La Zaida and Evonik

La Zaida and Evonik

Ahhhh… La Zaida…

Many years ago, on a train in Portugal, we passed a place without stopping and I quipped;

“It was a one horse town… and then they ate the horse.”

La Zaida has that feel; a place with a population of 500 that might easily be called nondescript… except for a large chemical plant sat facing it.

Its looming towers and the constant roar of air compressors are a backdrop to a place that might otherwise have slipped unnoticed into oblivion.

So why was I now standing on a platform, in the sweltering heat and wind?

Because I got a call.

An agency in Germany needed a portrait of a guy (Sergio) who worked at the plant.

This all seemed straightforward enough.

Then I looked up the final destination on a map.

3 odd hours into the Spanish interior, my final destination was a village about an hour south of Zaragoza.

The people at the plant seemed to think it was impossible by train, but I was determined to not have to rent a car.

Like the old classic TV ad used to say ‘let the train take the strain.’

I love an excuse to just stare out a window and day-dream.

Anyway, I was in luck. La Zaida has 2 trains a day and that suited me just fine; the timing was close to perfect for the job in hand.

So, after changing at Zaragoza, I arrived.

I was the only person getting off, and no one was getting on. It felt like a scene from a western.

As already mentioned it was bloody hot. But health and safety regulations meant a lot of special gear.

My shorts and trainers were not up to the job so I was leant heavy duty trousers, heavy duty boots… and heavy duty gloves, safely glasses, and of course a helmet.

I insisted on using lighting, so was lugging equipment up and down ladders and gantries, which was hard work in itself, but the oversized trousers did not help.

They were at least a size too big and the pockets were loaded with lenses and a bulky device that warned of imminent explosions, it also had a long dangling tube that made it look like an un-plugged colostomy bag.

The trousers were soon sliding earthward, like those of guests of the DOC and wannabe rappers.

So, for 3 hours with the constant scream of air compressors (ah yes, mandatory earplugs as well), I waddled around, hitching up my pants trying, at the same time, to take photos.

It really was quite intense. You only realise when it stops how overwhelming the heat, noise and smell was.

Afterwards in search of something to eat and drink I was wandered around the La Zaida, slightly stunned.

I had a case for my cameras that looks a little like wheelie luggage, so as I hunted down the only place likely to be open (ever), people must have thought I was a bat-shit crazy tourist.

Everyone rubber-necked whilst driving past like they were witnessing an accident.

I found the bar and they had no food to offer but… they did have Estrella Galicia! So I ‘ate’ 2 of those and reviewed the photos.

Despite all the discomfort it was kind of fun and the place was fascinating;  a labyrinth of pipes and infrastructure. I could happily of spent half a day there treating it as an architectural shoot.

After ‘lunch’ I got the other train back to Barcelona.

Again I was the only person at a station that has been shuttered for years, I waited in the heat and dust.

It arrived and only I got on and no one (probably ever) got off.

It was very slow train, but passed through some amazing countryside you never see on the fast routes to Madrid and the like.

We followed the Ebro river for quite a while and it’s really impressive.

Fed by a lot of recent rain it was in full flow. The scenery was also fantastic, amazing rock formations and very green thanks to the river.

I had a lot of time to day-dream and so that’s what I did.

So a travel job? It did feel kind of like it was.  I had that sensation, for a brief moment, you get the first time you step off a plane into a totally new place, the heat and smell, the general unfamiliar…

Then you end up living there and one day it’s gone.