Do you know the way to San Jose

We do know the way to San Jose! It's through the desert of inland Spain, then over the coastal hills, which opens up to the amazing beaches! San Jose is a small town on the south-east corner of Spain in the Cabo de Gata National Park. We rented a car in Valencia and drove 5 hours through southern Spain to get there. In August the landscape is very much like driving through Arizona or Utah; very hot and surrounded by desert. It was an easy drive (well Kit did all of the driving so it was super easy for me!) not like driving in the UK at all. Driving on the interstate (motorways) in the UK is like driving in rush hour traffic all the time. They have small lanes and the roads are very curvy. The highway roads in Spain were straight with wide lanes, just like we were used to. We did have one crazy detour through a small almost abandoned village that made us second guess our GPS, but it was right, thank god! Things we saw on the drive

A Castle on a ridge

el toro

We stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom. Probably the worst bathroom I have ever been in but it had beautiful views

During the 5 hours we listened to quite a few Spanish radio stations that played some English music and some Spanish. Ole!


We decided to Stop at this beach about an hour north of San Jose which was supposed to be one of the best beaches in Spain. Playa de los Muertos is a hidden pebble beach with crystal blue waters and beautiful views. It is about a 1/2 mile walk from the car park to the beach but totally worth it once you get down there. Form the top of the hill you can see the strip of beach down the canyon.

Playa de los Muertos means Deadman's beach. It was named that after the Pirates and Sailors that crashed here many years ago.

We found that many men in Spain hike their shorts up and stand with their legs apart. We assume they are doing this to get a better tan. If you click on the photo below and look a the guy in the orange shorts, you'll see what I mean.

The consistency of the beach was unlike anything we'd ever experienced before. It was made up of very small pebbles, almost like you would have in an aquarium, which I wasn't sure I would like, but we ended up loving it! Like sand the pebbles would stick to your skin, but unlike sand you could simply brush it off and be clean, voila! Not only that but it gave the water a magnificent blue shimmer. We found that the beach in San Jose is regular sand and we had some days with high winds which means we had sand everywhere (everywhere). Those days we wished for the soft pebbles of the Playa De Los Muertos!

After about two hours at the beach we got back in the car and drove on to San Jose. To drive to San Jose you have to drive through around 15 miles of hills and desert. However, while driving there we did pass the Sea of Plastic. This is an area in Spain where there are plastic greenhouses as far as the eye can see. Each one in the picture below is about the size of a football field. This is where they grow all of the yummy fruits and vegetables that are shipped all over the world. In the UK we get a lot of Spanish fruit and veg like tomatoes, oranges, and hot peppers.

We also drove past a shepherd with his goats.

During the off season San Jose is a very small village of around 175 people which started off as a fishing village. During the tourist season there seemed to be more like 1000-2000 people. It is becoming a popular resort town for the people of Spain.. We were one of maybe three other families (at least that we heard) that spoke English as a first language, and definitely the only Americans. We had some interesting exchanges where we misunderstood people or they misunderstood us. At one point a waiter starting laughing at us and we couldn't figure out why. Kit wasn't quite sure what he had said and later figured out that he was asking us where we were from but we had responded - no thank you. No wonder he laughed.

Our hotel room!

Views from the room

The houses of the village backed up onto the mountains that bordered the town.

San Jose beach

We didn't check in to our hotel until 7 or 8 so we spent our first night hanging out at a local hippie bar and then eating some very weird tapas. Whenever you order a 'small' beer they always ask if you want tapas. We said yes, and unless you specify what kind you want they bring whatever they feel like. We knew this could be an option and decided if they did bring us meat we would at least try it. So we got a plate of chicken and lemon. Sounds good right- well it looked like pieces of vertebrae with chicken still on it and very gristly. It didn't taste too bad but for vegetarians it was a huge adventure. Poor Kit didn't fare as well as I did afterwards.

Every night they had street vendors set up with booths of jewelry, clothes, gemstones, shoes and odds and ends. It was so much fun to wander along and shop.

We had dinner that night a restaurant where I had gambas (shrimp) and Kit accidently ordered a massive plate of fried sardines on a bed of lettuce. But it was a great little meal.  

I finally ventured out and asked for the bill at the end of our meal. 

"La cuenta por favor"

Kit snapped a photo of me right after I said it: proud or embarrassed- maybe a little bit of both.

We fell in love with San Jose, we loved its hippie vibe and relaxed atmosphere. It was a perfect place to end our trip to Spain.  Next post - pictures of the village of San Jose.