It is not often that one travels to view a larynx. “Call ahead and speak with Marta Zazu. She’ll open the door for you,” were the instructions. And thus everything was in place for a journey to Erronkari, a community of just two hundred souls in a mountain valley east of Pamplona. This is a part of the Basque region where the hills become ever steeper as one moves north towards the border with France.

Erronkari turned out to be such a slip of a place that calling in advance was hardly necessary.

Everyone in Erronkari knows Marta. When she is not busy in the Zaltua restaurant that her family runs on the southern edge of town, Marta can always be tracked down by having a word with anyone you chance to meet in the maze of cobbled alleys that make Erronkari.

Marta is always in town. Well, almost always. Every two years she makes an excursion to Pamplona, a regular foray undertaken only so that experts can inspect the larynx and check it is still in good condition. “Tuning,” says Marta, adopting a turn of phrase that seems peculiarly appropriate for a larynx.