Almería, Alcazaba, and Almedina

The next morning, the forecast predicted rain, and I could see the sagging clouds already settling on the ridges I crossed the day before. I was quite tired of rain by this point, and decided to catch a bus to Almería, calling an early end to my Alpujarra hike. My next destination, the Cabo de Gata peninsula, was on the opposite geographical and climatic extreme of Spain from Galicia, with 30 times less annual precipitation and 3000 sunny hours per year. It is officially the driest spot in Europe, and I thought that if the rain followed me there, then I would finally give up trying to outrun it.

The bus to Almería was in actuality 3 separate buses, and I didn´t arrive at my destination until the mid-afternoon, too late to catch a transfer to Cabo de Gata. Dropping my pack off at a hostal near the bus station, I set off to explore the Alcazaba fortress, commanding the heights above this port city, and affording sweeping views of the Mediterranean coastline all the way east to the hilly Cabo de Gata. The weather still kept threatening to turn rainy, and I dove into an Arabic cafe called Almedina for a shelter and a pot of sweet herbal tea.