Why Ben moved to The Basque Country
When people ask me why I moved here, I often give them a summary, a ‘why wouldn’t you?’. It sounds something like this:
The Basque Country, El Pais Vasco’ or Euskal Herria, is an incredible fusion of wilderness and fine culture; a place to find deep forest clad mountainsides falling into wild oceans or to find Michelin-star chefs serving extraordinary local cuisine. It’s why, of all the places my unexpectedly nomadic life has taken me, I’ve decided to settle here. As a person, I am equally happy living in the Peruvian rainforest or dressing up for the Balshoi Ballet, but I need both to keep my body, mind and spirit happy. The Basque Country scratches all these itches.
That said, it’s worth diving a little deeper and giving you a bit more detail from my life and story that actually tells you why I’ve chosen to call The Basque Country my home.
Firstly, as a trained ecologist and the son of an avid bird watcher, wild nature has always been very important to me, a place to find balance, intrigue and humility, to help me understand my place in the world. There is also salt water in my veins; my father was a boat builder, I’ve lived on boats for 12 years of my adult life and all my ancestors were sailors. I also love surfing. It’s my yoga, my meditation, my gymnasium. At first glance, it is obvious that the Basque coastal zone gives me both of these things: wild forests and wild, world-class waves. It’s a place where I don’t have to look hard or travel far to get what I need for my physical and mental wellbeing.
Secondly, I was very privileged to grow up in an English family amongst the multicultural melee of central London, deeply entwined with my Caribbean neighbours, my Indian study buddies and my Far Eastern team mates. Following a career in environmental conservation also allowed me to work and travel all over the world, from Argentina to Guyana to Uganda to Nepal to Fiji. This is a marvellous heritage to have as I can connect with people from all sorts of different backgrounds, but there is a significant drawback. What is my culture? I’ve been involved and assimilated into so many that my own sense of cultural identity is quite vague, which I feel as a slight loss.
As such I’m very attracted to strong cultures, whose identity and language seeps into their music, their food, their farming, their social structure. The people of The Basque Country, or ‘Euskaldunak’, having been somewhat isolated from the surrounding cultural shifts in neighbouring France and Spain, have preserved their language, games, diets, and social dynamics in these remote and deep-clefted valleys. It’s a fairly egalitarian society, strongly connected to the wilds of the ocean and mountains, and there’s a strong thread of punky rebellion woven in. It’s one of the only places in the world where the anarchists make sure the trains run on time. I love it and am getting stuck in.
Finally, I really love my friends and family. As important as being in an Hispanic culture is to me (my mother grew up in South America), my loved ones are indeed that, loved. Donosti (aka San Sebastian) is the closest I can possibly be to the UK and northern Europe while still being fully immersed in latin culture. I can get back really easily, but equally, as it’s a famously beautiful and culture-infused city, I have a constant stream of friends heading south, staying with me or passing through, sharing pinxos and dipping in the sea with me. I don’t feel disconnected at all from my previous homeland, it’s right there, plus there is the enormous bonus of eco-friendly travel options with cars, trains and boats; no flights are necessary.
So I get to feed my own soul, stay connected, but not destroy the planet in the process. Amen.