On one of our trips to Europe invited to give talks, my father Prof. Dr. Gustavo Zubieta-Castillo and myself were going by train from Madrid to Paris. Close to the north border of Spain, in a beautiful sunny day, we both stared out the windows and suddenly the magnificent Playa de la Concha appeared. We were breath-taken by its beauty and by the prettiness of the town next to it. My father immediately exclaimed: “I truly want to come here!!” and we continued the trip to Irun the border and then on to Paris.
Much to my surprise around 3 months later we get an e-mail from the Federación Vasca de Montaña, signed by Dr. Ramón Gárate. They were inviting us to present a paper (both of us) on behalf of the director Paco Iriondo.It was the 75 Anniversary of the FEDERACION VASCO-NAVARRA DE ALPINISMO (EUSKAL MENDIZALE FEDERAKUNDEA) celebrated in Donostia, San Sebastian on October 15th de 1999.
My father was not only a visionary but also remarkable in getting what he desired. This was a typical outcome, again and again.
Several months later, we were again heading to Europe but this time to San Sebastian!! Arriving at the airport and meeting Ramón Gárate and his collaborator was a true delight. They were kind and very friendly, as we had met a long time before. They drove us to a small beautiful wooden refuge in the curvy green surrounded areas named Abeleche. There the administrator Juancho greeted us and prepared a fantastic lunch with Jamón Serrano, and kinds of delicious sea food. I don’t believe we had ever enjoyed such a magnificent sea food delight and perhaps it was never repeated in our joint lives.
The Conferences, where my father talked about “Pulmones y Altura” and I “El Corazon y la Altura”, went on very nice with a couple of Spanish Colleagues who also presented their work. It is interesting to note that they asked us to also write a manuscript and they gave us each a good payment that allowed us to travel to London right afterwards and visit the Royal Academy.
The papers were handed over to them and were later published at ResearchGate.net. Interestingly, we had hardly published scientific articles in Spanish as we always thought that the worldwide distribution was important. What is outstanding is that the “El Corazon y la Altura: Función cardiaca y adaptación” has over 38,500 reads as of the time of writing this article (Feb 14, 2021).
“Pulmones y Altura” has just been uploaded to ReserachGate.net
Our dear friends took us all around and we were surprised to find that the Avenue in front of the Playa de la Concha is called “Zubieta”. We then visited the Zubieta Bridge and the Town of Zubieta. What a delight all that was! We had learned of our roots and probably where our adventurous in science genetic driving spirit came from. They also gave us some guides
showing our background, and along two black boinas vascas txapelas. We remained extremely impressed the beauty and organization of the Vasque country. They also gave us a book on Vasque climbing the Ochomiles mountains.
Here, I found a link to our old Geocities website with comments of our historic participation. YOU MUST VISIT IT!!
In any event, this metaphysical phenomenon, that crystallized when my father affirmed “I truly want to come here” still makes me wonder in fascination !!!