![\"\"](\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maite-and-kepa-v3b.png\")
Kepa pulled out his phone. \u201cI guess we don\u2019t have to keep guessing,\u201d he said, doing a quick search. \u201cIt seems that this was a Basque hotel and restaurant, founded in 1893. It closed because of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s so sad!\u201d said Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do we do now? The light guided us here, but now what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe there is a way in through the back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa nodded as they walked past the fronton and around the back of the building. A cinder-block wall enclosed a space behind the fonton and the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a door over there,\u201d Maite said, pointing to the back of the building. \u201cLift me up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kepa lifted Maite over the wall. She jogged over to the building and tested the backdoor. It opened. She motioned to Kepa to go around the front. He nodded as she slipped in through the door. Within moments, she had opened the front door, letting Kepa in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLooks like it has been abandoned for a while,\u201d said Kepa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He flicked a switch. The lights stayed off. He pulled out his phone again and turned on the flashlight. Cobwebs filled many of the corners. They wandered into one room. The wall was bare and the floor was torn up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think there must have been a bar here before,\u201d said Maite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhatever was here, there isn\u2019t much left,\u201d replied Kepa. He walked along the length of the wall, running his hand along it. There were various holes in the wall where something had once been mounted. Kepa shined his flashlight into one of them. An old photograph was tucked inside. He pulled it out as Maite came up from behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d she asked as Kepa handed it to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He shrugged. \u201cAn old photograph. Maybe from when this place first opened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The photo showed a group of people in front of a very different looking building, with a balcony overlooking the street. Men lined the porch in vests and white shirts while a few women were standing on the balcony, long flowing skirts falling to their feet. The sign on the building said \u201cIberia Hotel, FM Noriega Proprietor.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWow,\u201d said Maite as she stared at the photo. \u201cLooks just like all of those saloons in those western movies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite handed the photo back to Kepa. She noticed how her hand had started to glow just as she touched Kepa\u2019s hand, which was also glowing. Their ears filled with the same buzzing sound that they had heard back on Ellis Island when suddenly the room filled with a blinding white light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat is this place?\u201d asked Kepa. All of the windows were shuttered and the door was locked. There were no other cars parked in front. \u201cIt seems\u2026 closed?\u201d Maite looked around, walking to the side of the building. \u201cThere\u2019s a fronton,\u201d she said. \u201cI assume this must have been some kind of Basque place?\u201d Kepa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1c7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4596,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions\/4596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}