Portugal Sunday, March 12/23

 Weather:   This morning I went on the Windy app on my computer (www.windy.com).  Windy is a weather program available to anyone online giving all aspects of weather around the world.  We use it for sailing predictions but today I just zeroed in on Portugal and found the whole country is in 0-5 knots (knots x 1.2 =mph) of wind.  Yesterday we were walking on the boardwalk along Carvoeiro's upper town and spotted 3 sailboats.  All were doing well because the wind was coming offshore so waves were minimal and wind just perfect as it probably speeded up offshore.  Temperature 20c today or more.  Clear.

Pool

We went to the indoor pool around 9:30 this morning and discovered that we had the pool to ourselves (it does happen occasionally) and we left an empty pool at 10:45.  I checked the outside pool and it appears to be around 72F which is what Lake Huron warms to in August. 

Villas, walls, fences

We went for a drive in our area today doing some exploring of areas we haven't covered.  It's absolutely amazing how many thousands of villas exist on some of what once was extremely rough and hilly coast.  Of course the hills make for great vistas and attractive perspectives for the houses.  Imagine a suburb at home gone mad with endless turns, circles, dead ends, cul de sacs, etc. and that is what it is here.  Very easy to get lost.

I haven't talked about in the past, but Portugal is a land of walls.  Most of the roads have walls of stone plastered over to look attractive.  Most were built by farmers and the tradition carries on wherever houses, villas, etc. are built.  Every shack, ruin, house or villa has wall of some sort.  Perhaps some of it security but there is something else in the psyche of the culture that seems to demand a wall around everything.  Even our resort that is very well monitored has a solid fence surrounding it.

Mimosa is just coming out.  Mimosa can be a bush or an 80' high tree.  Lovely.

These boardwalks are ubiquitous along the coast.  When we first came 15 years ago they didn't exist but now most coastal areas have them.  There is certainly a safety factor but they allow more people to get closer to the dangerous cliffs which inhabit much of the south coast.

Tour boats are common.  Many in our area operate out of Portimao or Lagos and travel 10km or more
along the coast to explore caves and hidden beaches.