Land’s End

Well, the tourists are returning to the Algarve for the holidays, so that must mean it’s time for us to leave. The other day, I went to the grocery store and was shocked to discover that the normally empty parking lot was full of caravans, all laying in provisions for their winter break. After six weeks here, we’re both ready to go and start the next adventure but I think Coco will miss it here: she’s had the run of the Monte da Lagoa compound with her doggie friends Kalya and Luna as well as daily ball-throwing sessions on the endless beach. It’s also great being able to let her out in the morning to do her business in the field so we can enjoy our coffee in bed a while longer. Our place in Spain will be a lot more urban, so there goes our second morning cup of java. 

We’re doing lots of pictures this time with less text. You’re welcome.

Recently, the weather has improved and we’ve been taking advantage of the sun and relatively warm temperatures — 15°C (or 60°F for the gringos) and above — to get in some exploring. We spent a day in the Alentejo city of Mértola, just north of here, and did a little shopping at the Thursday market, a giant, mobile mercado where you can buy just about anything you could need to wear or to furnish your house, not unlike the one that we had in Novi Ligure in Italy. We walked up to the centuries-old castle that overlooks the town and had a picnic lunch in the courtyard. You could walk along the 10-foot-high stone castle walls with no pesky guardrails or nagging warning signs like you might see in the States — I guess the EU doesn’t enjoy the same liability laws that we enjoy back home. By the time we made it back to the car, the market had packed up and disappeared without a trace, like the circus, heading to the next town.

On Friday, we took a relatively flat seven-mile hike around the nearby rural town of Cacela, crossing through small towns and farmland, and across the railroad tracks. Before the hike, we stopped to get some food to go at a restaurant but the owner told me that they didn’t do takeaway and we’d have to go to the restaurant next door. I nodded and made my way down the sidewalk to the takeout counter, only to have the same guy appear behind the counter. The Monty Python effect only increased when I went back for a plastic fork to eat our rice and beans and he turned me down flat(ware), telling me that they only had those for the eat-in customers. I was tempted to run back to the other restaurant and ask for a fork but he didn’t look like he was as amused by the situation as I.

The next day, we hiked through old-town Ayamonte, the first town you come to after crossing the Spanish border. Saturday lunch there is a big deal and we grabbed one of the last seats at a place near the harbor and ordered the paella — with no seafood, of course — our first time enjoying the famous rice dish since arriving on the Iberian peninsula. There’s not a lot to Ayamonte beyond the bustling waterfront full of restaurants and shops but our new friends Olaf and Lorraine clued us in to the fact that it’s the hometown of the famous Spanish singers Pitingo and Maria Isabel. We hadn’t heard of Pitingo either but, apparently, he’s huge in Spain, mostly from a cover of “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” and he recently did a big concert there, giving away free tickets to anyone with an Ayamonte address — very classy. Maria is, of course, best known as the winner of the Junior Eurovision contest in 2004. 

As I mentioned last time, our compound was filling up and so we decided to have a drinks party to get everyone together. Five countries and four languages were represented — a mini Tower of Babel — and much wine was consumed. It was good getting to know them all a little better and Pilar, our hostess, even made a rare social appearance. We learned that she lost her husband a few years ago and is still grieving, but that managing the property has helped to keep her busy. 

The next day, despite our mild hangover, we took a long, somewhat arduous hike around Odeleite, a village that we had visited earlier in the month. We didn’t get a lot of nature or arduous exercise in Porto so it’s nice to be playing ourselves back into shape. Surprisingly, over the seven miles on the trail, we only saw three other hikers! I guess a lot of the visitors to the Algarve stay in their RVs on the beach. After another day of much-needed rest, we explored the ancient city of Alcoutim, hard by the Guadiana River, and then took a one-hour-and-one-minute ferry ride — that’s including the one-hour time zone change — across the river to Sanlúcar in Spain and did a beautiful, if hilly, two-hour loop walk along the river and back to the ferry. There’s a lot of history between the two border towns, going back centuries, but the bond was broken during the Spanish Civil War when, in 1936, Franco shut down all river traffic between the two municipalities. Since they had come to rely on each other so heavily, a network of smugglers kept the trade going on the sly. Legal traffic resumed in 1973 but the legacy of the contrabandos is still celebrated on both sides of the river.  Alcoutim has it all: a fort, a castle, windmills, boats, a river, a ferry, British expats drinking in cafes, multiple churches, cobblestones, and two countries in close proximity. Highly recommended.

Quickly running out of time here in the Algarve, we took the long drive out past the city of Sagres to Ponta de Sagres and Cabo da Roca, the westernmost tip of Portugal — and mainland Europe, for that matter. With Africa to the south, nothing except 3,000 miles of deep blue Atlantic Ocean (well, and the Azores) between you and North America, and all of Europe over your shoulder, it’s an awe-inspiring site. There’s an old fort, a lighthouse, and an easy walking path out on the promontory that takes you past fishermen casting their lines from the cliffs to the ocean, about 200 feet below — not that you can’t buy fresh fish at a dozen markets in the nearby town. 

We’d now covered the whole southern coast of Portugal, from the western tip to the border of Spain, and on the long drive home we agreed that our work here was done. We’ll pack up on Sunday and hit the road early Monday morning.  We enjoyed our stay in Portugal but both agreed that we haven’t yet been sold on living here. Show us what you’ve got, Spain! 

P.S. Just so you know that we are not just sitting around on beaches or hiking, we are actually both working on different book projects. Steve is reworking and rewriting his LP-based project from his 2022 Facebook posts, all with the help of his friend Michael Azerrad. (Btw, check out Michael’s new book, The Amplified Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana — makes a good stocking-stuffer!) Meanwhile, across the room, Denise is working on a book project for Tinker Camp, the STEM education group that she was involved with back in Portland. There’s also another secret art/book project she has been developing as well as the ongoing work she’s always drumming up with Therese Randall, her long-time partner in brand communication projects. Coco, for her part, is preparing a memoir about her travels across Europe, to be published next year by Random Doghouse. Does anyone have any ideas for titles?