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Travel Stories
>> Spain >> El Puerto de Santa Maria
I had to be in the right frame of mind to write about the Puerto de Santa Maria - a little coastal town that has been our home for the last four+ months. Some days it is the loveliest charming little town in all of Spain, and some days it is one screaming moped after another and doggie doo on the sidewalks at every four steps. What makes the Puerto (as it is called) a lovely little town are the beaches - and the foods. The tourist brochures wax elegant on the serious nature of the flamenco romances - a certain style of music (they do admittedly flourish in the area) and the age and importance of Puerto's bullring and bullfighting history. These are pieces of the Puerto that we haven't experienced - in large part because they are spring, summer, and early fall activities and we are experiencing the Puerto in November-February. Located in the northeast corner of the Cadiz province on the outlet of the Guadalete River, the Puerto de Santa Maria has a history that is rich as a result of its location - Columbus' "Santa Maria" sailed from this port, and along the river side - the nicest section of a sweet little down-town area, are the remains of the old boatyards and port (launching and disembarking areas) for the old Spanish explorers' galleons. The Puerto's "tourist" sites include a 13th century castle (of San Marcos), the famous bullring, a 13th c. gothic church, "La Iglesia Mayor Prioral", and a number of old palaces and colonial stately homes. Although Jerez, a twenty minute drive in-land, houses numerous sherry bodegas, the Puerto is the stepping-off point for all the sherry exports. In addition, the Puerto is home to a number of famous bodegas. Osborne, Caballero, and Terry are three of note. The Osborne family (Osborne built the famous "Toro", click on: http://www.osborne.es/eltoro/eltoro.htm ). As a result of the bodegas, a walk around the Puerto on a warm, sunny day, regardless of the temperature, is a pleasure since the sidewalks cosy right up to the bodega walls, and the smell of the fermenting sherries wafts through the tiny windows and the doors. All of the bodegas give tours, and although I have written about the tour we took of the Harvey's bodega in Jerez, we were fortunate enough to have a special tour arranged by our dear friends at Casa Paco at the Osborne bodegas. In the family for six generations now, we met one of the sixth tier, a nice young man named Mauricio Osborne. The tour of the Osborne bodegas was much shorter and less informative than the Harvey's tour, but the reception we were given after the tour was spectacular. Because we were guests of the Osborne family (!) we lounged in the private reception/bar after the tour and were introduced to all the sherries by a group of new friends who told us a great deal about the sherries, the history of the Osborne family in the Puerto (the founder of the bodega was instrumental in the construction and promotion of the famous bullring here), and some of the current day activities of the Osborne companies. The bullring, ranked third in Spain after Madrid's and Valencia's is a favorite of not only the afficionados, but the bullfighters as well. The famous "Joselito" is said to have told a newspaper reporter, "he who has not seen a bullfight in El Puerto does not know what an afternoon of bullfighting is." With capacity for 15,000 fans, the Puerto bullring celebrated its one-hundreth anniversary in 1998. There are really only a couple of beaches in the Puerto - the one closest to town (and us) is called the Playa Puntilla. The sand is fine and golden, and the shell-picking is extraordinary! Puerto Sherry, just up the beach from the Puerto, is a modern marina, built in the late 1980s during a real estate boom. There are a couple of restaurants, and the marina houses some fine boats but the Puerto Sherry complex is less than a third occupied so the ghost-town feel to it contributes to its lack of character. Just up the beach from Puerto Sherry is the upscale single family homes neighborhood of "Vistahermosa". This is where the beaches are the finest and the average American tourist would whisper to a spouse - we should buy something here. Across the Gaudalete River in the direction of Cadiz is the huge concrete community of "Valdelagrana". A monstrous series of neighborhoods of 10-20 story whitewashed apartments, Valdelagrana's beach is very long and, we are told, is packed from June through September when the hoards of mostly Spanish tourists spend a few weeks tanning their bodies and feeding their souls with the Puerto's fine seafood. If there is no other reason to visit El Puerto de Santa Maria - you must come for the food. like every region of Spain, the coast has its specialities. Even a tourist who was not keen about fish would likely become a fan in this town. The most famous of the restaurants is a hideous outdoor cafe along the main strip, called "El Romerijo". The consumers first walk along the lovely display cases with every possible shellfish and marine fish and choose what they want by the kilo. The request is fried and brought out to the asker's table. The only real gripe I have about this restaurant is that ALL of their products are frozen. The fish are brought off the boats down the coast to the freezer plants and quick frozen for both supermarket and the restaurant market. There are scores of places to eat FRESH fried (and other) fish and exquisite shellfish in the Puerto. One of the finest by far is a restaurant/bar, oddly enough, located right next to the Romerijo on the Ribera del Marisco. CASA PACO was established in the 1940s and is now in the hands of two brothers (Baldomero and Ignacio). These two men and their wives do all the cooking and serving. Ask for a surtido (assortment) of fried fish and you will never eat anywhere else again. Ignacio tells a story about a US Navy Captain from the Rota Base up the coast who used to arrange to come in early in the morning the day he left for the States to pick up fresh fried fish to take home that very day to his father and other family members. Below I have listed some of the finest restaurants and bars in the Puerto. Probably the best way to eat is to head downtown and "tapear" (to go from bar to bar and have a small drink and a tapa in each bar). Just like the eskimos have hundreds of words for "snow", the Portenses (people of the Puerto) have many words for the shellfish and fish dishes and specialities here on the coast. Some of the foods you might not find easily in a dictionary include: Puntillitas (tiny whole squid, fried), acedias (small flounder-like fish), navajitos (razor clams), pulpo (octopus), tortillitas de camarones (a funnelcake-looking mass of very tiny shrimplike fish), salmonetes (like the name, little salmonlike fish), choco (chunks of large squid, fried), bienmesabe (chunks of monkfish), lenguaje de estero (salt marsh flounder), langostinos (jumbo shrimp), gambas (little shrimp - gambas al ajillo, boiled in garlic olive oil), cigalas (like larger prawns), cangrejo (crab, meat, legs and claws), percebes (barnacles), bogavantes (lobster), and many shellfish without translation: galeras, canaillas, necoras, and bigaros. The people who know shellfish will tell you that the ONLY way to eat shellfish is from fresh to cooked to the plate. It is thought to be a sin to peel and cook shrimp, for example, and then refrigerate it for later eating. As I mentioned earlier - no portense eats at a place like Romerijo unless he has to. There are non-seafood dishes that are specialties of the region as well. Pepe at the Bar Betis makes something called "menudo", a tripe and garbanzo bean stew. Pepe also makes a "carne mechado" - pork loin that has been marinaded, browned, roasted then served cool in thick slices with bread. At the Bar Jamon, the boys in the kitchen make a ham topped garlic toast (pan de la casa con jamon) to die for. At the Pato Mareado (the dizzy duck) they serve little mini beef fillets (1" rounds) over homemade french fries and fried onions called a tapa of "solomillo". And the list goes on. Mid-day and pre-cena tapas should always be accompanied by a chilled fino or manzanilla (particularly good with the saltwater fish), or if your tastes are sweeter - by an oloroso, a pale cream sherry (like San Domingo), or my personal favorite, "10-RF". Made only by Osborne, 10-RF falls between the olorosos and the creams - not too bitter, not too sweet. Regardless of where or when you eat, someone will smile and raise their glass to you and say "Que aproveche" (bon apetit, or translated exactly, "that you should enjoy/take advantage"). Only one month to live? My only advice is to come eat in the Puerto.
TAPAS BARS Along a side street called Calle Misericordia, just off the river edge, the following bars should not be missed: Bar "El Beti" or Bar Betis (ask
for Pepe)
RESTAURANTS CASA PACO (Ask for Baldo or Ignacio, Ana
and Tati cook the exquisite tapas and fried fish)
Want to hop the boat across the bay to Cadiz? Take the "Adriano III" (locally more affectionately known as the "Vapor"... 250pts. Right on the riverside in the center of downtown - it will drop you at a good central location at the harbor in Cadiz.. From the Puerto at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3:30pm, and from Cadiz at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 6:30pm.
Need to rent a car in the Puerto - Try AVIS! On the Calle Sol, 4 tel: 956.856.110, ask for Maria.
Our home away from home... La Arboleda: 100 meters from the Playa Puntilla (the "Little Point Beach"), surrounded by pine woods, five minutes from our cibercafeteria (Cafeteria "Esmirub"), ten minutes walk from the Supersol supermarket, twenty minute walk to Puerto Sherry. Their motto? "We make your life a permanent vacation" - furnished attics, apartments, and bungalows. Telephone and electricity not included: (135pts = $1)
However the prices for winter monthly rentals dipped quite low when you signed up for more than one month, and we paid 55k/mo. for the expensive attic, and then 50k/mo. for the bungalow on the ground floor.
Copyright © 1998 by Rachel Peterson |
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