Cabo De Gata

True to form we haven't posted for months, so here come a bunch of posts showing what we've been up to! Better late than never, right?

In February we left Granada for the province of Almeria, to Cabo de Gata Natural Park. Cabo de Gata is truly a special place.  The largest volcanic rock formation in Spain, it is made up of  mountainous desert that meets the Mediterranean Sea.

The beaches are made up of black volcanic rock. In the waters surrounding the area are extensive forests of posidonia oceania, a type of kelp. This stuff washes ashore and carpets the beaches in some areas. 

Intense winds forced us to cancel our planned hikes on the southern coast and head northwest to the town of Las Negras. From there we hiked to Cala San Pedro, a fantastic little cove with the ruins of a castle that sits above a little hippie community.

Many of the houses were partially built into the hills, and were complete with solar panels and windmills. A spring to the cove also meant that there were many "huertos" or vegetable gardens. There was even a banana tree!

Back in Las Negras we celebrated Valentines Day.  We found a nice cave above the sea where we hung out, drank margaritas, and lit a fire when the sun went down. 

We were camping in the car due to the intense winds, and we parked for the night on a hill overlooking the sea. We woke up to an amazing sunrise. 

 Since it was too cold to swim and too windy to lounge on the beach, we set out on a few hikes to different beaches. From Las Negras we started on the trail to El Torre de los Alumbres at El Playazo beach.We met an adorable litter of puppies along the way. 

There were many cormorants sunning themselves on the cliffs. From far away they look like baby dragons!

After spending some time exploring El Playazo we hiked back to the car and drove to Genoveses beach. To get the beach it was only a short walk along a path through a forest of agave plants. From Genoveses we spent the rest of the day walking along the many trails to other little beaches and coves.