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Guide to the Basque Countryside

Miguel de Unamuno wrote one of the best definitions of the Basque countryside: "everything seems to be at your fingertips, made to order for the people who reside here and give it life; it is a domestic landscape, homelike, where more earth than sky can be seen". Bizkaia's inland valleys are uneven and beautiful, with high mountains and low valleys cloaked in legends and deep valleys with a marked rural flavour. The Encartaciones is land of battles between different sides and tower houses, many of them perfectly kept that will take us, magically, to an enchanted past.

The region of Alava's western valleys presents an outstanding natural landscape. In the north we find the valleys of Zuia and Ayala, with their refreshing waterfalls and solid tower-houses. In the south, we can find singular landscapes such as the Salinas de Añana and the ravine of the Valderejo Natural Park. The Alava Plain has been always a passing route for many pilgrims and traders.

Following the course of the river Oria and under the unmistakable silhouette of the Txindoki mountain we will find settled Tolosaldea, a county that better has kept alive its Basque cultural and folk traditions, along with Goierri. In order to know deeply this region's characteristics we must visit municipalities like Idiazabal, famous because of its worldly famous cheese, Segura and Zerain. Finally, we'll go to Ormaiztegi where, for instance, we can visit Zumalakarregi's historic museum.