Cádiz, Cristóbal and Colón

Cádiz, Cristóbal and Colón
— David Eugene Perry

9 August 2025: Today, Alfredo, his parents, and I took a leisurely drive from Grazalema to Cádiz to have lunch with friends. It’s only a 90 minute trip and would be far less save for the torturously atmospheric roads of the Sierra. 

Guarded by the dry, rocky trio of Reloj, Simancòn and Torreón, our little town seems far from The Sea. In reality, “La Mar” is very close and in sight of the sailor’s mountain, San Cristóbal. More on that anon.

We parked and immediately I breathed in my favorite scent: that salty aroma never fails to take me back to my two years working aboard ship. It is the perfume of adventure. The ancient cologne of discovery. 

In Cádiz, the present is always touched by the past: this the oldest continuously inhabited city in western Europe. Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths and Spanish explorers looked Westward with the same Siren’s view that I had today: calling, calling, calling.

I am reminded that these nearby ports were once the launching points of four odysseys that transformed humanity. Just up the coast, Palos de la Frontera sent Columbus on his first journey in 1492. Sanlúcar de Barrameda, not far from here, was the nativity for both his second voyage in 1493 and his third in 1498. And right here in Cádiz itself, the fourth and final — from which Columbus never returned, at least not alive — set sail in 1502.

Standing so close to the very shores where those vessels gathered, I can almost hear the creak of their rigging, the calls of the sailors, the hum of anticipation—and perhaps apprehension—before heading into the unknown. 

The research I’ve been doing into this period has brought me deep into those moments: the shipwrights in Galicia, Moguer, and Cantabria who built those naos and caravels; the commanders and crews; the young Juan Ponce de León, embarking on his first venture into the New World without yet knowing what history had in store for him as part of Columbus’ second — and largest — fleet: 17 ships and 1500 men. That second excursion has always fascinated me. It’s why we have coffee in the Americas and peppers in Europe; oranges in Florida and potatoes in Ireland. “The Columbian Exchange” academics call it. 

The young Juan is a character in my new book, Thorns of the 15 Roses. The novel is inspired by our summer home, Grazalema, whose official crest bears the emblems of his family, specifically Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, granted the region by the grateful royal couple Isabella and Ferdinand for his heroic assistance in the final chapter of the Reconquista: the fall of Granada. Alfredo and I will again be visiting there in a few weeks: more inspiration for the book.

For me, being here isn’t just a matter of historical curiosity—it’s the wind pushing forth my writing, filling the sails of character and plot. Whether I’m weaving fact into fiction or imagining a new chapter for Adriano and Lee in Thorns of the 15 Roses, the setting is never just backdrop. It’s a living participant in the story. 

I looked out over the waves and thought of all the departures from these shores: some bound for fame, others for obscurity; all part of the tides of memory that wash across Cádiz today. I also imagined the sailors returning— including Juan Ponce de Leon in 1514, so many years after setting off in 1493 — and seeing that mariner’s touchstone, the mountain of San Cristóbal, looming up on the Iberian horizon saying “estoy en casa.” I am home. 

In places like this, past and present meet at the water’s edge, and I always leave feeling inspired—and a little restless to get back to the page. I have my own voyage to write.