Armação de Pêra

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11/7/13
Leaving for Portugal involved driving up through, or past Sevilla. We were glad we didn't stop there as it looked big and busy and we just want to go to sleepy beach places for a while.
Driving across the border into portugal involved stopping at an automated checkpoint where we were required to swipe our credit card to pay for any toll road we might use. After being told our credit cards were invalid several times by the robot, we just drove on in anyway. It appears we have to now avoid toll roads. We may have no crockery left in 2 weeks.
Portugal has a much different vibe. The people are so much more laid back. Not that the Spanish were unfriendly on the whole, but the Portuguese seem to be smiling an awful lot more, and they so far speak more English than the Spanish which makes life a bit easier. And just as well, because I find Portuguese so difficult to pronounce.
The first stop was Olhão, a little fishing port near Faro. The brave explorers left from here around 1800 without any navigation equipment in a 20 metre boat and landed in what is now Brazil. They seem to be pretty proud of this feat.
We had a spectacular seafood meal, and had our first taste of vinho verde...green wine which is a really crisp young refreshing wine, naturally lower in alcohol and matured for a short time in the bottle...giving it some bubble, but nothing like a sparking wine or champagne.

12/7/13
Today we are taking Daphne to Faro where she is catching a train to meet a friend in Lisbon.
When we moved further along the coast, we found some beautiful beaches and grottoes starting at a beach uncalled Marinha. It would have been a great place to park overnight and wake up in the morning in this lovely location, but Suzy wanted wifi and a long shower, and Tony was concerned about the safety aspect. So we went to a nearby beachside town and tourist destination called Armação de Pêra. The brochure looks great. The reality is a different story. The economic hardship being experienced by Portugal is apparent here. It was a run down dirty campground, with mozzies the size of flies, and cats using the playground as a toilet. The showers smelt like sewerage and you wouldn't sit on the toilet...and I'm not generally faint hearted when it comes to toilets. The campground was a dust wasteland surrounded by a barbed wire fence. the beach was visible in the distance beyond the barbed wire, broken glass, mosquito breeding ground and crematorium urn dumping shed. The beach was supposed to be '5 minutes' away on foot. We did the experiment. Not true.
We were pretty tired, and didn't feel like venturing out into town, so we decided to eat in and watch some comedy on Daphne's computer. Our eyelids became quite heavy at about 1030, so we started getting ready for bed. Just as we were ready to hop into bed, a loud thumping noise started up. It appeared the restaurant on the premises was having a bit of live music tonight. It sounded like a guy on a mike with a small band behind him consisting of some kind of electronic keyboard, and drums, along with some pre recorded musak to help him along. To make up for the lack of musical charisma, it seems you must turn up the volume. The sound system certainly wasn't lacking, it would have put the amp stack in the big top at the folk festival to shame...and it was only about 50 metres away. At first it was kind of funny, but as time wore on, and the 12 midnight total silencio signed in all the campgrounds, including this one, didn't seem to apply here. To describe the music...think Borat with a headache. Tony got dressed and went on over to investigate. He said there were about 30 people there. I figured it must have been a concert for the hearing impaired and musically challenged. It stopped at around 1230, after tony went and complained!
Needless to say we didn't seem very popular when we went to check out.

The beach is in the distance.