The Curse of Barbate
Barbate is a small fishing town along the coast of Andalusia, the very south of Spain. The concept of this article came from a text exchange between my father and I, feeling that between the generations, we had been lucky enough to escape ‘The Curse of Barbate’.
Barbate is a Spanish tourist hotspot with a mysterious history. My partner and I visited in early September 2020 just as the second spike of Covid19 hit, waves of lockdowns rippling through Europe. Our short stay was enjoyable, but the air was disquieting. When the time came to leave and return to our nearby hometown, our attempts to leave Barbate central were thwarted, and we were almost trapped. The following day, the town was put into quarantine.
When we had first arrived, we took a selfie beneath the metal sculpture of a giant tuna fish and sent it to a friend. Our friend replied quickly, asking what we were doing in the drug trafficking capital of Andalusia. I had read about Barbate in Lonely Planet and travel blogs, but they hadn’t mentioned that detail. My parents visited Barbate thirty-four years ago, and I remembered that it was around the time my mother, then a journalist, had been investigating the drugs trade in Spain. I had asked both parents about their visit, keen to compare the Barbate I was going to see with the Barbate that they remembered. My mum couldn’t remember much, but my dad recalled a few moments…
