I'm interested to see where this leads.
The channel just looks so nice; plus there was just gentle breeze working its way in here to temper the sunshine.
Ah, yes; it wouldn't be Jaizkibel without some taffonis.
And more taffonis. They just give the rocks such an alien look.
Claaaaassic Basque stairs; I won't complain that they exist but I'm not sure they're all that useful 😅
So this is where the unpaved path leads to; I'm not exactly sure how one gets down to there. Nor do I know why someone would want to walk out on the jetty, the water was washing over the thing every few waves.
This is as far as I'm going on this leg of the trip but it does offer a neat view along the length of the mountain from close to sea level.
You gotta really want your private fishing spot to negotiate this cliff face with a rod, tackle, and a net.
I back tracked to the fork and proceeded to follow the GR21 route along the southern end of Jaizkibel. The hike featured some interesting rock formations, the occasional view out into the bay (accenting just how long the Jaizkibel formation is), as well as a view of where I'd previously hiked. This rocky section required some attention to where you were placing your feet but it was fun; while not too intense I still managed to develop a nice sweat.
The paved trail tapered off here with what looks like stadium lights. A look across the way reveals where I'd enjoyed a picnic last time while hiking to San Sebastian.
I've finally decided my future lies beyond the grey concrete path
I'm glad the trail along the ridge was well marked, a lot of the green has started to fill in and make the foot space less clear.
No banana, so you'll have to settle for a 25L bag for scale
The vines make it look like a Chia pet designed by H.R. Giger 😂
Like I'd mentioned, the greenery has taken over the path just a little. But that's ok, I like ferns.
Snack break! Featuring a pastry filled with anchoives, a filling fit for the view.
Given all the caterpillar trains I saw in Corsica, it's strange to see a lone fuzzy worm these days.
The weather has started to get grayer, but I'm still having a blast. Given how I've been ascending, I don't mind the loss of the sun till my shirt dries a bit more 😅
Eventually the hike flattened out and did another hiking trope I've seen around here (I'm wondering if its Basque in general or just a Spanish thing): walking through pastures. The hike took me past a restaurant on the side of the road that was buzzing with activity but I focused on doing my loop and (after turning back from what looked to be a very muddy trail) wound my back to the Donibane section of Pasaia.
It's been a while since I've had one of these sections: just walking through pasture. It's unclear to me if these are common pastures or if some farmer just has to deal with hikers and pilgrims passing through.
I've traded in the sharp, holey spine of the mountain ridge for gentler slopes. I'm also further in from the water so the views are a bit more obstructed of the coast.
It was incredible how loud a cloud of flies on cow pies can be; since there were so many along this trail I got to hear it in surround sound for stretches at a time 😂
I've seen so many of these vultures flying around; I wonder what they're catching and eating.
Your ass is grass, and I'm the lawnmower. But I'll keep a watchful eye out for lounging donkeys
In French, cows say "meuh" but this is Spain so this cow said "¡Mu!"
Almost got the whole farm up here this afternoon
The hike crossed over the road and started to mount the main spine of Jaizkibel, but I turned around after this tower. There actually want too much to see: the brush had grown to crowd out the view and the tower doesn't have any entry, so...
The point of all the return
I'd meant to ascend this peak on the way up but missed a fork and thus hit it on the way down. There was a parking lot and restaurant at the base of this slope so I passed a huge group of adults and children coming back down to see the cows.
It might not be the tallest mountain, but it's still got a nice view of the surrounding area of Pasaia.
These taffonis were almost like tide pools but on top of a mountain.
Rather than return on the same trail, I opted for a path descending the valley. It wasn't all that scenic but was certainly steep.
Back in town, I finally indulged in that plaza with a glass of Basque cider (a fairly generous pour for only €1) and a pintxo serving of txistorra sausage. From the plaza, I worked my way further along the town, finding a hermitage/shelter for people doing the pilgrimage along el camino del norte as well as accidentally wandering through some backyards before getting back on the main street.
It weird how I noticed more of these ridiculously nice houses on the walk back along the channel, I guess they're all facing towards the water so I wouldn't have seen the facades coming the other way
Kudos to those kids, that water looks plenty cold to me especially on a fair cloudy day... 🥶
Slurp... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Not exactly how I'd pictured the txistorra coming out, but I'll take it! Delicious as always
This cat was lounging and watching birds from the stairs of the ermitage/refuge for pilgrims.
There's a whole mix of symbols on this ermitage, but I guess the important thing is that it has rooms available to rest.
The ermitage is situated atop this part of town, I suppose someone paying attention could have followed this upper route to avoid the up&down I did
And I'm betting laundry is very important for those pilgrims trudging long distances
Laundry is also important for everyone 😆 it was kinda strange descending from the ermitage further into town and basically walking through people's back yards
Et voilà, the map indicating the sections of Pasaia
Having walked the length of Donibane and gotten a feel for the place, I made my way back to the ferry to ensure I'd get back across the channel before the ferry stopped running for the day (if it does indeed stop?). Not quite ready to drive home, I wandered around what I've learned is the Trinxerpe part of the town and stumbled across a festival happening in a plaza. I suppose this festival is what the small parade I'd seen earlier in the day was about.
Many of these houses really embrace the waterfront but they don't feel like luxury condos, some appeared little run down but all seemed nice
Imagine your bedroom is the bit above the street tunnel 😂
Such exquisite address numbers
Later, Donibane. I'm taking the ferry back across. It was a different, smaller boat this time now that the rush hour crowd is done
Thinking back to my Medoc adventure, the Marquis de Lafayette's ship had stopped in Pasaia to load guns and ammunition before sailing to join the American Revolutionary cause
Those are some big lines for drying clothes...
Oh, they're holding up the façade...
I was hearing noise but turns out this square wasn't the source. Though there was someone using a leaf blower to clean up around the picnic tables
Oh, look, people are all dressed up! Apparently there's multiple troops/groups of people?
I couldn't quite make out the singers, but you bet your bottom dollar that I could hear the bag pipes 😅. There was a decent crowd gathered here, though the ages appeared skewed towards the retired or families with young children.
Having listened and seen some dancing, I made my way back towards the car but got side tracked by a massive charcoal grill set up in a neighboring plaza. Instead of getting something off the grill, I opted for a serving of jamon cocido en vino; when I received 6 toothpicks with my heaping pile of pork, I feel like the camarera was hinting at what kind of venue the place normally is...
Ooh, look a that. I don't know if they're partially cured or not, but just ham legs sitting in a roiling pot of seasoned wine was too irresistable.
I guess the plate of ham cooked in wine is typically served to feed 6 people, one toothpick for each person 😅 Or in my case, one tooth pick to eat and 5 to clean... But this was absolutely delicious, topped with a bit of olive oil (of course) and paprika.
These portable traffic timers are nifty contraptions; I like the countdown timer. Unfortunately, it seems the guy coming the other direction completely blew past his red light and refused to back up; so there was a bit of negotiating to be done by me and the three cars behind me when we encountered him half-way through the one-lane construction zone...
While opening the window for the breeze, I noticed I could see the these buildings illuminate as the Biarritz lighthouse passed its beam across them.
Comments
Post a Comment