Hello again friends. In our previous post we continued exploring the magnificent city of Cartagena. The city managed to transform its long history into very accessible tourist attractions, combined with good shopping, excellent restaurants and friendly people. It was however time to move further West again.
On Monday morning Nov 27, at the crack of dawn we weigh anchor to cross the Mar Menor to the East to be on time for the 10.00 am opening of the bridge. If we miss it, we have to wait until 04.00 pm for the next possibility to get out of the lagoon. The friendly fisherman waved when he passed, probably surprised that we were already awake.
There was a strong incoming tide. Although the tidal differences in the Med are small, the fact that the lagoon is huge and the entrance channel is narrow, makes for a lot of water rushing in. We had three knots against us and Frits was on edge when we crossed the narrowest part, just under the bridge.
Soon we found ourselves in the Mediterranean, or the Mar Major as they say here. The mini sky-scrapers in the background are build on La Manga, the narrow band of land separating the lagoon from the Med. We had 120 miles to go to Roquetas de Mar, so it would be a loooong day.
At 11.00 am we rounded Cabo de Palos, with its prominent 81m height lighthouse. Still 110 miles to go, about another 15 hours. The trip went well until we rounded Cabo da Gata. The final miles, crossing the Golfo de Almeria to Roquetas de Mar was a rough ride. Bashing into 20 knots of wind and against 1.5 knots of current.
It must have been 2 or 3 hours past midnight when we dropped anchor just outside the fishing port of Roquetas de Mar. The whitish area’s West of Roquetas and East of Almeria are greenhouses. All along the coast you see huge area’s with plastic covered greenhouses, providing employ to immigrants from North Africa.
Our floating home TWO B tucked away under the breakwater of the fishing port. We were not allowed to dock our dinghy in the small marina inside the port so we went to the fishing boat area where we found a small rickety floating dock where we could safely park our dinghy. The photo is taken while standing on the Northern wall of Castillo de Santa Ana. You can click the thumbnails below for a larger photo of this beautifully restored castle.
Some sort of fortification was built on the site of the castle at the time that the Arab Nasrid dynasty ruled the emirate of Granada from 1232 to 1492. After the reconquista of Andalusia by the Christian Monarchs the Castle was built, to protect the port against pirates or regular Berber fleets under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire.
The original name, “Castillo de las Roquetas” refers to the rocks and boulders upon which waves broke at the foot of the castle. It eventually became the name of the town.
Inside the castle a few “pensionistas” were building a huge Christmas village or Christmas diorama. Impressive! A miniature castle to the right.
The cute lighthouse next to the castle served once as the home of the lighthouse keeper. Thereafter as home to the head of the port area, and now it is an exhibition hall. At the time of our visit there was a display of nautical documents from the middle ages. We found a few charts made by Dutch seafarers. We have indicated Roquetas with a purple star on the charts.
Willem Barents is taught in Dutch history class and the best known cartographer. He went on three expeditions North in search of a North-East passage to India. In doing so he discovered Spitsbergen and Bear island. He died on Novaya Zemlya on the return voyage of the third expedition. The Barents Sea, North of Norway, is named after him.
Sponsored by prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapping the coasts of Africa and Asia. At the time the Dutch Jan Huygen van Linschoten spent six years (1583–89) in India as the bookkeeper to the archbishop of Goa. Because of his confident position he had access to the fiercely guarded maritime knowledge of the Portuguese. He started copying the charts and rutters (mariner’s handbook of written sailing directions) and took the knowledge back to Amsterdam where he published the “Reys-gheschrift” (old Dutch for travel script). The first Dutch fleet sent to Asia followed the route from his book. The V.O.C (Dutch East India Company) would eventually become the most valuable company ever, and Amsterdam would become the center of Cartography in Europe. The Dutch Gerardus Mercator is renowned for creating the 1569 world map based on a new projection which represented sailing courses of constant bearing (rhumb lines) as straight lines—an innovation that is still employed in nautical charts and websites today.
We went for a sandwich and coffee at Plaza 5 Café, opposite the church.
As the Berber threat slowly receded over the course of the eighteenth century, a small agricultural, fishing, and salt-mining community was born. The place of worship for inhabitants of Roquetas at that time was the chapel of the Castle. The church was built around 1750. Since 1797, the church has had as its patron saint the Virgin of the Rosary.
After finishing our lunch we went to the outskirts of the town to a real and intact bullring.
The Plaza de Toro was inaugurated in 2002 and it hosts both bullfights (only once per year during the festivities in honour of Santa Ana) and music concerts. There is a small Museo de Taurino as well.
Let’s face it; the odds for a matador (bullfighter) to come out victorious against a healthy 500+kg Spanish fighting bull are slim, but the matador has a few tricks up his sleeve……..
Trick number one; the picador. Ideally the matador positions the bull close to the centre of the ring facing the picador and encourages the bull to attack the horse. While the bull is charging into the horse, the picador attempts to withstand the charge by placing his vara (spear) into the morrillo (the bull’s large shoulder muscle). The metal part of the spear should enter once and then held in place without being removed or jabbed. If the picador succeeds, the bull will lower his head and horns during the rest of the fight, becoming less dangerous. The matador commands the picador how many times he has to stab the bull, but no more than three times. In between the different stabs the matador lures the bull back towards the center of the arena in order to perform cape passes, to assess the effect of the jab(s).
Trick number two: the banderillas (barbed darts decorated with colourful ribbons). When the bulls aggression decreases it is time to reinvigorate the animal by placing four banderillas in its nek. Two banderilleros, carrying a banderilla in each hand, run towards the charging bull and place the banderillas in its neck. Each banderillero has maximum three attempts. These banderillas are not supposed to weaken the bull but rather to provoke the bull to attack again.
The kill. The matador takes a position below the president’s box and, holding his montera (hat) with his right hand, folded muleta (cape) and sword in the left, formally requesting permission to dedicate the bull to some person or friend, to whom the montera is tossed.
During a bullfight, bugels are sounded to give signals to the picadors, banderilleros and the matador. As soon as the bugle sounds to signal the beginning of the tercio de muerte, the matador has ten minutes to carry out his performance. If he doesn’t kill the bull within this time frame, a warning will sound granting him a further three minutes to finish the performance before a second time warning. He has two more minutes, but after the third warning, the matador must withdraw and the bull is leaving the ring alive, which seldom happens.
Frits has been to a Spanish bullfight in 1987. No judgement since it is not his culture, but he has no desire to attend again. It is too unfair for the bull.
Both of us did however attend a bullfight in Fujairah, Oman in March 2010. Click on images below for larger view.
This was fun to attend. Bull against bull. The loosing bull gets either toppled or runs off. No blood and nobody gets hurt except the pride of the owner of the loosing bull.
Wittnessing a mariage ceremonie at the “Catedral de Almeria” when walking from Casa Sevilla to the Alcazaba.
Ramon de Campoamor was a Spanish poet known for his romantic poetry. On the statue it says; “It is proper to love, if it is true, to summarise in one being the whole world”.
Campoamor also translates as “field of love”. Couples hang a padlock to the railing asking for eternal love.
Construction of the Alcazaba, the word coming from the Arabic “Al Kasbah”, meaning fortified city, started in 955 when the Umayyad dynasty was still in power. The lowest enclosure, pictured above, corresponds to the first Muslim military camp, used as shelter for the population in case of siege. For this task it was provided with large cisterns.
Liza standing inside the first enclosure. The first enclosure is separated from the second one by the so-called Muro de la Vela (“Wall of the Watch”), taking its name from a bell, pictured in the background, that warned the population in case of events such as the arrival of a ship in the port, danger, fires etc. This wall was built by King Charles III of Spain.
Roquetas de Mar was a place according to our liking. The anchorage was safe, the town was quiet, the mall was busy and interesting things to see only a bus-ride away. But we live on a boat to keep moving so tomorrow it is anchor up and go West, but that is for another blog.
Thank you for reading and liking our travel stories. Liza and Frits.