Thrown into Nature

37. Costa del Sol, Costa del’ Luz

As you round Cape San Vicente, Spain begins. The Hyguiene sails on the blue waters — onward, onward, Hyguiene! The day is sunny, the sky clear. The water splashes cheerfully around our keel. The wind spreads the sails. Beaches, low forests, and cliffs stretch before us. That’s how it is along the whole southern coast. Costa del Sol, Costa del’ Luz.

Namesakes of our commander-in-chief, Duke de Alba — albatrosses — soar high in the sky. They are heading for Costa del Sol. From Costa del’ Luz. Costa del’ Luz is on this side — by Cadiz, with Sevilla above — it is facing the ocean. Costa del Sol is on the other side, by Malaga and Granada, and looks onto Mare Nostrum. These are the two bluish-green eyes in Spain’s swarthy face. Spain is a bit cross-eyed. Turned to the south through Andalusia, with one eye she gazes to the west, towards the ocean and the Americas — Costa del’ Luz; and with the other, to the east, towards the Mediterranean and Europe — Costa del Sol. The sun shines upon both of them. As our caravel “ploughs the waves” as they say, even though there are no waves today, the eye before us constantly changes color — from blue to green and back again. Pelletier du Mans, if only you could see it now!

L’Amour des amours, Costa del’ Luz. A long strip of coast looks completely white. The birds circle in the sky above it, as if it were the skeleton of a giant fish. Those are low cliffs of white limestone, with strips of sand between them whitened by mussels or the sun. Beyond — low sandy hills sparsely scattered with olive trees, fishing villages here and there, with absolutely identical white, flat-roofed houses, and then the coast once again, low gray cliffs, green forests, beaches white as salt. And in the distance, where the wind is blowing us — Cadiz. In the very center of Costa del’ Luz, open before us — listen to this, Pelletier! — open before us like the core of a watermelon, with seeds of ships, people and houses, sweet and juicy, like a drop from the wild heart of Nature.