The Vigo of Domingo Villar
The conversation of the professors is heard from outside. When he crossed the threshold of the wooden door the bustle stops. The Inspector Leo Caldas enter the eligius tavern Y Carlos makes conversation . He asks for something hot because it's cool outside. Carlos brings her some cuttlefish in their ink with a little rice. And since the day is cold and wet because we are in the Rías Baixas, the inspector asks if it was not a good idea to serve caldo gallego . And Carlos replies:
- And where do I put the stove?
And the inspector laughs.
Frequented by Lugrís, Laxeiro, Celso Emilio Ferreiro or Cunqueiro
There Leo Caldas is also its author. Because Sunday Villar He has spent years describing landscapes of his native Vigo and various places in the Rías Baixas to bring to life the police adventures of the inspector. The Eligio tavern exists , and its stone walls and bocoyes, with that characteristic smell of wine and wood; it's on the Aurora traverse, at number 4 , and until a few years ago he ran it Carlos Álvarez, Eligio's son-in-law . It is a tavern that was first a stable to keep animals and for which, from 1920, great artists such as Lugrís, Laxeiro, Celso Emilio Ferreiro or Cunqueiro passed through . And also Domingo, who promised his widow that Carlos would always live in his novels. He thus he would be immortal.
As Villar rightly states, in Galicia “everything is celebrated at the table”. Leo Caldas is a fictional character eat and sigh and drink white wine , and he has moments of downturn and looks out the window seeing the estuary and the rafts until the breeze wakes him up from a day that did not go as it should. Because cases are not solved like in CSI and in a land like Galicia the questions go with surnames sometimes and others, with metadata.
In the last ship , latest work by Domingo Villar, the fan - who are legion - is not surprised when the inspector asks about his father and he tells him that his mother is making cod because they have a visitor today, or chuckles, like any parishioner who knows What does it mean the breech , before the hilarious situations of his co-worker, Rafael Estévez, who is from Zaragoza and does not understand the humor of this part of the world.
Vello helmet from Vigo
The character walks through real places so we can walk with him . In the Port of Vigo it is easy to be surprised at night by the squawking of the seagulls or the Sandwich Terns as you walk near the Mercado da Pedra or the Co-Cathedral of Santa María . It is also easy to realize that the best way to enjoy the coast of Vigo is by looking at it from the other side of the estuary. “ From where the rafts look like a squadron of warships ”, as Villar explains. From where they report a disappearance. Where does the case start from? In the surroundings of the church of Tirán, in Moaña.
For Villar, all this is because, like his teachers Vazquez Montalbán and Andrea Camilleri, "every day of a life there is a time to eat, and it is better to make the characters enjoy than to make them suffer "he explains it. Detective Pepe Carvalho and Commissioner Montalbano they also did gastronomic stops in which the character gave himself a tribute amidst gruesome stories and unanswered questions. One of those tributes is given by Leo Caldas in the Marousia restaurant (Av. José Costa Alonso 96, Cangas), at the foot of the O'Con beach , which also exists and the rice with lobster It can be a good excuse to go visit it and see the estuary from its terrace.
In front of the beach, a good rice with lobster
In tiran a woman disappears -we promise not to disembowel- and the case is endless bumps for the inspector who does not hesitate to go anywhere that offers an answer. There we can play discover where is the blue house of Mónica Andrade or walk to the A Mona beach viewpoint . Another destination to investigate is to stroll through the Videira beach and take pictures of the birds like Walter Cope -which is a character and... up to here I can read- or stretch my legs on the Tiran pier. You can see the shipyards of Vigo in the distance, and the shellfish workers up close.
Other clues that can make you dream that you are investigating with Inspector Caldas is the Cristo das Boas Augas fountain, or Cova da Lontra . Those nooks and crannies that form the cave -they say- are connected to the Mount of Remedies . Legend has it that it is inhabited by an otter that tears the sailors' nets to eat the catch, or in which will-o'-the-wisps have been seen.
“When you spend so much time away from Galicia and come back like stepping on the sky, what would Sabina say in 'city fish' , I realize that for me it is not just another place”. Villar explains that one of those secret corners that does not appear in his novels is a little further, following the coastline towards the Punta Robaleira lighthouse, at Cape Home . There, at the end of the O Morrazo peninsula, between lighthouses, is Melide beach. Ahead are the Cíes. The best place to rest after a job well done.
Melide beach in Cangas