Spanish Motorcycle Diaries - Day 3. From San Jose via Cabo de Gata to Granada. (May 2017)

They say you have not seen Spain until you have seen Andalucía.  And once you do, you fall in love with her.

Today’s two highlights were not man-made, but had all the hallmarks of a ‘mano de dios’; unless, of course, you creed ascribes these to Darwin and the like, but I question whether geology and evolution would have sufficient aesthetic sense to have been able to create such natural places of beauty:  the Cabo de Gata national park in the SE corner of Spain, and the Alpujarras mountains, extending between the mighty Sierra Nevada (up to 3,500m high) and the coast between Almeria and Malaga.

Today was a day to feel small and humble in the face of all that natural beauty, so better for the pictures to speak for themselves. 

Words and meaning, a way to start understand a country and its people.  Sat all alone this morning on a beach called Playa Playazo.  The Spanish way to modulate a noun to denominate something large, something special.  Like Golazo (what a goal!), or Partidazo (what a game!). You get a sense that once one starts to develop an inkling what these linguistic nuances are about, you are starting to feel at home in a place. Magari, the Italians would say!

I had a morning coffee in a sleepy coastal village in the Cabo de Gata, called Las Negras, meant to be very hip and bohemian, but today sporting just a few stray dogs, an empty pebble beach along a half-moon bay, and a bunch of middle-aged motorcyclists including your’s truly enjoying the morning sun and a little boys’ banter.  When I asked some Harley-clad Madrilenos whether the best route to Granada was via the Alpujarra mountain range, they just replied:  Si, es leche.

Say no more.   You figure it out!

PS:  On a separate note, passed again along several motorways that were built recently, i.e. during the Spanish financial crisis, including between Almeria and Malaga (well-travelled and closing the southern loop around the coast), and up towards Granada; the latter a full three-lane highway winding through the mountains, don’t want to know what the cost per kilometer must have been for the public exchequer.  Also passed a fair share of closed-down cement plans, a familiar sight from Cataluña.  --  If you want to understand why Spain had such a deep crisis post-2007, you need to look at a narrow range of economic indicators to see how lop-sided, construction- and development-focused this economy had become, fueled by excess credit: 

1.       Construction as a percentage of GDP peaked at 11% (16% according to some sources), compared to a figure closer to 5% for most European nations (see graph); illustrating the bubble that was allowed to build up.

2.       Spanish cement production trebled between EU entry in 1986 and 2007.  At its peak, annual production of cement was nearly 60 million metric tons, which at the time was more than the total produced in France and Germany (22m and 33m respectively; China at 1350m!), countries with a much larger landmass and jointly thrice Spain’s population of 45m.

3.       So millions of young Spanish dropped out of education to become bricklayers and the sort.  When all fell apart, these jobs were gone, and they had no proper qualification.  Youth unemployment is currently still 40%, down from a peak of over 50% in 2014.  The indignados movement is reflective of how deeply distressing the 6-year long crisis was.  Thankfully, Goldman Sachs now predicts that Spain will be the fastest-growing large European economy through 2020, giving some hope for a continued reversal in that trend.

PS:  On the matter of Europe, it makes sense to re-read Prof. Garton-Ash’s astute analysis of 2012 on the origins and challenges for the EU.  See:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2012-08-16/crisis-europe