One of the virtues of Cabo de Gata is that you never know where that eroded road may take you. It is the mystery that still beats in this land of stones and lizards, of white houses and cosmic landscapes that confirm that we are not on the moon but almost. On the way we found an old mill, asphalt and gravel, so many beaches. Until you turn the last curve and there, like a distant cotton in the middle of the desert, it shines the little town of Agua Amarga.
franked by Cala de En Medio and the iconic Playa de los Muertos, the old town of Al-hawan is the best Eden where to anchor this summer. Here the limestone houses house boutiques embraced by bougainvillea, in its square there are children who still play ball and among its cliffs breathe the ambition of former miners.
Bitter Water, Almeria.
SEE YOU ON ENSENADA STREET
The fishermen knew it and also the Barbary pirates. Bitter water It was always the perfect anchorage for the Nasrids on a coast too rocky and perfect refuge where life and its riots flourished. The fortress projects in this small town were in the spotlight for decades, but history has turned Agua Amarga into a friendly place , so oblivious to the hostilities of the past.
Whether you come from Carboneras or by the secondary road that starts from the village of Fernán Pérez, all preamble begins on Ensenada street . A direct shortcut to the sea through typical lime-painted houses that, as they caress the Mediterranean, are dressed in blue windows and doors. The landscape integration of Agua Amarga is one of its great achievements, and the feeling of embracing an eternal summer is more latent as we go along: there's a German expat whose garden sports sarongs and linen garments, air conditioners eroded by saltpeter and a restaurant with marine aromas.
Sunset from Asador La Chumbera, Agua Amarga.
And it is that in Agua Amarga the secrets of a cuisine as local as it is universal are unfolded: the tapas between blue chairs of La Plaza , the “typical” bar of the town; the trays of rooster pedro and octopus in AguaAmarga 3 ; or the charm of La Prickly Pear Grill , whose secluded location on the road to Playa de los Muertos shines like its Michelin star.
The center of Agua Amarga twists but always offers a view of the sea, its colorful boats and the charm of a beach that is sometimes sepia-colored, like nostalgia, like all those childhood summers. And there, at one end of the urban creek The port from which ancient ships sailed loaded with minerals from the Lucainena de las Torres area is still recognised. , connected to Agua Amarga through an old railway line.
A float, the shadow of a cactus projected in an eternal white, open air rice dishes and a look at the gorges. Between Agua Amarga and Jerusalem an almost invisible dotted line runs through its thousand-year-old olive tree, a specimen that has been growing on the Rambla de los Viruega for 2000 years, mark that exceeds that of the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane, in Jerusalem.
Lead Cove, Bitter Water.
We don't know when we went from the beach to the mountains, from the white houses to the boulevards, but in Agua Amarga, as in many corners of Cabo de Gata, the line between urbanism and nature blurs and it's easy to fall on the other side.
NATURIST BLUE
Blue is always bluer in the desert, and the summer reward is enjoyed in Agua Amarga like few other places on our coast. On the way to town never disappoints a detour towards the coves of El Plomo or that of In Medio, whose presence betrays the first caravans, dogs in the sun and a nudist distribution that is always more evident in Cabo de Gata. It is the DNA of a land where it's easier feel free.
Beach of the Dead, Almeria.
From the coves that precede Agua Amarga, we jump to the giant of the seas of the red prawn and the lorito: the Beach of the Dead , an icon of the Almeria coast whose name is due to the ancient currents that claimed the lives of so many sailors. Located in the term of Carboneras, that of the Dead is a wild sandbank to which two paths lead, with that steep slope that today evokes the sigh of ancient pirates, sailors and mermaids.
From Agua Amarga an adventure begins, a journey that confirms why we always like to return to the land that Indiana Jones or John Lennon fell in love with: from the charm of other little towns like Black ones, the Isleta del Moro or San José, to the caving days in the Cueva de Sorbas , the corals among which a starfish shines in El Playazo de Rodalquilar, or viewpoints that make us doubt if we continue here. Because Cabo de Gata it's not the moon but almost: here you always feel like the first person to arrive.