Canos de Meca - A reunion with Team Gustav

Our next stop on our exploration of Spain was a little place called Canos de Meca. Leading up to our arrival in Canos de Meca we had been looking forward to it quite a bit. The main reason for this being that we would be meeting up with some old friends of ours that we had met whilst travelling around Morocco. We wanted to surprise them, so we did not let them know that we were coming to visit them.

El Alquimista Loco from the outside

We arrived in Canos de Meca in the late afternoon/early evening, and we went straight to their bar, which they named, El Alquimista Loco (The Crazy Alchemist). When we entered the bar we found a seat and sat down. Bianca then came from the bar to take our orders thinking we were another couple of customers and was very surprised to see us. After saying hello and hugs all round, we had a couple of beers and some food and had a brief chat as she was very busy. This was all before Matteo arrived, as he had been in Sevilla for the day with his family who had come to visit them for a few days. When he arrived back from Sevilla and came into the bar, he was even more shocked to see us than Bianca and there were more hugs and kisses all around. We stayed at the bar some more to chat with them whenever they had a spare moment before retiring for an early night in the pension behind the bar, as we were very tired.

Bianca and Matteo working behind the bar

The next day we left our bags at the bar and went for a trek south of Canos de Meca along the top of the cliffs towards a place called Barbate. There were some truly stunning views along the way and we saw some lovely sandy beaches with clear blue waters which were deserted. (We were later told that during high season though these beaches are packed) . We kept trekking until we reached a tower on top of the cliff that overlooked the ocean, with again some lovely views. We then headed back and spent the evening at the bar until Matteo gave us a lift to their place to sleep for the night.

Stunning views over the cliffs

For our last day in Canos de Meca we went to a market that Bianca had told us about just out of town that had a lady who sold Moroccan bread. This we thought was too good an opportunity to pass up as we had loved the Moroccan bread a lot. At the market we bought some of the Moroccan bread, although we had to pay an outrageous price for it. Admittedly it was worth it after we had half of it for lunch!

Faro de Trafalgar

Our afternoon then consisted of a trip to the beach where we relaxed for a bit, and tried to go in water. Unfortunately the water was a tad on the cold side so we decided to just sit on the beach instead.  We also made a trip to the bar in the late afternoon as well to have a nice crepe and Moroccan mint tea to relive Morocco again. Once evening came around we went to visit the Faro de Trafalgar (lighthouse) to see the sunset. (An interesting fact here that not many people may know is that this is in fact the location where the battle of Trafalgar took place). After seeing the sunset we went back to the bar as they had a DJ that night and it was our last night so wanted to spend more time with Bianca and Matteo. It ended up being a nice night, but unfortunately we had to head to bed to get up early in the morning to leave.

Sunset on the beach

We hope that we will be able to see the pair of them again sometime, but until then we wish them all the best with their bar and hope business stays good. If anyone ever goes to Canos de Meca be sure to look their bar up!