Ultreia

Ultreia at Royal College of Art.

2010-07-05T16:39:00.015+02:00

Day 12

2010-06-10T11:23:00.006+02:00

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Day 12 was the last day of my journey, the arrival to Santiago.

The cleaning services company from Santiago was on strike for 12days in the end of May. I have to say that when I arrived, the strike was already called off, even though you could still find some traces.

So I decided to cycle around Santiago and picking up the local newspapers I was finding in the streets.

In Obradoiro Square, some cyclist pilgrims were freaking out with my machine.

Santiago's Cathedral on the back.

Souvenir stall in Obradoiro Square. Bueno, bonito y barato oiga!

The scallop shell, the symbol and icon of the Camino de Santiago, is used in Santiago as a plate to serve its sea fruit, which is some sort of massive cockle, but much more tasty, served together with an amazing sauce. They place everything together inside the oven, and the same scallop shell keeps the whole meal warm for a long time, same as clay dishes.

After enjoying such an exotic meal, I kept the scallop shell to replicate them with my machine.

Thanks everyone for your support. Stay tuned for the news and the show coming up!

best

jorge

Day 11

2010-06-09T17:53:00.006+02:00

I was so lucky to meet my old friend Carlos Cano in Galicia. It was such a lont time! He brought his camera and we spent some time taking some shots... Big thank you Carlos!

Day 10

2010-06-06T20:55:00.006+02:00

Abandoned village close to Portomarin.

A nice looking Horreo in the same village. Hórreos are granaries found in Northern Spain, raised off the ground by stone pillars known as "pegollos", which can be made of either wood or stone. They are one of the most characteristic architecture buildings from Galicia.

Miño river in Portomarin.

Loio river.

Hawk!!!

An abandoned factory in Galicia was a good reason to ask myself why am I doing what I'm doing...

The battery I carry during my journey is being constantly charged by the solar panel.

And the very same battery was lighting a couple of lamps I produced on the road.

The lamps are produced in Bio Resin.

The camp at night.

Day 9

2010-06-04T09:48:00.020+02:00

It's been a while without posting anything... The Camino went harder in the end, and as the date of the end of my journey approached, I had literally no time to find a computer... so plenty of stuff to show you!!!

I had to make a little jump to the last part of the route, just to be able to arrive to Santiago in time, the end of the journey.

But before I went through 'El Bierzo' and it was just awesome...

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This is the standard landscape in the 'Bierzo' the land just between Leon and Galicia.

I faced a hard ascension to Sarracin's Castle...

Finally I could see the Castle.

Nobody knows when or who built this castle, but there is written evidence of its existence in the tenth century when these mountains separated the kingdom of Galicia of the Castilian plateau, then deserted and ruled by Muslims.

The castle protected this crossing, that is still one of the main communication roads between Galicia and Leon.

I could only find these flowers inside the castle, nowhere else.

So I decided to put them in a mould and produce some lampshades in the descent.

The descent was harder than I thought, and my trolley just broke in two pieces... ayayayyyyyy

They joint was strong enough, but the steel tube didn't resist all the effort. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, on a Sunday afternoon, and with no possible way to continue... I hid my trolley behind the bushes, and cycle to the next village.

There I asked the locals, that very kindly gave me the directions to find Luis, the local welder.

Souvenir stall in the village.

Luis very kindly accepted to take a look to the trolley and see what he could do.

5 minutes later he was welding the broken part...

And in a blink I was ready to hit the road again... Thanks Luis and everyone who helped me out in the Bierzo!

Time to rest and be ready for the day after...

updated map

2010-05-29T16:03:00.001+02:00

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Day 8: Guendulain

2010-05-29T15:10:00.006+02:00

Finally I arrived to the abandoned village of Guendulain. This place, with its castle and its church, was one of the most important villages in the Kingdom of Navarra back in the Middle Age. It was one of the few populations in the Camino where there was a hospital exclusive for pilgrims. Today, Guendulain presents a sad state of decay and abandonment, and will soon disappear to leave place to the biggest house holding plan in the history of Navarra.

Even though today the Camino passes near by, most pilgrims don’t even realize about the existence of this stunning and ruined piece of history, hidden behind the bushes. Even though, the magical atmosphere of the place remains untouchable, as if it just refused to disappear.

I decided to recover the historical memory of this place for the very last time. Using the clay pieces I did in Navarrete the day before, I shared my food and wine with some pilgrims I encountered on the road. We stayed inside the walls of the castle under its shade, sharing our stories, and enjoying the local food. They were so surprised and grateful for such a great experience, and so was I.

My arrival to Guendulain.

The Church.

I waited patiently till I saw a group of pilgrims through the window. The castle is located behind the bushes, so all pilgrims just pass by without noticing it.

These pieces were made in Navarrete for this special location.

The traditional glazing technique was mixed together with strong colours, the same way graffities cover today the castle walls.

The wine set.

Our improvised lunch.

Making a toast wishing us all the best for the Camino.

Day 7: Pamplona - Zariquiegui.

2010-05-29T14:03:00.007+02:00

In the seventh day of my journey, I had to step back in my route for a while to reach to Guendulain, an abandoned village close to Pamplona.

I placed several starcharts along the route. This starcharts where printed in a local village, and allow pilgrims to read the sky during the night. Following the Milky Way, pilgrims can keep walking in the right direction.

Pit stop in a nice lake close to Guendulain.

Alto del Perdon wind power station.

Day 6: Pottery workshop in Navarrete.

2010-05-29T13:10:00.008+02:00

I visited Antonio Naharro's workshop in Navarrete. Antonio has been working with a pottery wheel for as long as he can remember. Using my factory to mix the clay properly, and later taking advantage of all his installations and knowledge, we produced together several pieces in clay, that were designed specifically for a performance next day in Guendulain Castle.

Antonio working with his wheel.

Some pieces waiting to be glazed.

Some pieces coming out from the oven.

Antonio's workshop overview.

Day 5: Los Arcos - Varea.

2010-05-26T15:38:00.013+02:00

Just before arriving in Logroño, we stopped in Varea, an small neighbourhood in the suburbs. I was very impressed by the riverside vegetation and orchards. After spending some time fishing with some locals (I wasn't lucky, no fish at all...) I went to meet the people from Campomiel, a beekeepers family that introduce me to the art of ecologic apiculture. Later on, we used my factory to centrifuge the honeycombs, which is the last stage to obtain the most delicious honey I've ever tasted... mmmmm yummy...

Poppies field next to the Ebro river.

The ruins from an old Roman city in Varea.

Wheat fields in Varea.

Orchard in Varea.

Fishing with some locals in the Ebro.

The Ebro is Spain's most voluminous river.

Taking the Honeycombs out of the Beehive.

Bees at work.

A honeycomb.

Beekeeping suit up.

More pictures from the football match

2010-05-26T15:27:00.002+02:00

Day 3

2010-05-25T11:44:00.012+02:00

Day 3 was quite a hard one, but with lots of fun in the end of the day. I´ll show you very briefly some pictures and the map.
Ultreia!!!

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So as you can see in the map I travelled from Cirauqui to Estella. Unexpectedly, Estella was celebrating its Patron Saint´s day, The Virgin of Puy. I arrived there at lunch time, and you could already smell that there was something going on that day. Too many people in the streets for a monday morning I thought. By chance, I asked a few guys some information and what was the program for the evening. 5 minutes later we were all in a really nice terrace, having some beers together. They were really interested in my factory and the whole story of the project, so we spent a long time talking about the Camino, Estella, and so many other things. I have no words to describe how much hospitality I felt in this town. In Spain it´s said that people from the north are a little bit more uncommunicative or dry, but that is just a topic.

It was getting late and I felt it was time to think about the plan for the afternoon-evening. My friends suggested me a nice and cheap camping outside Estella to crash that night, and that way I could visit Estella at night. It was a great decision, even though cycling to the camping under a 32º C spanish sun at 4 pm is quite a suicide, I guess I´m getting used to it.

In the early evening, and despite some rain, I arrived to Estella´s Central Square, wherer a bunch of kids were playing football...

Time for pics! Enjoy them! And thanks again for your support!

A nice pit stop.

The calm before the storm in Estella.

This one is quite funny. The ´torito de fuego´ fire bull, is a traditional ritual for kids in Estella. Kids were running in circles around the main square of the city, exactly the same place where we played our football match, and exactly the same way a few minutes before they were running behind my factory as I was producing the trophy for the football match, cycling around the Square.

How to work with resins under the rain, on the floor, and in a half sq. meter. Done.

A lot of expectation before the trophy ceremony at the end of the match.

Iker Casillas, was chosen best goalkeeper from the Final.

The kid in blue t-shirt self proclaimed the caretaker of the trophy, till it was given to its owner. As you can see he was strongly commited to his duty.

MVP of the game.

Everybody wanted to sign the flag...

Best defender of the game.

Here you can see my spontaneous assitant, with a well deserved trophy for all the help he gave to me.

You are supposed to see my factory in this picture, at the end of the ceremony, but things were so far out of control by then...

I got in my tent at 1am, a bit exhausted but with some leftover energy to drink a quick beer and check the video footage. Ultreia!!!

Day 2 pictures

2010-05-24T09:45:00.014+02:00

Hi everyone!

I´ve just found a nice internet spot so I´m taking a break, uploading some stuff into the blog, and making a 30GB backup so it´s gonna take a while...

Unfortunately I´m shooting in HD so I won´t be able to upload any videos...

Ultreia!!!

my factory and the Puente de la Reina.

oooooooohps!!!

pollen everywhere...

A nice and spontaneous idea... using my flag as some sort of agenda where people I meet on the road can sign and leave their contact...

Carrying out the ancient ritual of going around the church three times before getting in... at the same time, a rotational moulded figurine of the church was being casted, and later, offered as a gift to the caretaker of the church...

The original church on the back, and the first ever ´on site´ made figurine of Eunate´s church.

The factory enjoying a deserved break together with an amazing dusk in Eunate... For those who are not familiarized with the project, here you can see the solar panel that charges an small battery, so I can charge all my electronic devices. The drum on the right side of the picture, spins with the rear wheel of the trolley, and is used for different purposes, in this case, it was used to create the small replicas of the church through rotational moulding.

And this is my 5 stars hotel... more coming soon!!!

day 2

2010-05-23T23:10:00.008+02:00

Hi everyone!!!

Wow what a first day, it was really nice. The thing is that I rely in this crappy old computers from pilgrims hostels to write my blog, and unfortunately this one is only for using internet... (I can´t even open two tabs at the same time!!!) so I can´t upload any pictures... it´s a shame cause it has been a super productive day!!! Even though I had to modify this first day a bit, due to some unexpected problems with my performance in Guendulain Castle. I´ll go back there during this week. Arrived yesterday night to Navarra, but it wasn´t till today´s morning that I started to cycle.

Hope to go online tomorrow in a decent machine, so I can show you how´s it going. By now, you can only check today´s stage...

Today´s highlights were an small crash with my bike (trolley knocked over included, funny pics coming soon...), me realizing that the 40kg of stuff I´m carrying in my bike might be way tooooooo much, 30 degrees and a super sunny day, a couple of new ideas for my journey, lots of pollen in the air (yes, I´m alergic) and an amazing visit to Santa Maria de Eunate, the Church of the Hundred Doors... A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I carried an small production of replicas from this church and the results were really good. Even one figurine I made will remain there as a gift; I´m really proud the caretaker of the Church was so interested in my project and so happy to keep one there. People is quite freaking out when they see me and my weird bike travelling through the fields. They say ´ah! that´s clever! a solar panel to help you cycling through the hills! That´s a really nice electric bike you have in there!´ I wish they were right...

More tomorrow!

Thanks for your support

Jorge

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Day 1

2010-05-22T23:38:00.001+02:00

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ULTREIA.

2010-05-22T00:58:00.012+02:00

Ultreia:

ultra-, ult-. Lat: beyond, on the other side; excessive, to an extreme degree.

eia or heia: expressing joy or surprise [well!]; in exhortation , [come on].