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There are two barrier islands off the coast of Olhao; although they get referenced as three.  Armona, where Bob had the grilled sardines last week, stands alone.  Then there is one island that is discussed as two islands — Culatra and Farol.  You can take a ferry to either one.  Culatra is on on the northern end of the island and Farol is on the south.  It costs a bit more for the ferry to Farol (though the same ferry stops at both places), so we have always (the 2 times that we’ve gone) purchased the round trip ticket to Culatra and then walked the beach to Farol.  The first time we went we didn’t spend anytime in Farol after we got there as we were trying to catch a 1 pm ferry back (didn’t happen), so we got to explore Culatra.  This week we went back to check out Farol.

The walk to Farol from the Culatra boat dock took us about 50 minutes.  You walk through town (village?), then along a boardwalk to the beach,and then a shoeless walk along the beach for some free exfoliating (sorry for that mental picture).  Neither of us really have swimsuits with us, and we prefer the walking to the lying out (or getting into the cold water).  Once in Farol, we checked out the lighthouse, walked out along the pier where there were people fishing, and then walked by the local restaurant and inns.

While the ferries have always been pretty full on our trips to the islands, the beaches have not been crowded.  Part of that is likely due to the time of the year and part to the fact that some of the ferry traffic is locals going about their daily business that takes them back and forth to the island and mainland.

It was another lovely walkabout on Farol.  See highlights below.

Two views of people enjoying different parts of the beach —

The pier

Barriers along the pier — shaped like big jacks

Clear water!

We spent a lovely day Monday in Tavira, Portugal, a 25 minute (or so) train ride out of Olhaio along the Atlantic Coast towards Spain.  Rick Steves described it as a “sleepy town,” but we were charmed and found it to be in the midst of some refurbishment/construction.  We again were aided in our town walk about by the map left by our home owner along with Rick Steves 2 page write up.

After walking into town from the train station, an easy 5-10 minute walk, we started our tour of Tavira at the castle.  The base of the castle walls are supposedly Neolithic (ending about 4,500 – 2,000 BC!) with Phoenicians, Moors, and Portugese adding their own layers as time progressed.  What remains of the castle are portions of the wall that enclose a lovely garden.  From the top of the walls, you can also get great views of the town.

Entrance to the Castle Garden

View of town from top of Castle Walls

View of Castle Garden from above

After the Castle, we walked to the nearby old water tower to view the camera obscura.  This was an impressive presentation using a mirror and 2 lenses to show you a real-time view of the city.  We liked the thought that by walking around town, we might be part of the next show.  We were also I,pressed with our young presenter’s ability to talk through what we were seeing in three different languages — English, French, and German for our group.

Other town sites that we enjoyed were the Church of Santa Maria and its bell tower, the former convent which is now a pousada (government-run inn), the Church of the Misercordia, and the bridges and promenades along the Rio Gilao.

Church of Santa Maria and Santiago

Bell Tower

The Posada

Courtyard hallway

Swimming Pool

Stairs and altar in Church of Misericordia

Portion of tiled wall inside church

View Across the River

Cute House

Bob admiring the view

Street Muscian serenade

The other activity we really enjoyed was walking out along the river to the marina.  It appears to be a newly developed area, and we had a lovely picnic lunch overlooking the water.

Over the past three days we have continued to explore various parts of the greater Olhao area.  One day we visited the Environmental Education Centre of Marim that is a large designated park area that contains education and representative samples of the biodiversity and historical and current uses of the Rio Formosa, the estuary between Olhao and the Atlantic Ocean.  The information is provided through exhibits in the visitor’s center but also along a 3-kilometer nature path through the park.  The trail features aspects of the Rio Formosa ecosystem such as salt marshes, dunes, and pine woodlands.  There is information on local birds to be seen within the park.  There are also buildings such as a traditional farmhouse and waterwheel, a mill that ran on the power of the tide (aptly called a tidal mill), and the lovely former villa of a locally renowned poet that has been repurposed into an educational center for children.

Villa of the poet, Joao Lucio, as you enter.

View 1 of the surrounding area from the balcony of the villa.

View 2 of the surrounding area from the balcony of the villa.

Interesting flower along path

Lagoon within park

Inside the former tidal mill

View from outside of the tidal mill

The following day we got to see the Rio Formosa park from the water, as we took the water ferry to the barrier island of Armona — a bit east of Culatra and Farol which we had visited last week.  The ferry trip to Armona was very short — maybe 20 minutes at most.  In fact, on the way out, it seemed like you could almost walk there, as it was low tide so a number of men were out crabbing.  When we came back in the afternoon the tide was up, and you couldn’t see where the men had been working in the morning.  On Armona, we had a lovely walk on the beach before lunch at a local cafe.  Bob had to try the grilled sardines and local brandy that one of our homeowners had been telling us about.  You will see that he enjoyed it.

Grilled sardines and Licorice Beirao

The end

Yesterday we decided to walk to, and climb up, a hill that we can see from the place we are staying.  It is one of the hills that run behind the town of Olhao, and we noticed it because of the long poles that are atop it.  Bob had read about the possibility of going up it, so we had to do it.  It was a fairly urban hike in that the majority of it was along roads (but not sidewalks) though towards the end we were on a gravel road for a bit before the final ascent along a rocky path.  Apparently others have done this, as we noted some helpful arrows and cairns along the way.  It took us about 2 and 1/4 hours to get to the top from where we are staying.

View of hill from our “home”

Arrow pointing the way along the road

Cairns marking the trail

At the top

View from the top

On the way up

On our way back to town, we saw a number of discarded cigarette packages.  Smoking is still very popular here even with the disgusting photos that must be required on the packages.  We were a bit dismayed at the name of these butts.

One of the resources that our home owner left for us was a folder of maps for nearby towns.  These show the layouts of the city and also identify points of interest.  We used one of these the other day to explore the town of Faro — a town of about 65,000 about 10k west of Olhao along the Atlantic coast.  Both towns share the Ria Formosa natural area (A coastal dune barrier that runs parallel to the continent and defends a shallow lagoon and marsh system closer to the mainland.).  Faro is the more significant transportation hub with more train and bus connections than Olhao.  Faro also has an international airport.

To do our walkabout of Faro, we caught a train from Olhao and were in Faro in about 15 minutes with one stop in between.  Our walk around Faro took us into the Old Town where we visited the Cathedral and climbed the Bell Tower for a good view of the town and coast.  We also got to see the gilded interior and our first bone chapel.  (Click on photos to see captions.)

Exterior of Cathedral and Bell Tower

View of town from the top of the Tower

One of the Naves in the Cathedral

There are bones in a bone chapel!

There were a large number of churches along the walk, but we also got to see portions of old Roman walls, museums, and a Jewish cemetary.

Some tourists viewed the sites by train.

We also enjoyed walking along the waterfront including going up to the top of a waterfront hotel to see their pool and check out the views.

View of harbor from rooftop bar (not open) at Eva Hotel

Pool on top of Eva Hotel

Eva Hotel and boats

Art along the promenade

Bob and I officially began our Portugal house sit on Wednesday after a great transition with our home owner on Tuesday morning.  She even met us at the train station with a sign with our names on it and showed us to our hotel for Monday night.

We are currently caring for a home and cat (or rather he is letting us stay with him) in Olhao, Portugal, a lovely town in the Algarve region of Portugal, in the southern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast.  It is near the larger city of Faro.  We just keep being blessed with awesome homes, home owners, pets, and interesting locations.

Meet our current boss — a stray rescued by his owner in a prickly patch and so aptly named Catus, Portugese for cactus.  He is still sizing us up but deigned to swat a ball back and forth with us tonight.

We are quite enamored with the view of the town and surrounding hills from the roof terrace of “our” home.  The old town, shoreline, and barrier islands just off the coast are also pretty nice (see below).  Except for one day when it rained for a bit in the morning, the weather has been sunny with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s.

2 Views from our roof

Old Town Olhao and Coast —

Parish Church and Bell Tower

Tiled Restaurant

Public Art in Plaza

Bob doing his version of Big-Eyed Boy Statue

Boats docked along coast

Barrier Islands off Coast — Culatra and Farol

Walking the gorgeous beach from Culatra to Farol

Manmade Beach Decor

Part of the Rio Formosa Lagoon that makes up the island

Natural beach decor

Local home

Bom Dia!

Bob and I began the Continental European portion of our house sitting adventures with a quick non-house-sitting tour through Portugal with stops in — Porto, famous for its port wines, Coimbra, famous for its university (and gorgeous library), Sintra, famous for its castles and palaces, and Lisbon, the capital.  We head to Olhao, in southern Portugal tomorrow to connect with the home owner of our next house sit.

But first — how did we get here?

By car — Though we no longer own one.  After throwing way too much money into it this summer just to have things keep breaking, we sold it to CarMax for more than we expected and feel like we have lost some undesired weight.  We will see how we manage upon our return.

By air — We flew (for the first and likely last time) SATA (now Azores) Airlines from Boston to Porto via Lisbon.  The flight from Boston to Lisbon was a short (compared to some of our other international flights) 6 hours, but the seats were tight, there was little legroom, and no pillows, blankets, or media were provided.  The interior lights seemed to be off when they should have been on and vice versa.  I didn’t sleep at all, and Bob slept very little.  This was following a poor night’s sleep in our hostel in Boston due to street noise and sleeping in twin bunk beds with a room with no bathroom — fun journey down the hall during the night, especially from the top bunk!  We did have an awesome day in Boston though.  Great weather and a fun tour of Fenway, a stroll down the Charles River Esplanade, and then a great lunch at a Faneuil Hall restaurant overlooking the street performers.

Everywhere in Portugal, we have enjoyed the super friendly people, the tiled architecture, the hills, and the beautiful summer weather.  Check out some of the highlights (click on photos for captions) —

Porto

Scenes of Porto’s history done in traditional blue and white tile in train station

Tiled mosaic pattern on sidewalk

View of Porto waterfront from bridge crossing Duoro River

Graham’s Lodge House where we did our tour and tasting. They also own Warre’s and Dow’s.

Bob with his port flight following the tour.

CAnother view of the Porto Riverfront.

Coimbra

Coimbra University Library — rated one of the most beautiful in the world

View of Coimbra from university plaza

Elevator connecting upper and lower portions of Coimbra

Ceiling of university building

Organ in university chapel

Tiled wall in university building

Sintra —

Moorish Castle

Pena Palace

National Palace

Lisboa —

Lisbon elevator joking upper and lower sections of old town

View of Lisbon from one of many overlooks

Lisbons Arco da Rua Augusta — built to commemorate the city’s reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake

One of many beautiful tiled buildings in this country

Monastery of the Jeronimos

Belem Tower

View from Belem Tower

Bob getting free cheese samples at a local market

Watching the making of a bacalao (cod) croquette

I just checked, and our last blog was July 18.  A blog a month seems a bit lazy, but I’d prefer to think of it as time spent living rather than writing.  Anyhoo, we’re checking in now and hoping this finds you well and enjoying your August.

Bob and I have had an interesting month with some time apart, visits with family, and more southern AZ adventures.

During the last week in July, Bob flew to Des Moines to take a national cheese certification test as well as participate in all things cheese for a couple of days before heading to Plattesmouth, NE for a family reunion.  Much thanks to his nephews for housing and transportation in Des Moines as well as transportation to and from Nebraska.

My (Beth’s) solo time was primarily consumed with dealing with car issues.  I can’t tell you how much I am not a car fan.  Where are the jet packs?  Luckily, once the car was in the shop for the 2nd time in three days, I got a rental car to pick up my sister at the Tucson airport for some awesome girl time in AZ.

Once reunited in early August, Bob and I headed out for some new adventures.  One Sunday, we drove the two hours to Phoenix to watch a baseball game between 2 cellar-dwellers — the AZ Diamondbacks and the Milwaukee Brewers.  The game was fun, and we enjoyed walking around the stadium (roof closed for coolness!) prior to the game.

With our homeowners’ permission and help from the neighbor in watching the dogs and house, we did an overnight trip to Tombstone and Bisbee.  In Tombstone (which had a lot of foreign visitors filling up on Wild West Americana), we saw a staged performance of the shoot-out at the OK Corral (actually pretty fun) and then walked along the main drag to the old newspaper office of the Tombstone Epitaph (cuz every Tombstone needs an epitaph) for our copy of the newspaper edition of the shoot-out, and then saw a really hokey, multimedia diorama presentation on the history of Tombstone.  The later was primarily taken over by crying babies and young children having to be taken out by parents.

We had visited Bisbee before and really wanted to return.  We had a lovely walk around town following our arrival (We had just missed a hail storm.) and then a great dinner out that night.  The highlight (for Beth anyway) was walking the course for the Bisbee 1000 Great Stair Climb race that is held every fall.  We did this the following morning.  The course takes you up (you always go up the stairs) 9 flight of stairs (most at least 100 steps) around town, as the city is built on a mountainside, which allows for great views of the town and surrounding area.

We have also done a common activity for southern Arizonans –going to Nogales, Mexico for dental care.  We just had a teeth cleaning, but it was fun being in a border city again. Super easy to walk across in both directions — even with a wall.  Nogales, AZ, is very hilly and much less desert-like in appearance than the border cities that we’ve been in Texas.

We are loving summer in the desert! Much cooler here than in Austin with early ams being especially lovely for running and walking the dogs (around 76-78 degrees!).  The summer also brings out the elusive cactus flowers that we are always trying to capture before they close up again.  We haven’t had a lot of the monsoons that we were warned of (except for when my sister was here), although we have heard the thunder and seen the lightening of storms that have occurred around us.

We head out of Green Valley in a little over a week to start our European adventures which will include stops in Portugal, France, Belgium, and maybe Italy.

While we haven’t completely bonded with the intense heat (dry though it is), we are enjoying the mountain views and desert flora and fauna.  Just thought we’d share a few of our most recent photos while we continue to wait for the promised monsoons.

In light of the recent US and world events, I have to start with the photo below.  This feels like it’s become the half-staff year.

Bob and I had a great visit to the Saguaro National Park — western division this past week.  Our visit started with a film in the lovely visitor’s center on the interdependence of the desert plants and animals on each other in order to survive.  There seemed to be a message there for all of us . . .

We continue to be impressed with the size and longevity of the saguaro (pronounced Sa Wah Ro) cactus that grows so prominently in the Sonoran dessert.

It’s amazing that these often giant plants begin as a seed the size of a pinhead and grow so slowly that they may be only 12 inches tall after 15 years!  A 7 foot saguaro may be about 50 years old, and if it has sprouted “arms” it may be at least 75 years old.  Saguaros that live 150 years or more may be over 50 feet tall and weigh more than 16,000 pounds!

Other plants that we finally learned the names for at the park are the Ocotillo, the Cholla cactus, and the Palo Verde tree which is identified by its green trunk.

We have seen some beautiful flowers as well here, but we have learned that we need to get a photo of them right away as the blooms don’t last very long.  Here are two plants in bloom right in “our” yard.

There are definitely some agricultural areas around here as well.  This weekend we went to Willcox, AZ to an orchard to pick peaches and then stopped into one of the handful of wineries near that town.

Finally, we have had some interesting animal sightings.  I saw my first bear on a hike late last week.  Luckily, I saw it before it saw me, so I had time to figure out what to do since it was alongside the trail in the direction that I needed to go.  I finally decided to move into its line of sight and move very slowly looking as big and as confident as possible.  It decided I wasn’t that interesting, as it headed off.  Of course, then, I wished I had gotten a photo.  Still, glad to be alive to have that regret.  Bob captured some other fun animals that we saw this week —

Neighborhood sightings include lots of birds and lizards, roadrunners, rabbits, Gambel Quail, and some fairly sizable coyotes.  Also, and one long snake that I stepped over as I was walking one of the dogs before realizing what it was!  Pretty exciting stuff for city dwellers!

When we aren’t playing with our new favorite M & Ms (“our dogs” — Molly and Maya), we have been doing some desert and mountain hikes to get up close and personal with the area.

Molly just chillin

Maya couch surfin

We did two hikes recently in the eastern portion of the Saguaro National Park and a mountain hike on Mount Lemmon.  Both areas are near Tucson.  We paid $10 to go into the Saguaro National Park for our first hike.  However, the fee was good for a week, so we had to go back for a second hike.  The hike on Mount Lemmon is part of the Coronado National Forest, and there was no fee to hike there.

The following are some snaps from our hike on the Douglas Springs Trail in the Saguaro National Park.  This was a great hike through a cactus “forest” to a waterless springs which made for a good picnic break.

A few days later we hit the Deer Valley Loop trail in the same park.  This ended up being a bit of a sandy hike as the trails had us walking through dry washes.

Yesterday we hiked the Butterfly Trail on Mount Lemmon.  We did not see any butterflies, but along with the great mountain views and pine trees we did see a wild turkey and a big, black snake (not photographed, just happy not to have stepped on it!), and a large fungus.

So, there is volunteering and there is “volunteering.”  Beth has been volunteering one day a week at the local library.  This makes Beth a happy book nerd.  Last week, Bob and I “volunteered” at a Tucson distillery to help them bottle and package their smoky whisky.  Unlike in Scotland where they use peat to create the smokiness in their whiskies, this company uses mesquite.  They also make an unsmoked variety.  Bob and I were part of a five person crew that worked the afternoon shift 11-3).  For our help, we received a free lunch and a 750 ml bottle each of one of their whiskies.  The owner and staff were really nice, and we learned a bit more about Tucsan and the bottling process — just ask us about those shrink-wrapped necks the next time you see us.

Bob and I had our first minor “crisis” of our house sit tour last week when the AC decided it had had enough of the super hot conditions and decided to retire prematurely.  It apparently wasn’t alone, as it took a few calls to find someone that could come out the next day to see what the issue was.  It took the better part of the day to get the issue resolved, but all is well and we’re as “cool” as ever — no worries there.

In other news, we have been watching the AZ Wildcats advance in Omaha, and have confirmed house sit commitments through the beginning of November.  Following our time here, we will fly to Portugal in early September for a 3 week house sit in Olhao, Portugal (southern part of country — near Faro), then we will head to France for a 2 week house sit in Souillac (near Toulouse) and then to Belgium for a 10 day sit in Boitsfort (suburb of Brussels).  Woo Hoo!

Also, we have been seeing some more of the southern Arizona area. . .

We did another urban adventure in Tucson, this time we took the short ride on their street car (for $4 you can ride it all day, but it basically goes from the mercado area just west of the city center, through the 4th street district downtown, and the university) as well as walked.  We found some more big head photo ops for Bob, got a personal tour of the postal museum, and then drove up Sentinel Peak (“A” Mountain) to get a great view of the town as well as the UofA “A” that gets painted white each year by the students.

We suffered through one of the worst tours ever to get to the Whipple Observatory atop one of the mountains outside of Green Valley.  The tour started at 9 am with a couple of films and ended a little before 3 after mostly a slow slog up (and then back down) the mountain by bus.  The road was narrow, windy, and sometimes paved and sometimes not.  We stopped at a couple of different types of telescopes which I still don’t know too much about.  We had a picnic lunch (which we each brought) at our 2nd stop before we were hauled in smaller groups by SUV to the top telescope.  The views at the top were great as well as the views on the way up and down (if you could deal with looking out).  Note to tour guides:  formally introduce yourself, the name and importance of the facility being toured, and what will happen during the tour.  Have fun facts to highlight on bus ride and try to talk to the whole tour group when off of the bus.  (Maybe I’ve found my next career?)

Our find of the stay so far though has to be the cute town of Bisbee.  It is about a 2 hour drive southeast of here.  It is located about a mile up in the Mule Mountains, but you drive down into it and their are steps all over town to help you get from one level to the other.  It definitely has an Austiny ” keep it weird” vibe.  We plan to go back.