← All articles · Spain · 1 April 2018

La Manga

Spring 2018 on La Manga del Mar Menor: sunset runs beside the lagoon, a walk to the end of the breakwater, and a produce raid inland in Murcia.

In spring 2018 we based ourselves on La Manga, the improbable strip of sand that seals the Mar Menor lagoon off from the Mediterranean. The days found a rhythm fast: run at sunset, walk the shore, eat whatever the region grows.

Inga running along a coastal road at sunset, the sun dropping behind mountains across the Mar Menor lagoon — Sunset run beside the Mar Menor, March 2018. The lagoon goes still in the evening and the light does the rest.

Inga with arms spread wide on a rocky breakwater stretching into calm blue sea, a conical island on the horizon — Walking the breakwater until it ran out, April 2018. Fishing rods at the end, an island dead ahead, sea on both sides.

The Murcia supply run

When the fridge ran low we drove inland to Murcia, the regional capital, where the produce aisles double as a local roll call: nearly every chalkboard names Murcia as the origin.

Baskets of broad beans, tomatoes and artichokes with handwritten chalkboard labels naming Murcia as origin in a supermarket — Tomatoes at 1.39 a kilo, artichokes, broad beans, all grown a few fields away. Zero food miles, more or less.

Inga bagging lemons beside crates of oranges, cauliflowers and artichokes in a Murcia supermarket — Bagging lemons in Murcia, March 2018. We regret nothing.

Cartagena, half an hour down the road, covered whatever Murcia had not.

Inga gesturing with a thumb at supermarket shelves stacked with Spanish cream liqueurs and spirits in Cartagena — Sizing up the local liqueur shelf in Cartagena, March 2018. Research, strictly.

If you want the Mediterranean on one side and a warm lagoon on the other, this odd little sandbar is the only place we know that does both.