Ría de Camariñas Estuary

Photographs

Description

Camariñas is a different example of an estuary: small, tight, hardly marked on the land. Its most western limits are constituted by two stone outcrops: the Punta da Barca to the south and the Cabo Vilán, flanking the entrance on the northern side. Inland, the estuary loses its marine traits and in Ponte do Porto tamely joins the waters of the river Grande. The main towns of the estuary are the fishing ports of Camariñas and Muxía and the remains of the former port of Ponte do Porto. The towns reveal a whole range of houses, some marine and others noble, mixing the strong iron balconies with glass galleries standing out from walls painted in a thousand colours (just like the ships moored in harbour), lining narrow, twisted streets. The sea impregnates everything and until relatively recently it was possible to contemplate the remains of ancient traditions like curing fish in the sun. On the other hand, the embroidering tradition has appeared once more and travellers who arrive in time in such places may contemplate the palilleiras moving the balls with true mastery and see how, as if by magic, true filigrees made with yarn grow. Religious folklore is monopolised by the devotion to the Virxe da Barca. In her sanctuary in Muxía, in a place marked by the crag and facing the rough seas (calm some days, furious others), every year she gathers thousands of processioners who kneel before the virgin and at the same time following the tradition of passing below the Pedra dos Cadrís or trying to move the now broken Pedra de Abalar. And if at Punta da Barca holiness overrides, in cape Vilán, the northern part of the estuary, this is natures role; the enormous cliff and rocks entering the ocean against the force of the waves and the wind. From the lighthouse, it is possible to see another great range of marine scenes marked by the blue of the sky, the pink of the crag and the yellow-white of the sandbanks. A true wilderness paradise.