There, sheltered from a stormy sea, such as the Bay of Biscay, but constantly buffeted by winds that favor, especially in the waters of the neighboring beach of La Salvé, the development of sailing sports, including various varieties of windsurfing, a walk through the port of Laredo always invites contemplation.

Above all, when the visitor who comes for the first time, soon realizes how ephemeral, that basically is life and how it changes to the rhythm of the times and the different music, metaphorically and comparatively speaking, that they are, after all, the needs of men.

Laredo, like many other fishing villages in Cantabria -such as Liencres, Santoña, San Vicente de la Barquera or the beautiful Castro Urdiales- had always caught my attention and it was not until after many vicissitudes -the latest and most complicated, of course, those marked by Covid-19, which apart from making me lose hotel reservations, unduly lengthened the trip- that I was able to fulfill those enormous desires to meet her and above all, to feel the caress of a sea on my skin again , I repeat again, the Cantabrian, which was a friend in my happy childhood, about three hundred kilometers from here: on the Asturian coast of Luarca.

Arriving in Laredo and the coast, after having savored the honeys of the Palentina Mountains, the sweet interiors of Cantabria and the spectacular Romanesque art of places like Villacantid, Cervatos, Bolmir, Yermo, Cayón, Bareyo and Retortillo, meant -or at least I thought so then, because I still had to visit a jewel like San Román de Escalante- a complete challenge to the imagination.

On the other hand, I do not deny a certain disappointment when I expected to find myself in an ancient port, completely absorbed in the waves of the past, with rusty walkways covered with fishing nets and endless bands descending from the skies to feast on the famous anchovy of these waters, which have given so much popularity, without going any further, to the neighboring town of Santoña.

In fact, between Laredo and Santoña, the coast is in the shape of a crescent -perhaps a crescent moon, like the one that is always seen at the foot of the Immaculate Conception- and both towns look at each other face to face, from what we could consider their points.

In my romantic vision, I remembered that precisely this port had witnessed the arrival, after a rough trip and a previous landing in the Asturian village of Tazones, of the extremely powerful emperor, Carlos I of Spain and V of Germany; of the departure of Doña Juana de Castilla to Flanders, where she was to marry another Philip, nicknamed the Beautiful, who was not, however, the earlier one whose greed made the Order of the Temple sacrifice itself and possibly was the beginning of the end , also, of an architectural style, the Gothic, generator of the great cathedrals, which was largely borne by them and by the massive influx of pilgrims, who returned to return their former validity to that search for the meaning of life, which In short, we could say that it is the Saint Jame's Way.

But what I saw did not disappoint me either, because apart from some modern facilities, well guarded by rocky promontories of extraordinary beauty, such as the Roca del Castillar (Castillar’s Rock) and also by modernist mansions from the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, I observed some metaphorical weddings of silver between work sailing and sports sailing, where the diversity of flags spoke for themselves of a fascination with the sea that has always accompanied Humanity since the most ancient times.

A fascination that, unfortunately, also exacts its extraordinary tribute in human lives, such as the recent loss of the fishing vessel 'Villa de Pitanxo', based in Marín, Pontevedra, which sank last Tuesday off the coast of Newfoundland, killing the almost all of its crew.

Because it is difficult, even letting yourself be carried away by the charm of a walk, not to think of something so successful and that all sea lions always have in mind: the sea gives, but it also takes away.

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NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs, as well as the video that illustrates it, are my exclusive intellectual property and are therefore subject to my Copyright.