The southernmost of the Rias Baixas, this Ria is very industrial on the south shore as Vigo is a major port and city in this part of the country. The north shore is quieter and has small villages, and a more relaxed pace. It's also home to the largest nudist beach in these parts, Ensenada de Barra. When we sailed by, there were lots of boats anchored just off the beach - Ostensibly for protection from the wind...

We continued sailing about as far into the Ria as possible and anchored near the haunted island of San Simón. Apparently during Spain's dark years of the Spanish civil war, the island was used as a concentration camp for extermination of political prisoners opposed to the ruler Franco. Not wanting to incur the wrath of any bad juju, we toured the island from afar and landed on the beach near the small village of Cesantes. The village hugs the adjacent hillside, but it was not clear how to get there as there were fences, rough brambles and rather run-down homes all along the waterfront. I went to scout out a path as Pam wisely stayed with the dinghy; she wasn't interested in the possibility of bushwhacking. After searching for a path up to the village for maybe 1/8 mile, I came across a señora hanging clothes on a line. I asked her with my best Spanglish if she could tell me where the supermercado is located. She launched into such a rapid-fire Spanish response, I had no chance in understanding. With each exchange of her Spanish and my Spanglish, we seemed to get further from any resemblance of comprehension. After a while, we both realized this and then she went to get a lady neighbor who, I assumed, would be able to help. The neighbor arrived and was indeed multilingual, only in German and Spanish! So the neighbor now takes up the challenge of communicating with the gringo as the señora disappears into her home, likely not interested in wasting any more of her time. After perhaps 10 minutes of woefully inadequate Spanglish, hand gestures and funny faces on my part, the señora appears from her home with a grocery bag and offers it to me. Inside there is a sandwich, a couple of pieces of fruit and a bottle of water! With my mind racing to decline the very generous offer, but also aware that in doing so would be considered extremely rude, I grudgingly accepted and profusely thanked her. We parted with me not understanding any better how to get to the village, but with her simple act of kindness, words were unnecessary in communicating. Later, when I returned to the dinghy, Pam commented that it was likely that the ladies mistook me for a pilgrim and figured I needed nourishment for the remainder of the trek to Santiago. Come to think of it, I was looking a bit scruffy with a three day beard and no shower that day ...

After exploring Ensenada de San Simōn and the upper reaches of the Ria, we did anchor just off the nudist beach. The following day (a Saturday) we went for a hike and paddled the dinghy over in the morning. There weren't many people on the beach at that time, but when we came back it was wall-to-wall people and we were definitely over dressed! The anchorage was also transformed from perhaps 7 or 8 boats to over 50. Wow, it was really a shocker to see! We had just hiked over 10 gorgeous miles along the coastline between Rias Pontevedra and Vigo, visiting two lighthouses and an ancient, Iron Age stone village Monte Facho. We were tired, it was blazingly hot with little breeze and we both felt like stripping off and joining them right there (when in Rome ....). But Pam and I had a plan as the dinghy was all the way up the beach and we had to negotiate the brown-as-a-nut all over masses to get it to the water. We strode confidently, fully clothed, behind most of the beach goers and when we reached the dinghy, we lifted it with our best form, mindful that it weighs a ton and it's never graceful to move anywhere. As it turned out, it was quite pleasant as the masses parted enough for us to get through to the water and we thanked them with a hearty "Gracias!" just like normal folk ...