Where are Ron and Ellen?
Portugal (Ron and Ellen), Southeastern Africa (Ron), 19 September 2013 - 13 January 2014
Ron and Ellen in Porto, Portugal, October 2013
Sagres, Monchique, and Tavira, Portugal
To see photos of Sagres, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Monchique, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Sagres and Tavira
To see photos of Tavira, click on the thumbnail at the left.
14 October 2013
Tavira, PortugalDear Family and Friends,
We spent four nights in Sagres, enjoying our balcony overlooking the water. The scenery was dramatic, with rocky cliffs plunging straight into the sea or sheltering small bays with sandy beaches. It is an area popular with surfers, since, depending on the tides and the winds, there is good surf at some of the beaches. For sunset the first night we went out to the point where there are the remains of a 17th-18th century fort built after the 1755 earthquake on the site of previous fort built in the 1400s. Prince Henry the Navigator is supposed to have built a school here for the study of astronomy, navigation, cartography, and ship design, and Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellen supposedly studied here. The fort was closed when we went to view the sunset but we went back another day and toured it. The best part is that you can walk all the way out and around the point along a signposted path telling you about birds and plants and geological features of the area. Another night we went for sunset to Cabo de Sao Vicente, Europe's most southwestern point. In both cases, the sun just seems to fall into the sea - quite spectacular. Cabo de Sao Vicente has a lighthouse on it hat has a hugely powerful light that can be seen 60 miles/100 km out to sea, since hundreds of sea-going ships round the cape every day. And the Cape would have been the last sight of land for crews on all the Portuguese voyages of discovery - they must have watched it disappear with some apprehension, not knowing if they would ever return.
Between sunsets we walked around the fishing harbor and watched the boats unload their neatly sorted bins of different kinds of fish, watched the surfers at various beaches, caught up with our laundry, and ate some excellent food. Among our favorites: spaghetti with shrimp (done with olive oil, cilantro, salt, pepper, and lots of garlic), grilled sardines (sardines that are about 6-8 inches long, not the tiny things we get in cans in the US, done with olive oil and lemon and course salt), tuna with onion sauce (a local favorite, the onion sauce being sliced onions sauted with olive oil and lemon and spread on top of the grilled tuna steak), and a kebab with shrimp and pineapple and papaya.
On our way from Sagres (on the southwestern tip of Portugal) to Tavira (on the eastern end of Portugal's southern coast), we spent one night in Monchique, only a little over an hour from Sagres, but totally different. It is inland, up a steep and winding mountain road, a small town with narrow winding streets going up the side of the mountain. It is an area where people come to hike, although the extent of our hiking was to the ruins of a monastery above the town, with wonderful views out across the valley all the way to the coast. Sunday morning we wound our way down the mountain again and drove along the coast to Tavira, a town at the mouth of a river.
We've enjoyed Tavira, which is a completely different coastal landscape from Sagres. Here it is very flat, with tidal marshes, salt flats (the area produces high-quality table salt), and a white sand beach that is a huge long sandy island, a barrier island, that goes for miles and miles along the coast. It is all a protected reserve, so, although there are a few restaurants and cafes at the various beaches, there is no other development - no high rise hotels, etc. - and everything is accessible to the public. We walked across a floating bridge over the tidal marshes and along a path to Barilla Beach yesterday afternoon, and today walked along the road past the salt flats (flamingos and storks stalking in the shallow waters, seagulls lined up on the mud ridges between the pools) to take a boat across the inland estuary to Ilha de Tavira, another beautiful white sand beach further east on the island from where we were yesterday. The temperature is pleasant, but definitely not warm enough to tempt us into the water - my bathing suit will be the one item of clothing I brought that I don't use. Tavira is particularly lovely at night, with the pale gold stone of many buildings reflecting the lights. It has pretty parks along the river, a Roman bridge (Roman foundations under a more modern top) and a beautiful small garden inside the remains of the castle. The site of the castle was first used in Neolithic times, then used by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BC, much later was a Moorish fort, and what is there today is mainly 17th century ruins. But before the river silted in the harbor, resulting in the town being a few kilometers from the open water, this would have been a strategic location at the mouth of a large river. From the fort, which is on a high point, we also had a fine view of the stork nest on a platform built on the side of a very modern communication tower!
We are still sorting out what we are going to do with our last week before returning to Lisbon. Stay tuned!
Love to all,
Ellen and Ron
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Last updated: 31 October 2013
