All photographs © 2003–2005, Detlev Fischer. Click on images to see enlarged version.
Conil de la Frontera, 24+25 March, 2003.
(1) A map of Conil, the one you get on the tourism office at the bottom end of Calle Carretera. Conil is situated some 35 km south-east of Cadiz. The nearest airport is Jerez. If you are a prospective tourist: Sorry there are no photos here of the nice parts (the old Guzman tower and the place in front of it, the old gate, the beach promenade and the sea view, etc. All this is nice enough, the centre is quite pleasant, without the huge concrete blocks like the ones you find at Torremolinos etc.)
(2) This was near our appartment on that day, after the levante wind has subsided, the sky was still eerily white-grey and without definition - just as white as the white-washed houses.
(3) The Calle Echegaray through which we went most often, because at its bottom was the super mercado.
(4) Next to our chain of appartments at the Plaza Huerta de Enmedio, they were building this new house. Walls are allowed to look a bit rough and patched up at the edges, its covered with rough cast anyway. They are quite thin though so it will be hot inside in Summer - perhaps this is why they put so few windows in.
(5) The building in the back contained the appartment we rented from tour operator Conil Reisen - front terrace, main room and kitchen in ground floor, two bedrooms and bath in first floor, plus stairs leading to the roof, which would have been nice had the weather been better (360 Euro a week).
(6) Near the appartment, on the way towards the centre. Boys riding bikes in Calle San Jose.
(7) We were inventing a story that more and more tiles of Villa Alba were being stolen during each night.
(8) In Calle Dali, someone has replaced some plain tiles with trompe d'œil wood tiles.
(9) Calle Ramon-y-Cajal. A shop owner is returning from his lunch break. It is cold, the streets are mostly deserted.
(10) Calle Ramon-y-Cajal. Seconds later. Some people ask for directions.
(11) The last day. Some horses were feeding on the green strip between the beach and the Paseo del Atlántico.
(12) In a way the most pleasing part of Conil begins where the Paseo del Atlántico, the beach promenade, ends and is continued by a small sand track between the beach and a strip of gardens below some sand cliffs. People grow their vegetables, you hear chicken, etc.
(13) Detail of one of the gardens behind a bamboo fence.
(14) After a while you get to this bar / beach cafe at the Playa de la Fontanilla. which is very relaxed and pleasant and has many interesting photographs showing Conil as it was some decades ago. The Hotel El Fuerte squatting in a big U-shape on the hill above is one of the large hotels (250 beds, four stars) that are now being built to develop the Costa de Luz which has so far been neglected by the likes of TUI. Now, Jerez receives more inbound charter traffic (we had to go via Palma de Mallorca), and new hotels are being built everywhere on the strip of coast south of Cadiz. There id some grafitti in the centre of Conil reading "Turismo no", etc. - it is difficult to tell whether this is an isolated or a majority view. The marketing manager of El Fuerte mentioned some diffculties at the beginning but said the locals are now accepting the hotel since many have found work here. The hotel also says it is trying to source whatever it can locally (eggs, for example).
(15) Inside the bar is this oil painting which made me curious. The woman behind the counter explained that it shows Camaron de la Isla (aka Jose Monje Cruz), the famous Flamenco singer from San Fernando (near Cadiz) I have found a page with more details.
(16) A photograph, it seems of the same Camaron. The tatoo is strange - the muslim crescent and the Star of David combined? Hearing the woman talk it seemed the man was still alive, but according to the page quoted above he died in 1992. So either I didn't get it (which is most likely), or there are several flamenco singers named Camaron, or she didn't know that he had died ten years ago (which is pretty unlikely).
(17) In the entrance room when coming from the beach, there are two magnificent large photographs showing tuna fishing. I had to take the photo from a slanted angle to minimise reflections.