"Garrucha in the Province of A ..." a Garrucha Travel Page by ranger49

When we first visited Garrucha in the 1990's it seemed to be a work-a-day fishing and commercial port. A great place to go and do a bit of shopping, have lunch enjoy the harbour area whilst waiting for the boats to come home...and go to daily fish market..

The road along the sea-front - The Promenade - had plenty of restaurants - mostly specialising in seafood - and a few touristy shops.

We discovered, in the parallel road behind the seafront promenade, banks, post office, bookshops, a good camera shop, and lots of small grocers and green grocers.

It is along this street that the excellent weekly market was held ,spilling over into every side street, nook and cranny.

So we went there to shop - and mainly to enjoy the harbour area and daily fish market..

Fishing was the main attraction but we soon realised that the port had a very important economic and commercial function - the export of yesos/gypsum from the nearby inland deposits. A very important commodity for the building trade, both for export and to source the local building boom.

During a 6-week stay in nearby Mojacar there were few days we did not spend some time in Garrucha.

On subsequent visits we have been dismayed by the rampant develoment taking place along this coast and in the immediate hinterland so Tourism must now be a signifcant factor in the local economy.
Some of the developments and increase in visitor numbers inevtably change the character of any place.
But there is still much to be enjoyed here and in the inland towns and villages.

Across the harbour a constant convoy of lorries canbe seen unloading tons of yesos onto relatively small freight ships. ON any trip into the hills around the town of Sorbas you would see the heavily laden lorries wending their way down to the Port

We often travelled with my sister-in-law, a professional artist and
you just never know the moment when out will come her little canvas bag with the folding seat and all her painting equipment.
Then, with a slightly imperious shout " Hang on a minute - I have got to paint this"
It is good when this happens somewhere where this is a lot going it on - like a fishing port to keep us occupied.
And so it was here.
As the artist settled down to paint a rather old looking ship at the quay, an audience gathered around.
The young children were fascinated, their parents interested but a little embarrassed.
But as the work was finished a boy of 15 or so who had held back came forward and with help from my husband explained the little ship that was the subject of the painting belonged to his uncle but was about to be towed to the breakers yard to make way for the Nuevo Lufran that was just motoring into view.
Without a word - and to our astonishment - the artist presented the finshed watecolour to the boy - who wept and threw his arms around her.

...............one of those moments.