As you approach Isla Canela you cannot fail to notice the marshlands, which cover an area of 2,145 hectares. They are stunning and were declared a national park in 1989. Home to everything from mallard to black headed gulls. They are well worth exploring.
The wetlands providing Ayamonte with a valuable export of flour as a large tidal mill once worked its banks. Now converted to a Eco museum the Mill was one of the most important tidal mills along this coast.
The museum not only gives the history behind the building of the mill and the Rivero family but it also goes into detail about how these marshlands were formed.
As you enter the museum you can see how the Isla Cristina marshlands came about, there are detailed diagrams as well as samples of each section of the formation.
The museum has the latest audio visual technology and visitors are given special headphones which are automatically activated by infrared as you enter each area.
The second area of the museum shows how the marshlands provided a way of living for the local people, from the salt flats to fishing.
The main hall in the museum is where you can see the internal working of a mill and all the tools that were used to keep the mill running.
The mill itself produced flour which was shipped from Ayamonte on boats along with all the other produce which the Rivero family sold around the world. Fruit and flour were the two main cargos shipped from the mill here in Ayamonte.