Andalucia Life, Towns, Villages and Cities
Tavira and the Ria Formosa
Sometimes, just occasionally, you have one of those perfect days out when everybody in the party or family has found something satisfying, when the day as a whole just worked and left everybody feeling fulfilled. One of those days occurred on a visit to Tavira and the Ria Formosa.
Just 25 kilometres across the Rio Guadiana from the most westerly point of Andalucia, Ayamonte, is the Portuguese town of Tavira. Like many Spanish coastal towns it has a history dating back to the Phoenicians. It has a castle and narrow winding streets and a Ponte Romana that was actually built in the 16th Century, everybody is allowed a little poetic licence. There are churches galore and a huge square with cafes and bars that allow you to sit in the sun, with a coffee or something stronger, for as long as you like. In the back streets you will find wine merchants promoting that most famous of Portuguese products, Port, and restaurants serving fish delivered straight from the boat and market, for Tavira has a fishing fleet that ventures into the Atlantic daily.
The town’s history follows a familiar course. The Romans came, then they left, then the Moors arrived. They were ejected in 1242 by the Knights of Santiago. To show his gratitude King Dinas gave them the castle and a good part of the town but the good knights did not want to be tied down so they gave it back and chased after the Moors into Spain where they happily spent the next couple of hundred years laying siege to towns and slaughtering Moors until, in 1492, they were given the honour of riding first into the last Arab stronghold, Granada. Since the day the knights departed Tavira has been firmly Portuguese. The history buff can spend a couple of hours around the town that is well appointed with informative notices in two languages, Portuguese and English. That is something you notice early on in Tavira, in common with most Portuguese, they really seem to like the English.
Once you have seen the town, leave the centre following the signs for Quatro Aguas. This road takes you over the salt pans just outside town to a ferry landing stage. You must park here; the ferry is for foot passengers only. For a few Euros it will take you across a narrow stretch of water to an island called Ilha de Tavira. This is a sandy hump, half a kilometre wide and fifteen long with wonderful beaches, dunes, a strip of woodland, a number of bars, cafes and restaurants with sailing boats and small fishing craft moored in the sheltered strip of water between the island and the mainland. You could be forgiven for thinking you were somewhere around Morecambe Bay, or the Solway Firth or even the Wash. The absence of motor vehicles makes the location tranquil and idyllic, ideal for children, just do not forget their swimming gear.
The Ilha de Tavira is just part of the marismas and wetlands that starts at Cadiz and is a feature of the coast as far as Faro in Portugal. Between Sanlucar de Barrameda and Huelva the wetlands extend inland to form the famous Doñana. The remainder of the coast is a whole string of sandy offshore islands, a coastal dune barrier running parallel to the coast that protects a shallow, warm water lagoon that has been carved into a labyrinth of salt marshes, channels, tidal flats and islets. The mainland has a narrow strip of wetlands with the occasional fresh water pond behind the dune barrier. The whole is a haven for wildlife. To see that wildlife, particularly the birds, migratory and resident, you can visit the Ria Formosa natural park which is a few kilometres west of Tavira just before a town called Olhao.
The unusual geographical and geological processes that formed this area in this particular climatic region are responsible for the variety of rare species of plants and the resident bird population that you will see. The location in relation to northern Europe and Africa contributes to the huge numbers of migratory birds that reside for the winter months and those who use the park as a place to recuperate before continuing their migration. The whole set of circumstances led to a system of land and seashore usage by man that occurs nowhere else in the world and the natural park authorities have deliberately preserved examples of that usage as a living, working ethnographical museum by encouraging traditional economic activities that are compatible with a rational use of natural resources.
The result is a landscape that has not changed much since the Knights of Santiago chased the Moors away, populated by people doing what people have done since then using the same tools and machinery.
The Ria Formosa can only be enjoyed on foot and, if you follow every boardwalk, you will cover about six kilometres. There are some hides overlooking lagoons and ponds but mainly you have to conceal yourself behind bushes and trees. On the way you will see an ingenious device called a ‘Noria’ that has been used for hundreds of years to draw fresh water from the depths of the earth. Offshore you will also see another traditional activity, shellfish farming. The region is responsible for about 80% of the Portuguese clam exports. Keep an eye out for the ‘Marselhesa’, a style of fishing boat that has not changed for centuries, built to navigate the narrow lagoons and withstand the open Atlantic. These boats set the armacao or tuna traps that consisted of a huge array of nets, cables, anchors and buoys up to 10 kilometres from the coast and were a notorious hazard to navigation. The armacao would be laid in April and left until October to catch the tuna migrating into the Mediterranean. The last armacao was laid in 1972. Now no longer used for fishing the ‘Marselhesa’ takes educational parties through the lagoons.