Not long to go ...
Every year I do always take a stroll down to the square of the plaza de los Fueros just to show off my fine muscular shape, check out the axes and stones getting a working over and simply stand out as a kind of harrijasotzaile, posing in front of the chicks. Now, the fact is I suffer from heights so I can't as much as climb up a tree trunk But I like to lounge round there as if I were from Leitza itself and as if I knew all the variations of the herri kirolak. I really enjoy watching the lads sweating away at their saws and their txingas, and particularly in those early hours of the morning with a hangover and curing vermouth in the hand under the killing heat of the midday sun.
You can just lounge about there watching the perurenas, kañamares and fardolaris and you can break out in a sweat just looking at them doing their thing. It's nice to break with the usual routine and give the old paunch a bit of a rest and let some of the alcoholic poison come out with the sweat. Maybe that is why City Hall supports these rural sports in its official program - so we can all lay off the drink for a few hours at least. I would personally suggest that the atmosphere could be further improved if the exhibition of rural Basque sports was held in San Nicolás or in Jarauta, like popular fiestas for all the world and let the people cheer on and root for the weight-pulling oxen and lift trunks and chop up trees and hoist some boulders up on their shoulders. That would indeed be a fine mix of popular culture.
