Paellas 2010

A group of twenty- and thirty-somethings gathered to organize their part of an annual tradition that they've celebrated for the past 15 years or so. Paellas.

Planning started over a month ago, with one friend being in charge of "marking the territory" with a rope between trees to reserve the spot. It is ritual that is respected between all groups that go early to rope off their place. No one takes your spot and you can be assured it will still be marked and saved when you arrive for the event. Markel's friends, known as Ñikoñako, collected 20 euros from each member of the group and went shopping for Spanish paella ingredients, drinks, bread, and meat. Three or four friends took iniciative to head up the logistics - from making the broth to use on the paella to finding the rope and tarps that would serve as walls

around our abode for the day.

Saturday afternoon a small group met on-site to set up: Markel wacked the weeds away, Javier and Manolo raked, and Tibu and Iker started to put up the tarps surrounding our space. A pit was dug out for the fire. I photographed the process.

On Sunday, the day of the event, loads of groups of friends met at their reserved space to start the festivities. Each group of friends, most with their own group name, decorated and organized their space similarly - fence or tarp surrounded, canopy overhead, music blaring, towels and blankets covering the floor, card games, and lots to eat and drink.

People put on their traditional garbs and dressed as

arantzale or "sea(wo)men." I put on my pololos (traditional white underpants) and navy skirt along with a pañuelo around my neck. As appetizers we had some homemade tortillas made with crab, ham & cheese, and chorizo. Erika, Gorka, Igor and Markel made a delicious seafood paella with mussels, shrimp, prawns, crawfish, clams, and calamari. Of course, I opted out of the majority of the delicacies, but enjoyed a shrimp or two. In the later afternoon, we also grilled some pork, bacon, chicken kebabs, and spiced pork kebabs. An afternoon filled with lots of meat and washed down with sangría made on site.