Vigo, Spain

(A while ago I realized that what I have been calling “clams” are actually “mussels” -- I forgot that those existed. Oysters, clams, and mussels: ostras, almejas, and mejillones.) Here are some photos from Vigo!

1) Vigo’s port, as seen from the Parque do Castro.
2) The towns across from the Ria are called Mainha and Cangas. You can see the bateas, the rafts where mussels (not clams!) are raised, as little brown lines in the water.
3) Galician stone ready for exportation. I find cranes beautiful, especially when there are several of them together so that they look like a herd of grazing animals (also wind turbines).
4) This is Francisco, who gave me the royal tour of the port, standing in front of a mound of salt! The salt, he explained, is used to make a saline solution for the holds in tuna ships, so that the fish is preserved longer.
5) A ship loading (unloading?) aluminum ingots. This kind of crane slides along the sides of the ship and has much more lifting power than the upright ones.
6) Containers! 5000 of them on this dock.
7) These nets are used for drag fishing (trolling? something like that) and need to be fixed periodically.
8) Francisco in front of a tuna ship! This is the back of it – you can see the stern slanting towards the water and the machines used to winch up the nets. Also the high look-out posts! These are my favorite ships.
9) Traditional Galician fishing boats! Each village had a unique kind of boat, but there are a few main designs: gamela (rectangular bottoms), dorna (front and back pointed), chalana . . . Actually, those are just the names of the ones that this group had built. This one is a mix between two designs – it has the form of a dorna but the wood planks overlap as in a gamela. Don’t quote me on this – but do be impressed by how pretty the boats are.
10) These little boats are tiny, and Tonio told me about races between children (his daughter competes!) across the beach. Balance is hard to maintain – “tienes que usar el culo,” Tonio said.
11) Francisco took me up to Monte Alba – the Ria looks so far away! Very pretty, very pretty.
12) Unloading sharks in the wee hours of the morning.
13) This is the Gran Lonja in Vigo – there are lanes for people to walk along. The auction hadn’t started yet, but people were already selling and buying fish.
14) Swordfish.
15) All sharks. I have yet to figure out where they go.
16) Sunrise at the docks.
17) Luisa and Sito in the boat that we took out! This is the only photo I have of it, and I was told not to bring my camera along for the ride because we would get wet – but it is infinitely more beautiful when the square sail is hoisted and full of air, and there is water all around.
18) Cliché postcard photo of the Islas Cies.
19) Morning mist at the Islas Cies! It was all very peaceful until the seagulls started dive-bombing.
20) The reason for dive-bombing. Cute, no? They are little rascals. They purposely stood on the path in front of me so that I couldn’t move forward or around them without being attacked – so of course, I spent a lot more time at the top of the hill than I expected (I refused to risk my eyes, which the seagulls surely would have plucked out, or my life, which is what the seagulls were ultimately after). The chicks make an adorable squeaking sound, though, for which I forgave all.