We visit the home of the vultures and the eagles

Eagles, vultures, and hawks build their nests in niches of the rock faces.

The bridge spans an old rail line, now a bike path.

It takes only about a half hour to get to the town of Irurtzun and the hiking trail known as "the vultures' overlook" el balcón de los buitres.

The trail itself is only about three miles in a loop, but it rises about 900 feet (a map of the trail is here).

The first third of the trail is quite steep and challenging before rising above the town and valley.

The Sunday we were there we heard the pipes and drums of a traditional Basque band playing 
below us in the town.


High above we could see different types of raptors. The vultures tend to be a bit more social and float on the thermals in groups, doing their famous circular dance of death. Or maybe they're just sightseeing.

One of the few relatively flat places on the trail.

Eagles and hawks tend to be loners. They were often too far above to get a good look at their coloring. This post will not have dazzling closeups of the birds.

The lady cop

As with most of our hikes since the pandemic, we ran into very few other people. Two women who appeared to be in their 30s seemed to be just behind us or just ahead of us on the climb and the descent.

When we were at the bottom, at the end of the trail, I chatted them up. One of them was a member of the provincial police department. I mentioned that I had just read in the paper that police had decided not to prosecute most of the cases in which people were cited for breaking quarantine. The fines can be up to US $660.

When I told her that I had been stopped and written up by a police officer on the second day of quarantine (I was running in a park), she said it was unlikely they would fine me. The only people getting fined, she said, were people who had been cited four or five times. It would cost too much if anyone decided to take the case to court rather than paying the fine.

So, four months after the municipal cop stopped me and took down my particulars in a little notebook, I haven't heard anything. Let's keep it that way, people.

From the vultures' overlook, those enormous sheets of rock are called the Two Sisters.

Typical Basque domestic architecture in Irurtzun.

Just below the rock face at the top of the photo is the vultures' overlook. Signs point to the trail head.

Related:

A town in need of some consonants: Aoiz

The north coast of Spain and the birthplace of Ignatius Loyola

Exploring Navarra: the source of the rivers
The walled city of Artajona and ancient burial grounds