After a good night’s sleep and a delicious breakfast, we leave Roncesvalles for Linzoáin, and follow the yellow arrow through pastures and fields that make this part of Basque Navarra so famous for its local fresh produce. We walk by caserios, giant stone farmhouses that have been in the same family for generations.
Our first stop is in the town of Burguete, which, like Roncesvalles, has a long history of hosting pilgrims making their way to Santiago de Compostela. One of the village’s notable landmarks is the parish church dedicated to San Nicolás de Bari. As we continue through the town, we find a monument to Ernest Hemingway, the renowned American novelist and Nobel laureate, who spent time in Burguete and the surrounding area during the 1920s. Hemingway visited the village while researching and gathering material for his first novel, “The Sun Also Rises”.
We continue onwards to the town of Espinal. As you walk through the villages in Navarra, you may see what appears to be a large flower attached to the front door of many houses. This dried thistle native to mountainous regions of southern Europe is known in Basque as the Eguzkilore (literally, sun flower). Legend has it that hanging one on the front door provides protection to the dwellers. The tradition emerges from Basque mythology, when Amalur (Mother Earth) created the moon to comfort the humans who were afraid of the creatures that roamed the dark, but the creatures were not afraid of the moonlight. So, Amalur created the Eguzkilore, a flower that resembled the sun and would protect the humans at night.
After continuing our journey through small towns we descend into our destination for the afternoon, Lizoain. After exploring the town, we transfer to our accommodations in Zubiri, where we enjoy dinner and an evening meeting and then get some rest for tomorrow!
