We spent Thursday driving from Almuñecar to Cabo de Gatas, a natural preserve a mile wide and 20-some miles long along the eastern Spanish Mediterranean coast before it turns northward at Almería. We had expected a rather unpopulated area, since we only knew that the terrain was dry and desert-like and that various movies (Lawrence of Arabia, El Cid, and many oaters) had been filmed there for that reason.
The land is reminiscent of the Mojave or Sonoran deserts, making us feel right at home except that everything to our right was glorious Mediterranean seascape. Still, the drive was a bit of a disappointment, since every arable patch of land is planted and covered with greenhouse plastic, so that rather than vistas of natural ruggedness we saw an eerie landscape covered in white sheeting. See http://www.theguardian.
A good thing, then, that Cabo de Gata has been set aside, and we approached it with high expectations. Unfortunately, our arrival was on a day of gale-force winds, accompanied by dust, so that not only were any walks out of the question, we couldn't see very far! A nice overview of it is at http://www.degata.com/eng/ .
Our hotel reservation for the night was around the cape itself, in the town of San José. The winds abated to breezes, the temperatures rose, and the white village welcomed us. Our hotel was new, upscale, and upbeat. We settled in, and went to find lunch. The town was still in off-season mode (this will change drastically all across Spain next Thursday, when Semana Santa travel opens the tourist season), but we found a pleasant-looking small restaurant. Thus began a highlight of the whole trip.
The cook and the sole waiter are a sister and brother from Morocco who have been in Spain for eight years. They run, but do not own, the small pizza and pasta storefront restaurant. All this we found out as a result of asking the waiter what he would recommend that we eat, and then taking his suggestions. At the end of the lunch, we asked what pizza he would recommend if we came back for dinner, and after replying, he asked if we would like to come for a Moroccan couscous dinner, his sister's specialty (and not on the menu). How could we not? So, after wandering the village and having a rest, we returned to a feast that evening. The couscous was delicious, basically a veal-and-vegetable stew over the grain, which had been cooked in a broth, but the best part was the pleasure that the whole affair clearly gave to the brother and sister. As I write this, I realize that we never even learned their names, but it was an occasion that we will never forget.
So: finally, good weather, lots of sunshine and blue sky. Friday morning we headed out toward Cartagena, with a brief stop in the picturesque town of Nijar, on the mountains inland from the Cabo. Pictures to follow.
