Almeria, Cabo de Gata, and Nijar, Spain

Taking along the laptop and writing this blog will be a big help to me for remembering where I have been and what I have seen. As you know, when traveling to so many different places, you often look at your photos when you get home and can’t even remember the country you took them in, much less why you captured some of the people and scenes.

So far I have taken 685 photos, so be glad you won’t have to be bored with all of them. Even though 95 per cent of them have been taken through reflecting bus windows while zipping along at a fast clip, the quality is better than I had expected for many of them. Thank God for digital cards…I shoot with abandon, hoping that one out of ten is decent.

Be glad that the cost of putting up this blog is costing me an average of $12 per day because I might fall into the trip of relating you too many details and boring you with too many photos as so many enthusiastic travelers do. You won’t even have to ask me if I had a good time when I get home…you will already know.

So today, we are in Almeria, near Cabo de Gata, which is where the Mediterranean coastline of Spain swings from south to east. We began our day early. As we were leaving the port, I caught of glimpse of a rainbow through the ship’s moorings.


A good omen because immediately I looked up and saw the Alcazaba, the fortress built in the 10th Century by the Caliph of Cordoba, bathed in the morning light. Enclosed by three concentric walls, the Alcazaba was subsequently enlarged to become a palace, making Almeria a key Al-Andalous (Moorish Spain) stronghold.



Almeria is a hilly port town with narrow streets lined with old convents, monasteries, theatres, shops, and senoritas waiting for a bus.



A wide promenade leads down to the sea along Avenida Federico Garcia Lorca. (More about him later.)

This part of Andalusia is the most parched part of Spain, with large expanses of rocky semi-desert. The landscape reminds me of the area around Las Vegas. As a result, it gets very hot here, so this cool 60 degree April weather is a blessing. I would not want to visit here in the summer, although it is said to be a huge summer tourist area.



The plants seen here are Algarve plants from which they make Algarve nectar. (I buy it in the health food store to use like honey.) Because of the sunshine and unique minerals in the soil, this region has developed an intensive horticulture economy. How do they do that in a desert? They use plastic greenhouses which cover the valley and the hillsides. The photos of this area on Google Earth look like snow is on the mountains, but it is the white plastic of the green houses. Vegetables and fruit are shipped from here to all over Europe.



Also, salt is gathered from the salt-flats and processed to be used as street salt in northern Europe. Here is a salt factory with huge mounds of salt and salt flats in the background.



All of this is in The Cabo de Gata Natural Preserve which covers thousands of acres and is also a migratory bird stopping place. Flamingoes come by and fish here, but they weren’t here today. It also is the home of several different reptiles, insects, and other interesting varmints that come out at night. Some of the Westerns made by Clint Eastwood were filmed here.

The preserve is named for the Cape (Cabo) which juts out into the Mediterranean, as I mentioned earlier. The Cabo de Gata promontory is arguably the most dramatic corner of the Andalusian Coast.



The guide said that the scene from an Indiana Jones movie where Sean Connery chases away some sea gulls with a beach umbrella was filmed on one of the beaches here. (I haven’t seen any of the Indiana Jones movies, so I don’t know which one).

I said I would get back to Garcia Lorca. He based his story, Blood Wedding, on a newspaper account of a girl who was to marry a rich farmer, but fell in love with his cousin. As they tried to elope, they were murdered. That incident happened in this area.

Garcia Lorca seems to be very popular in this region because not only is the main street of Almeria named after him, so is the main street of the little town of Nijar where we visited next. This town is known for its ceramics, pottery, and rugs.

This was market day, and many women were out getting their vegetables and fruits early.



Many of the laborers who work in the green houses come from Morocco. I saw some women with head scarves and this merchant wearing a fez.




I wanted to experience more of the Spanish culture, so I stepped into a bar (café) to get a café con leche



served to me by this barman. Notice the leg of meat on the counter behind him. It is jamon serro (sp?), cured ham, said be very delicious. The coffee was good, too. Que Rico!



Tonight’s entertainment on the ship will be Los Mulero Flamenco Trio.