Today in Mazagón

I had an inspiring day in a little seaside Andalusian town called Mazagón. Two friends and I who didn't have to work the first half of the day wanted to make a little excursion. It's about a forty minute bus ride from Huelva.

Upon arrival we tried our best to locate the tourism office, which due to nonsensical Spanish signs it took us a good few minutes even though we were standing right in front of it. We were given a map and some information. The map showed the center and there were 5 sights noted on the map as things to check out in Mazagón. The first was the faro (lighthouse) but it was small, plain and underwelming. The second was a military barracks. We had some trouble finding it because actually all it turned out to be was a cement block covered in graffiti in the middle of an abandoned, semi-wooded lot. A homeless person or two had obviously claimed it as theirs. The third "site" we went to visit was a house built along the beach some ways away from the center. It's over 100 years old (quite young in the European sense of old) but it was fenced in and locked up. So really, not much to see. The cultural highlights of the town were pretty bleak...however, I did start this post off by saying I had an inspiring day in Mazagón so I should get to that part of the story.

The best part of the day was the long walk we took along the beaches to the right of the town to get to the house. These beaches were almost completely deserted. Some rough chaparral flower bushes dotted the beach close to the coast line and there were a lot of cool sea shells that had been stuck and cemented together in layers with other shells over time. They looked like little sculptures. I took a few. My favorite thing about the port and the beaches was all of the old boats. They were scattered about turned over and tied up haphazardly about the beach, their paint faded and chains and anchors rusted. Some were clearly abandoned as they were moss-covered old wooden boats rotting away and filled with sand. These made for some great photographic material. There was also other nautical junk like splitting ropes and lonely buoys scattered around. The whole scene had a grungy, old-rustic nautical feel that I love.