Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Huelva province

The province of Huelva lies south of the region of Extremadura and the province of Badajoz in particular, to the east of the River Guadiana and its estuary (which mark Spain's southern border with Portugal), to the north-west of the province of Cádiz and to the west of Seville, and looks south over the Gulf of Cádiz. In spite of the tourist fame of its Portuguese neighbour, the Algarve, Huelva is one of the least known corners of Spain, holding some authentic treasures for the visitor. That said, Huelva is Seville's natural outlet to the sea and popular as a holiday or weekend break destination with the inhabitants of that province and others in Andalusia. In addition, it has become fashionable with other Spaniards in recent years, paradoxically because it was once considered one of the least interesting corners of Spain, meaning that developers and speculators largely left it alone. In consequence and notwithstanding its recent popularity, it now has some of the finest unspoilt stretches of coast in the Mediterranean (to use the term loosely; the Costa de la Luz is not really the Med at all, but the Atlantic). Much of this shoreline has an attractive, characteristic mixture of long, white-sandy beaches backed by dunes, often pine-wooded. In addition, the less than lovely city of Huelva itself has a number of peculiar features, including many of interest to students of industrial history, and the jewel in the province's crown, Doñana National Park, is one of Europe's best nature reserves, and probably the continent's most important wetlands. Apart from Doñana, Huelva province's main claims to fame are its connections with Christopher Columbus; its mines and mineral resources, exploited for so many years by different incarnations of the English-owned Rio Tinto Company; the exquisite Jabugo ham; and the fact that it was here during World War II that one of the greatest intelligence ploys of all time culminated (while few people remember what Operation Mincemeat was about, most have seen the magnificent 1956 film based on it, The Man Who Never Was).

Costa de la Luz. Huelva's coastline is undoubtedly its greatest attraction. To be sure, it is Atlantic and so a little windswept, but it is sheltered in the Gulf of Cádiz, and its climate is similar to that of the Algarve (which gets more sunshine than California). Huelva's long, sweeping beaches begin at Doñana facing Sanlúcar de Barrameda (where the famous horse races on the beach are held) in the province of Cádiz across the Guadaluqivir estuary. They then run almost continuously up towards Huelva, past the nightmarish La Rábida Refinery. On the other side of the Odiel delta, the beaches begin again at the resort town of Punta Umbria (where the seafood is even more fantastic than elsewhere in the province), then run almost continuously towards Portugal, past the fishing town of Isla Cristina, which is confusingly not an island and from where Columbus departed unknowingly for America, and the lovely Playa de Isla Canela, which isn't an island, either. This last seems endless, curving around into the estuary of the Guadiana (where you should beware of Portuguese men-of-war) and heading towards the border town of Ayamonte.

Doñana and Other Nature Reserves. The Coto de Doñana National Park and its surroundings are a kind of naturalist's snapshot of the province as a whole, the national park being surrounded by a natural park, a buffer zone protecting the core from the environmental and social pressures without. The Coto de Doñana itself is of immense importance to wildlife, particularly birds, and as virgin and lovely an area as can be found in Europe. It is not just one but a whole series of valuable ecosystems with the famous marisma, swamp, at its heart, but nearby there are old mines and industrially cultivated farmland which represent major threats to the ecological health of the park. For both birdwatchers and non-birders, and even at the height of summer when the marisma is dry and migratory birds are absent, Doñana is a must-see for travellers to the province or indeed to the south-west of Spain, but plan ahead - it is only possible to see the actual national park on a pre-arranged 2-hour guided tour, leaving from the Visitor Centre in sight-seeing vans with panoramic windows and a guide-cum-driver who explains the area and points out the animals. If you can't make the tour or it leaves you hungry for more, however, the surrounding Doñana Natural Park, though evidently of less ecological worth, is open to the public and a number of inidividuals and companies offer guided birdwatching and other visits (most of these will be quite satisfactory, perfectly legit and, if this is your bag, provide a great birding experience - just don't be taken in when you are told you are going to be escorted around Doñana proper). And access on foot or bicycle to Doñana's fabulous thirty-odd kilometre-long beach, the Playa de Castilla, is unrestricted: the resort town of Matalascañas is the entrance to it.

Though eclipsed by Doñana, the Marismas del Odiel Natural Park, across the delta from the city of Huelva, is another important nature reserve and birdwatching centre, and enthusiasts may well want to take in both. In fact, the province holds a number of other nature reserves which are too small in themselves to justify a visit from abroad, but which considered together should satisfy the most avid nature-lover's appetite. The Laguna del Portil Natural Park is one such: it takes something like an hour to walk all the way round and can be combined perfectly with a day of serious tanning.

Huelva (Capital). The city of Huelva as it can be seen today is very much the result of hundreds of years of mineral extraction in the province, especially under the regime (I use the word deliberately) of the Riotinto Company. It lies among marshes, in the corner formed by the Río Odiel as it opens up into a delta and the Rio Tinto river joining it. The latter is not quite as filthy as it used to be, but its dark hue still tells of the ore-rich rocks it has passed over. The city's docks and wharfs are busy, its main economic sectors being industrial chemicals and fishing. There are a number of churches of slight interest, the most surprising feature of which, at least to me, is the fact that they mostly date from the eighteenth century - the 1755 earthquake that devastated Lisbon hit hard here, as well.

Those used to Spain and its architectural styles will find the most curious sight in the city of Huelva to be the Barrio Reina Victoria, an estate of perfect, early twentieth-century,  English-style suburban houses, complete with mock Tudor architectural elements and joltingly out of place in the fierce Andalusian sun. They were built for employees of the Riotinto Company and laid out on Port-Sunlight-type garden-city principles, right down to the village green in the middle. The earnest Presbyterian moral rectitude which underlay its builders' paternalistic, semi-philanthropic philosophy is indicated by a significant absence, which it took me a little while to spot, so I will leave you in suspense as to what it is.*

In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two... Huelva is Columbus-land. Not only did he set sail for America from Isla Cristina (it really was an island in those days), but he also planned the expedition while living in the Monastery of La Rábida, across the mouth of the Rio Tinto from the city of Huelva. Naturally, this is now a tourist attraction, and the name of the adjacent Muelle de las Caravelas refers to replicas moored there of the three caravels that made up his fleet: the Santa María, Pinta and Niña (I believe they are left over from Ridley Scott's tremendously boring but unusually historically accurate film, 1492).

Martian Huelva. Although silver and particularly copper are still mined in the province, the old workings up in the hills are now mostly unprofitable, Rio Tinto Minera shut up shop in 1996, and the local municipalities have had to search for other forms of revenue including, inevitably, tourism. The small town of Minas de Riotinto in the foothills of the Sierra Morena, about 80 km from the capital, is the centre of this, with a Mine Museum and guided visits to the immense swathes of devastated landscape left by the mines, usually referred to as "Martian" in appearance. The tourist offer includes features like the enormous Corte Atalaya (the largest open-cast mine in Europe and "undoubtedly the most perfect," as the municipal website swaggeringly puts it), and the Tourist Railway, which once shuttled ore and miners around and which runs for about 11 km along the course of the Rio Tinto itself. The latter holds an "ecosystem unique in the world," a description so true that bacteria found there are under study by Nasa. A little further afield, dams built by the company hold huge bodies of water which have unenticing names like the "Copper Electrolysis Reservoir" but are actually home to abundant wildlife - after all, this is the Sierra del Milano, the Mountains of the Kite.

Mountain Huelva. Although the Sierra Morena and its sub-sierras deserve more space than I can give here, I will mention the fact that this mountain range which runs across almost the whole of Andalusia, separating it from Estremadura in the west and New Castile in the east, is so rich in wildlife that experts have warned that the biggest threat to game in the area - deer and wild boar, particularly - is overpopulation.

North of the remains of the Riotinto mining empire, the Sierra de Aracena, named after the small town considered its capital, is famous for the cured ham it produces, sold under the denomination of origin jamón de Huelva, but more usually referred to as jamón de Jabugo, in reference to another local town. This ham is of very high quality but unfortunately has a price tag to match. The pigs used are raised in relative liberty (is it possible to talk about free-range pigs?) and those intended for the most expensive ham are acorn-fed.

Have You Heard the One About...? To the west of the city of Huelva, Lepe is an unimpressive but likeable market town with great beaches at hand and little else to attract visitors. However, do go a little out of your way to see it if possible, for the town's inhabitants are famous throughout Spain for their supposed stupidity (or, in an occasional twist on the theme, ingenuity), and Spaniards tell jokes about Leperos in the same way less sensitive Englishmen tell Irish jokes or Americans jest about Poles. The residents of Lepe bear this with amazing good humour (so to speak), and, if memory serves me well, municipal Lepe joke competitions have even been held. So here, with the utmost respect for the fine folk of that town, is a Lepe joke:

Lepe Town Council declares war on the United States, and sends its Councillor for Security Matters to talk to George Bush (fils) and inform him of the fact.
Bush asks the councillor, "But how big is your town, how many inhabitants are there?"
"About 22,000," the councillor tells him.
"You do realise that the USA is a great nation of over 200 million people, don't you?" says Bush.
"I know, I'm always telling the Mayor, where the h*** are we going to put all those prisoners?"

Practical Huelva:

Getting There: Huelva lacks an international airport of its own, but the airports of Faro, in the Algarve, and Seville are nearby and more or less as convenient as each other. Flights to Faro may be cheaper, but transport between Seville and Huelva should be easier unless you have wheels. Jeréz de la Frontera looks a good option on the map and there are flights to it, for example from Stansted (Ryanair), but they are not cheap and to get across to Huelva you would probably have to travel up to Seville anyway - astoundingly, there is no communication by road between the adjacent provinces of Huelva and Cádiz (this is A Good Thing: the reason is that Doñana is in the way).

Cost of Living: Enticingly low, except for the next section:

Accommodation: This can be pricy, especially if you are looking for villa-type accommodation on the coast.

Eating and Drinking: Apart from the jamón de Jabugo mentioned above, Huelva's great gastronomic strength is its seafood. Gambas de Huelva are gorgeous, pale (they are more properly referred to as gambas blancas), delicately flavoured shrimps which melt in your mouth when grilled, but unfortunately cost several times more than ordinary gambas. Mojama is tuna fish cured until it is nearly black and quite delicious, but unkind to those with less than perfect teeth. The wines made in Huelva are often made by the same methods as sherry wines (Jeréz de la Frontera is not far away), in which case they are given the same names (fino, amontillado, oloroso, and so on) but, lacking the international renown of their neighbours, are much cheaper.

*The Barrio de Reina Victoria has no pub.


Pro's:
- Great beaches
- Unmarred by high-rise development
- Interesting countryside
- Doñana and other nature reserves
- Low cost of living

Con's:
- Not as undiscovered as it was twenty years ago, say. But where is?


You'll like it if you like:
- The Med as you think it should be.


More Huelva province:
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