You go to explore the town while your friend prefers to take a hot bath in the hotel. A narrow street, the Mediterranean always peeping at the end and palm trees pointing to the sky. Two hours later, your friend calls you to meet you at the accommodation, check Google Maps, 800 meters, this is right next door. However, on the way back I find a farm in the heart of the town and, by the time I want to cross, I realize that a sea of ??avocado trees separates us that I must skirt -if I can- to reach my destination.
Located 76 km south of the city of Granada, Almuñécar was an old and prosperous port during the Al Ándalus period thanks to its good fishing and all kinds of fruits and cereals. Centuries later, the location of the valley between the Seco and Verde rivers, the caresses of a sun that here is somewhat more Caribbean, and agricultural activity have turned the Costa Tropical into a slice of paradise trapped between the mountains and the Mediterranean. A set of grooves, history and gastronomy that begins in Almuñécar, a summer town and kilometer zero to discover the charm of the sensual coast of the province of Granada.
That mango tree confuses you, but the enormous bougainvillea confirms that you are in a Mediterranean town. And around you, the whitewashed white that expands everywhere. Souvenir shops displaying a bull’s head made from esparto grass, and the Sierra de la Almijara, looming in the distance, overflowing with cultivated terraces. Someone eats an ice cream, the sea breeze guides you through the old town and you reach one of those beaches that takes us back to childhood summers. Almuñécar has much of the typical summer town but also an identity of both green and exoticism.
It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC. and occupied by the Romans in its period of greatest splendor thanks, in part, to its valued location. The same resource that made her the “spoiled girl” of the taifa of Granada, since during the Nasrid period it was a summer resort for different members of royalty. And it is that Almuñécar disguises itself as sun and beach but in its heart it houses museums, sites and a brand new castle to discover calmly, like the best flâneur.
A good example is found in the Najarra mansion, a building in pink tones that also serves as a tourist office. A neo-Arabic style construction inspired by the typical riads that is a feast of exuberant gardens, enigmatic arches and tiled walkways. We change oasis, but not municipality, when you enter the nearby El Majuelo botanical park, an event area that stands out for its collection of tropical plants from around the world and the site of the old salted fish factory from Phoenician and Roman times . A labyrinth of secrets that reveals the activity of the Mediterranean empires in their maritime conquests and whose panorama licking the walls of the castle of San Miguel gives a delicious picture.
The Arab fortress is located on top of the San Miguel hill, once the lookout point of the area whose structure was already enabled by the first settlers. The Arab castle still preserves its brand new moat and the towers of different silhouettes topped with battlements. The journey back in time continues through the neighborhood of the Castle, a winding set of narrow streets where there is no shortage of walls with a thousand geraniums, the breath of the sea and tourist shops interspersed with traditional portals, like that neighbor sitting in the cool.
Almuñécar contains many historical and cultural charms, but when it comes to its beaches, the Costa Tropical does not disappoint. The point of reference is the set of the Peñones de San Cristóbal. A large white cross crowns this steep viewpoint formed by three large rocks: the Fuera rock (the furthest into the sea, of course), the Enmedio rock and the Santo rock, which separates the beaches of Puerta del Mar and the from San Cristóbal, the two main ones from Almuñécar.
Both beaches are made of volcanic sand and extend far and wide, dotted with palm trees, a most enjoyable blue and the promise of other nearby paradises. One of them is Cantarriján beach, in the district of La Herradura (6 kilometers away) and nestled in the Acantilados de Maro-Cerro Gordo natural park that caresses the town of Nerja, now in Malaga territory. Surrounded by coarse tapestries of pine trees, terraces of fruit trees and distant hills dotted with housing developments, Cantarriján is a nudist beach, ideal for taking off your sarong but also controlling your desire for the sea, since the currents in this cove are usually quite intense.
From this visit, anything can happen on the sexiest coast of Andalusia: you can go in search of the Maro waterfall and discover this unique “Thailand castiza”, let yourself be seduced by a tasting of native rum – Montero rum from cane sugar is made in Motril and is quite an institution -, or continue hopping from beach to beach to other municipalities like Salobreña. There are 75 kilometers of coastline where life is enjoyed among new tropics in which fortresses and castles appear, the farm that is confused with a Costa Rican hacienda and a town of Almuñécar where avocado trees turn vacations into an exuberant gymkhana.
