Chocolate and wine of Navarra

Elizondo is a town close to the French border, near the Pyrenees mountain range, where we traveled to see another student who visited the Robinsons. Nerea pulled out photo albums from her visit in 2000 and showed me a photo our group when we went to a Sonics basketball game. I definitely had less gray hair.

Elizondo is a place in the Autonomous Region of Navarra ( Spain ), capital of Valle de Baztán located 57.5 kilometers from Pamplona. Like the rest Baztán Township belongs to the speaking area of Navarre. One can see nobility in their palatial homes with monumental buildings ranging from late Gothic to Renaissance and Baroque style.

It is the capital and commercial center of the valley. Located on both sides of the river Bidasoa or Baztán. Settlement is more urban than rural because of the abundance of shops, bars, restaurants, shops, banks, etc., with the services their socio-economic base. While we were siting is a coffe shop a group of protesters walked down the narrow street. They wanted government to invite more businesses to the area near where they lived. They resented having to travel so far to their jobs.

 We visited a shop, famous for their chocolate, called Malkorra. It has milk chocolate and dark chocolate with almonds or hazelnuts nuts. It came in large slabs, which I only bought a small portion of it (28 euros a kilo). Not cheap,but delicious.


I also noticed the wine served during meals was from the Navarra wine region. They are proud of their vineyards just as the people in the north are proud of the Rioja valley produced wines. In the pictures you will see bottles with the seal of approval from their region.

Another fact of Basque tradition is in the way the homes of the past were constructed. To keep the animals close for protection and to generate heat for their homes, the lower section of the structure would house the animals. See picture below.

Today, many owners have converted this space to living quarters. This home was in the town of Erratzu which is a very traditional Basque area. We saw tractors parked out side several homes with chickens, livestock, and other domestic animals taking refuge. This is definitely a way to save on the heating bill, but I do not think I could put up with the aroma that comes with it.