Portugal: Carrapateira, Monchique and the convent

I figured when we packed up everything and decided to set off together that I'd take some strain with not having a "home".  To be honest when we went on vacation in the past after two weeks I was ready for my own bed so I really wasn't sure how I'd hold up for a longer jaunt.  Now there really isn't a bed somewhere that I can long for and for now that's ok.

To help with "making it home" Anne brought a few things that reminded us of our past homes and I decided that I'd bring our Roku along so we could keep watching some of the shows that we'd been watching in October.

It is a little tiring and annoying to move every couple of weeks and we've learned quite a bit about how to keep rolling with this.  I was adamant that I'd bring everything I needed in two carry on bags (a overhead and under-seat) but Anne will quickly point out that some of my stuff is in the 2 large suitcases that we check in on the flights and drag along between locations.

My work setup is a laptop on a light fold-up stand (it folds to the size of a small pencil case) with a second small flat monitor and a small keyboard and mouse.  It is pretty important that this setup is something that I can comfortably use for work because I'm at it for 8 - 10 hours a day and occasionally more.  Some of these hours are really late at night depending on where we are staying.  I was also adamant that I would work my regular hours.

I have been stopped a few times because of all the electronics that I had with me.  We have a small battery powered CO2 detector and I brought a small wireless router for the roku and to connect seamlessly back to the USA.  After the second time having to unpack everything to show the little electronic bits I have been putting them into a bag in one of the big suitcases along with some toiletries and my portable hair and beard trimmer.

Not that the hair trimmer has seen much use.  I have ignored cutting my hair since more or less the middle of COVID and it is now quite comfortable down to my shoulders.

When we arrive at a new AirBnb I unpack the small packing cubes I use to organize my clothing and then set up my workstation, the little wireless router and the roku.  Our iphones, computers and Anne's tablet don't have to be reconfigured every time because we still use the wireless hotspot that I had at our home in Essex.

In the Europe and UK timezones I get up at 7:30am (2:30am EDT), read the news and do our duolingo lesson and the wordle (a friendly competition each morning with Anne to see who does it in the least steps) and then we are free to explore until 1pm (8an EDT) when I get myself set up - take care of any admin on the computer and get my head ready for work.  5pm local coincides with lunchtime in the US.

I have left my computer's date and time on EDT because it was getting too confusing to do the timezone conversion everytime a meeting was announced or planned.  The net effect is that once I get zoned into work I often look up at 4pm EDT surprised to see it is dark outside.  Its 9pm local time!  Work ends at 10pm and I'm in bed by 11:30pm.

Our stop in Carrapateira in the Aljezur region has been almost two weeks and is our penultimate stop.  We'll be in Lisbon for two weeks before returning to the US for the rest of May.

Carrapateira is tiny with a single small shop and a few restaurants but with two surf shops.  The town is also on the Rota Vicentina (Fisherman's trail) and you often see hikers on the beach coming off the trail hot and exhausted or in the restaurants.

Hiker snacking after a swim

Our favorite restaurant was Alecrim - we ended up going there for lunch enough times to work through their main meal menu once and a bit.  The chef is Nepalese and the dahl that he makes is really tasty, but so is everything else.

Bacalhau à Brás is a meal with potatoes, egg and cod and I took a photo of it to send to our friend in Sanatarem who I think served this to us when we visited her and her husband.  It is delicious.

There is plenty of hiking around this town and we took a walk up on to the cliffs to the south of the local beach. 

There are landmark metal sculptures of letters with carved inscriptions on their backs describing something significant about the area around and we walked from the letter C to the letter E on one of our mornings.

Monchique is the highest mountain in Portugal and the town Monchique is just below the top of the mountain.  The road to the town from where we were staying was pretty narrow and winding with some gaping drops on the one side along parts of the routes.  I found myself wondering how some of the houses built near these cliffs are going to hold up against the erosion that will inevitably weaken their foundations. 

When we got close to the town we came across this very impressive granite quarry - it is incredible to see how the granite has been hewn out of the mountain leaving stunningly vertical cliffs in the cavity that has been created by cutting and extraction of the granite blocks.

The town is quaint, although it has a reputation of getting very hot in the summer, but our visit there was really comfortable with a cool breeze blowing.

The views from the mirador are really beautiful and the town has the characteristic narrow streets lined with terraced houses.

We visited two interesting places, the first an eccentric ceramicist who makes unusual figures of humans, animals and insects many of which are installed in the water feature at the centre of the town.  The gallery is high on the side of the mountain and is quite enchanting.

We spent some time walking in the garden and examining the caricatured creatures before going back down to the center

where I ordered a town specialty Asadura de Porco Preta (black pork roast) which a plateful of cut up roasted pork strips with fries and a salad.  Pigs are farmed here so I guess this is why it is a town specialty.

After lunch we hiked up the side of the mountain to an old convent.  We had read that people are squatting there and assumed that we would not be able to go in.

Indeed there were markings on the doors and walls all around the deteriorating building that said "Familia" and "Private".  

I'm not sure what prompted me to ask a man sitting on a rock near the front entrance whether the convent was closed (I used the Spanish word "cerrada" with some hand signs) - and he promptly got up and beckoned for us to follow him.  I said "no tengo dinero" (I don't have money) again relying on Spanish and he shook his head and said "no problema".

Of course we were immediately on high alert because he was leading us along a long and winding path around the back of the convent but for some reason I felt ok to follow him - deciding that if things started to get dodgy we'd have to make a plan

He pulled a gate open and then a double door leading in to the convent which was a cavernous hall with no roof and a couple of trees growing in it and then he locked the door behind us!

I was wondering if there were a gang of people who would fleece us once we were inside, but it was deserted.  Afterwards Anne told me she was imagining how she would defend us with her hiking poles.

He gestured to different rooms for me to see and made hand signs to take photos before telling us that the convent had been there since the 1400s.

We discovered afterwards in a write-up that the property is owned by a person local to the town and that he is quite happy for people to go in there and get a tour at no charge.  We still don't know who the person is who let us in but he was kind and friendly and I wish I had had some spare change for him.

We took a leisurely drive back on the other main road to Monchique - to Portimao - a busy town just north of Lagos but turned off on the highway to bring us back to our AirBnb.

I'm constantly evaluating these towns and the properties against the "could I live here" metric.  Anne would say my bar is too low because I have often told her that I could live in a box but I do find it interesting to see what is on offer in the realtors' windows.

Real estate office behind Anne at the restaurant

For the first time since getting here the realtors' window didn't feature large beautiful homes of over $1 million but rather featured many dilapidated houses, some on large farms for under $100 000.  One that struck my eye was a farm of over 1000m2 with three homes on it for $450 000.  A little pricey and of course got me wondering if these houses had permits to be fixed up.  From the look of it one of the 3 houses was in reasonably good shape but the other two were a mess.

We'll be back in the area in a few months with a more critical eye, looking more seriously for a place that we can long to return to after a 2 week vacation somewhere.