Combarro
Chiscos - Atlantic Cruise
John Simpson
Fri 19 Aug 2011 15:16
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42:25.72n
08:42.14w
A short, gentle sail brought us to
Combarro, tucked away at the top of the Ria da Pontevedra. We anchored
just next to the marina which gives us a bit of shelter from the wind that blows
up the Ria during the day. We went ashore to see whether Combarro lived up
to its picturesque reputation and found that it is the prettiest village we've
come across so far.
 The centre of the village, next to
the water seen here, is a maze of tiny streets of cottages which have been
retained very much in their original condition. In many places we have
visited there have been one or two old buildings amongst many 1960's type
concrete buildings so it was interesting to see how these fishing communities
might have been. The village is reminiscent of Cornish fishing
villages, but without the harbour. The streets are narrow and sheltered,
with narrow alleyways leading to the sea which suggest that the weather is not
normally as kind as it has been for the last few days. There are
some attractive examples of the storage buildings called 'horreos' which we
have seen all over this area. These are used to store food, such as
grain and other crops. The buildings are ventilated using slatted bricks
and built on stilts shaped like mushrooms so that vermin can't get past the
top. They are often quite decorative and horreos are still built with
modern houses today.
 As night fell the wind dropped away
completely and we had our most peaceful night at anchor so far. Today
(Friday) we have had a lazy day on the boat, doing a few odd jobs and reading in
the sunshine. We contemplated going ashore this afternoon but decided to
go later, which was lucky because we both suddenly became aware that we were
moving backwards quite quickly, despite having been firmly fixed in the same
spot for the past 24 hours! After a flurry of activity, calm has now been
restored but I think we will wait until the wind drops before we go ashore
today!
Susan
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