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The summer season may be winding down along the Cabo de Palos marina, but Café bar Yemanjá is very much still open, and autumn is actually one of the nicest times to visit. Quieter, more relaxed, and with that beautiful low coastal light that makes a harbourside lunch feel like a genuine treat.

 

From October 15, Yemanjá has moved to its autumn schedule. The café bar is now open from 10.00am to 4.30pm, Thursday through to Monday, serving breakfast and lunch throughout those hours. Tuesdays and Wednesdays remain closed. It’s a shorter window than the summer, so it’s worth planning ahead, and with the plan to close for the season around Friday December 12, there are only a handful of weeks left to get there before Magdalena and her team take a richly earned winter rest.

 

That December date matters. Once the doors close, they won’t reopen until next year, so if you’ve been meaning to go, or if you’re the kind of person who always says “we should try that place” while driving past the marina, now really is the time.

 

For those who’ve always wondered what Yemanjá actually means, it’s worth a moment. In the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition of Candomblé, Yemanjá is a powerful female goddess of the salt waters, considered the mother of all the orixás and a protector of women, children and sailors. Her annual festival takes place every February 2 in Salvador de Bahia, where devotees gather along the shoreline with offerings of candles, perfume and flowers. Her colours are sky blue, silver and white.

 

It’s a fitting name for a café bar perched beside the sea in a working fishing marina, and it gives the place a spirit that goes a little beyond the usual.

 

Yemanjá is the creation of Magdalena, an Argentinean woman who has spent more than 25 years working in hospitality in Spain and has poured all of that warmth and experience into this little corner of Cabo de Palos. Sitting right alongside the marina, the café bar has a distinctly bohemian, Caribbean-South American feel. There are places you visit and places you settle into. Yemanjá tends to be the latter.

 

The food is the other reason people keep coming back. The menu blends modern tapas with Latin touches, and the range is genuinely impressive for a place of this size. The Olimpia salad, made with avocado, chickpeas, tomato and coriander oil, is a favourite, and the chocolate tartare and Magdalena’s own secret recipe cheesecake have their devoted followers too. Vegetarian and vegan options are taken seriously here rather than treated as an afterthought, and if something doesn’t quite suit you, just ask. The menu is flexible and the welcome is genuine.

 

As Magdalena herself says: “Everyone has a place in Yemanjá.” It’s not just a line. It’s how the place actually feels.

 

 

To book, call or WhatsApp 0034 677 504 844. Yemanjá is at Paseo de la Iglesia, Local 10, Cabo de Palos, La Manga.

 

 

Image: Café bar Yemanjá