El Puerto de Santa María is across The Bay of Cádiz from the city of Cádiz. We took the ferry over on a Sunday. It reminded us of our ferry trip from San Francisco to Sausalito when we visited Christine. We enjoyed the 30 minute ride to Santa María, admiring sailboats on the blue water. After docking, we headed for the historic center, which is typically where the action is in small Spanish towns.
It wasn’t hard to spot the castle; high ground, thick walls, towers… and just outside of the walls; a café. Time for a coffee and croissant! I love to drink coffee in the sunshine surrounded by centuries of history.
The city of Cádiz is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, Moors (North African Muslims), and Christians are all part of the story. The Arab occupation from the 700’s AD until the final Reconquest in 1492 is responsible for much of the architecture and beauty of this region.
Cádiz province claims a number of “Columbus ” connections, some true, some legends. Columbus himself spent two years at The Castle San Marcos, while arranging funding for his second voyage. The voyage did not leave from Santa María, and apparently it’s just coincidence that it shares a name with one of his ships.
After finishing our coffee, we walked around to the front of the castle, where we paid a small entrance fee to tour the grounds. We had the castle pretty much to ourselves and only encountered a few other guests. The castle rooms and grounds are immaculately kept, and we enjoyed our visit. It was especially fun to discover the sherry bodega and its barrels of “Castillo” sherry.
From the castle we walked through town in search of lunch. Santa María is fairly spread out. We seemed to be in the Osborne Sherry warehouse section and everything was closed up on Sunday. We found the bullring, an impressive structure, but there was nothing happening there. Lunch options were quite limited, a situation we have seldom encountered in Spain. Not to worry, we haven’t gone hungry yet.
Having exhausted the highlights of town, we headed back to the port to wait for our return ferry. Here we found a nice waterfront place to enjoy a beverage, along with most of the town’s residents. The rest of them may have gone to Cádiz for the day, as there was a large crowd getting off the ferry when it pulled into port.
Adventures In The South of Spain 
Hi Geri, I just wanted you to know that I received my first South of Spain post and it looked great. Beautiful photography. It looks like you are having a wonderful time. Enjoy, Chris
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