Gonzo Over Games: Basque Sports

If you are gonzo over games, you've come to the right place. Perhaps the best-known and most spectacular of Basque sports is the ancestral ball game of pelota, a descendant of the medieval jeux de paume (literally, palm games), a fundamental element of rural Basque culture. A Basque village without a fronton (backboard and pelota court) is as unimaginable as an American town lacking a baseball diamond.

There are many versions and variations on this graceful, fast-paced sport, played with the bare hand, wooden bats, or curved basketlike gloves; a real wicker chistera—the wicker bat used in the game—is an interesting souvenir to buy (and makes a very pretty fruit basket, but let no Basque hear that bit of heresy).

Other rural Basque sports include scything, wood-chopping and -sawing, sack hauling, stone lifting, tug-of-war, competitive whaleboat rowing, and, for those who really want to take the weight of the world on their shoulders, orga yoko, or cart lifting—hefting and moving a 346-kilo (761-pound) hay wagon (you read it here).