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Spaniards leading a national surge in global business and politics, culture and the arts. As the country prepares for a pivotal election, TIME examines its striking creative burst
The Spanish term is masificación, which roughly translates as "packed solid." It's what happens when too many people want to lie on the same hot southern beach. Given that many of the 50-million-plus visitors to Spain each year have precisely this in mind, Andalucía's beaches in the summer are often water-to-wall carpets of human flesh. With all the noise, squash and stress, you might as well be in the office.
Are there any quiet beaches left in Andalucía? Yes. Take the 442 coastal road
from Mazagón toward Matalascañas, in the province of Huelva. From Mazagón, stop after about 5 km at a right-hand roadside parking spot known as the Cuesta de Maneli. Leave the car and walk along the treated pine boardwalk that undulates through scrub-covered dunes.
Roughly 15 minutes later you are overlooking the Atlantic. The beach below is not zoned, but nudists tend to go left, the clothed right. In summer there are a few chiringuitos — makeshift beach cafés — but it's easy to find sand and silence all for yourself. Only one building has been allowed on these cliffs: the hotel Cristóbal Colón Parador, built in the 1960s. This near-virgin strip of protected beach stretches about 15 km, with a few other entrances from the road.
One, past the Parador towards Matalascañas, leads to what's known locally as Playa Rompeculos, or Arsebreaker Beach. Fear not, the name refers to the effect of sandbars on the hulls of fishing boats. Cristóbal Colón Parador: tel: (34-959) 536300; www.paradores-spain.com.
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