Un fin de semana en La Costa de la Luz (A Weekend in "The Light Coast")

This past weekend was my and Liliana's getaway weekend. We set aside this weekend awhile ago (in between our two birthdays, plus we just wanted to take another vacation together). We hit up Andalucian nature, and we hit it hard. We went to La Costa de la Luz, which is a beautiful stretch of land between Cadiz, a city on Spain's southwestern tip, and Tarifa, a small town on the southernmost tip of Spain (on the bit of land that forms the Strait of Gibraltar). That strip of coast in between the two cities is called La Costa de la Luz and has several little whitewashed towns, parks, and wonderful, wonderful beaches.

Liliana and I stayed in Zahora, which is a little town (VERY little town) next to Caños de Meca, a slightly bigger town (pop 300), and a bus ride away from Conil de la Frontera, a much bigger town (22,000), and also the place where the bus to and from Sevilla stops. So, to get to our vacation hideaway, we had to take a bus to Conil, then another little bus over to Zahora (incidentally, we got off at the wrong stop, Caños de Meca, and had to walk 30min on the highway). Getting back to Conil to get the bus back to Sevilla on Sunday was tricky because there was no bus from Zahora to Conil and no taxis to be seen... after some aggressive phone-calling, though, and a lot of patience, we were zipping along the road over to Conil! So, moral of the story: Liliana and I wanted a rural, nature-y, cheap, pretty place to go to. We definitely got that. The only problem was that navigating a place like that, we found, can be really hard without a car. Public transport does not cater so well to the little hideaway spots. But, that's ok, we managed.

Friday, once we finally found our hostel (randomly on the side of the road, as much of the towns were because they are so small, and therefore hard to find) and got settled, we had a problem. Apparently the hostel only took cash. Ok. So we asked where there was an ATM. The only ATM within 25km was the brand that, for whatever reason, does not take our money cards. Great. We had enough cash to pay for the hostel, but not enough for food. It felt weird to be stranded without enough money, but we made do, and in the end it didn't matter, anyway. We bought groceries everyday for breakfast and lunch, and made sure to go to the supermarket that took credit cards. Then for dinner, we just ate where credit cards were taken (which, as it was a tiny place, was not everywhere). It ended up fine, but lesson learned: always travel with a lot of cash, especially if you are going to a smaller place! Anyway, the first evening we went out to the beach to watch the sunset. After a pit stop at the hostel (really more of a cheaper hotel) to add layers, we went outside to look at the stars. They were beautiful and bright, like you can only see when you're deep in the countryside. The only light disrupting our view was the light from the light house...

Me outside of our hostel. It was a fabulous deal and a very pretty hostel, but not right on the beach. That's ok, though--the walk out to the beach was BEAUTIFUL, filled with little houses and vegetable gardens and fields of flowers and horses grazing.

Saturday was our big hiking day. We walked about 20km total. From our hostel, we walked out to the beach, then along the beach. We got to a lighthouse on the coast, explored it, and kept walking. We walked through more beaches, got to various little towns, and cut through Caños de Meca to enter a Natural Park we had been wanting to go to. We ended up hiking through the park (which was a sand-duney cliff) to a 17th century tower, left over from Turkish Pirate times, apparently, and were faced with incredible views. We then did the whole walk back, getting to the beach closest to our hostel, Playa de Zahora, just in time for sunset. Then we went out for dinner. A perfect day.

Me at the start of Saturday. The beach was easily one of the most beautiful I've been to, if not the most beautiful. Scenic, natural, and not many people. Also, the area where we were apparently attracts a hippie crowd, which was an added bonus. (Note: the area is known for nudist beaches, and we definitely came across a few. Not just the typical topless women that European beaches have. I'm talking fully naked people, just chillin. Or swimming. Or walking. Or whatever.)

Once we got to the light house, there were boardwalks down from it to other deserted beaches.

On the boardwalk that wraps around the light house. This is the overlook of the first strip of beach we walked, which includes Zahora and Caños de Meca.

Like I said, hippie place. They don't just recycle -- they recycle artistically, and in style!

After a lot more walking, we found the entrance to the park we had wanted to hike in! This is me being excited. Beautiful trees to one side, the beautiful ocean to the other, and a sand dune hike ahead of me up a cliff! Excellent!

The destination of our Saturday walk. Pretty awful, huh? (That tower is the one from the 17th century!)

Me, bag, and view.

On our walk back we decided to go through the dunes a bit more inland than walk out on the beach itself. That's the light house in the background.

This picture is just to show you how far we walked... that is the cliff in the background that we climbed up! Next to it you can see Caños de Meca in the distance. (This picture is from on the way back.)

Approaching our home beach area once again. My footprints and Liliana's footprints. And light house!

Beginning of sunset. You can tell by the lighting.

Back at our beach after a long day's walk!

Sunday, after the hassle of getting to Conil de la Frontera so that we could catch our bus back to Sevilla later in the day, we walked through the town and went down to the beach for a few hours. The town was gorgeous -- Cadiz province is known for its whitewashed houses, and this bigger town was no exception. Caños de Meca was all whitewashed, too, but since Conil is so much bigger, I guess it was more impressive. Also, there was a cute old downtown area, whereas Caños de Meca was really just a street. Anyway, Conil was quite cute, and we enjoyed the walk and the beach before heading back to Sevilla in the eve.

A random corner in Conil de la Frontera.

Kitesurfers. I loved the colors.

A view of the pueblo (ok, a big pueblo) from the beach.

And so sums up a weekend in Cadiz province among whitewashed villages and nature. It was hard to decide which pictures to put up -- I have a lot, and a lot of good ones, too, if I do say so myself, but hopefully this gave you a taste of my weekend. It felt fantastic to get outside of Sevilla for a bit and to be in such stunning scenery. That said, it also just made me wish I could tour Spain with a car that much more. There are so many nooks and crannies of this country that I am dying to see, but it's just hard to do sans car. It's an unfortunate truth. Or an inconvenient truth.. but then maybe we'd get into copyright issues.

This weekend brought up a lot of thoughts about Sevilla, about this year, about experiences, about leaving. But I think I'll leave that for the next entry, as this one has been centered around my weekend vacation, which was quite nice. But for every place I see in Spain, there are 3 more places I want to go... that's what happens when you learn things about places and cities. In place X they mention place Y, and you love place X so you want to go to place Y. And so it goes.

Ok, now I am stopping so as not to spoil the next entry. :P