One can travel a long time before encountering someone as welcoming, outgoing, helpful and engaging as Josetxo. After my stay with him and his sons JuanJose and Amet, I felt as if I had been in Hondarribia for days longer: I was at ease; I was comfortable; I felt at home, with friends.
Shortly after his robust welcome and descriptions of how everything worked in his house (which, by the way, is great accommodation - from bed to bath to kitchen to wifi), I mentioned that I wished to hike nearby. The words were hardly out of my mouth before Josetxo told me to come with him down the street until we reached a signpost/board on which was mapped a route that would take me up to a church and further to a lighthouse. Since the lighthouse wasn’t on the map, he hustled me over to a farmer friend who added a few details and then we all talked about travel for about half an hour: all this about 1 hour after I had rung the bell at the front gate. We then left for a supermarket to purchase various items, and returned to share wine and a pasta dish that he had made earlier. We then talked until late in the night, as if old friends had much to catch up on.
I could go on and on about other conversations (my Spanish is weak; for those who speak it well, let’s just say that Josetxo is a gold mine of information, anecdotes, opinions, musings and jokes), about going out to dinner, about being taken on a tour in his car…but you get the point. Josetxo is truly one of the finest people I have met in the past 2 and 1/4 years of continuous travel and there is little doubt that I will return someday to spend some more time with someone to whom I was truly sad to say goodbye.