Near the southern end of the beach stands a modest monument commemorating the 400th anniversary of the departure of the 1564 expedition to the Philippines. It marks the spot from which Miguel López de Legazpi and the friar-navigator Andrés de Urdaneta set sail on what would become one of the defining voyages of the Spanish Empire — the colonisation of the Philippines and the establishment of the Manila Galleon trade route that would link Asia and the Americas for 250 years.
The monument is easy to miss, but the story it represents is extraordinary. Two decades earlier, in 1542, the same beach had already seen Ruy López de Villalobos depart with six galleons and nearly 400 men on an earlier attempt to reach the islands — the expedition that gave the Philippines their name. That Barra de Navidad, then a small colonial shipbuilding port, launched two of the most consequential Pacific expeditions in history is remarkable for a town that today is known mainly for its beach.