I saw some dolphins!
Posted on May 2.
So. I flew into Faro on Tuesday to glorious sunshine. I was met by my couchsurfing host but he had work to do so I went and wandered around the city myself. Faro is quite nice, but very touristy. Most signs are in English as well as Portuguese and there are tourists EVERYWHERE. I went around with my host (Jose) in the evening (went to the beach and stuff) and his mother cooked a wonderful homecooked Portuguese dish with cod (and I don´t even like fish).
Wednesday I took the train to Lagos (the the west of Faro) and there you can tell why people come to Portugal. White sand, emerald water and sun sun sun. I needed to make it 300 km north to a place called Setubal by that night but I didn´t have quite enough money in my daily allowance left for the bus. I decided to try hitch-hiking a bit of the way to make the bus cost less. I got picked up a few times but in almost 3 hours I really only made it 60 km east and not north at all! I ended up catching the bus from Abufeira (which cost .50€ less) and made it to Setubal alright.
Yesterday a bunch of couchsurfers and their friends came to Setubal to go on a dolphin watching expedition. It took us a while to find the dolphins (called golphinos in Portuguese) and I was resigned to just enjoying the sailing but it was such a treat to find the dolphins. They danced and played around the boat and I got lots of great pictures. I´ll see if I can get them up this weekend. When you have a big enough group in Portugal you can make a deal with a restaurant to set a rate for each person and they´ll let you eat and drink as much as you want. So for 10€ the group of 18 or so of us got to eat and drink (water, pop, booze) until we were stuffed. After we headed to the beach and played some volleyball and relaxed before heading home.
Today we head up the mountain (well more of a hill really) to another beach and a convent (or something).
I got a new Portuguese number so don´t try calling my old on, it won´t work. Not sure what the new number is but when I figure it out I´ll post.
So. I flew into Faro on Tuesday to glorious sunshine. I was met by my couchsurfing host but he had work to do so I went and wandered around the city myself. Faro is quite nice, but very touristy. Most signs are in English as well as Portuguese and there are tourists EVERYWHERE. I went around with my host (Jose) in the evening (went to the beach and stuff) and his mother cooked a wonderful homecooked Portuguese dish with cod (and I don´t even like fish).
Wednesday I took the train to Lagos (the the west of Faro) and there you can tell why people come to Portugal. White sand, emerald water and sun sun sun. I needed to make it 300 km north to a place called Setubal by that night but I didn´t have quite enough money in my daily allowance left for the bus. I decided to try hitch-hiking a bit of the way to make the bus cost less. I got picked up a few times but in almost 3 hours I really only made it 60 km east and not north at all! I ended up catching the bus from Abufeira (which cost .50€ less) and made it to Setubal alright.
Yesterday a bunch of couchsurfers and their friends came to Setubal to go on a dolphin watching expedition. It took us a while to find the dolphins (called golphinos in Portuguese) and I was resigned to just enjoying the sailing but it was such a treat to find the dolphins. They danced and played around the boat and I got lots of great pictures. I´ll see if I can get them up this weekend. When you have a big enough group in Portugal you can make a deal with a restaurant to set a rate for each person and they´ll let you eat and drink as much as you want. So for 10€ the group of 18 or so of us got to eat and drink (water, pop, booze) until we were stuffed. After we headed to the beach and played some volleyball and relaxed before heading home.
Today we head up the mountain (well more of a hill really) to another beach and a convent (or something).
I got a new Portuguese number so don´t try calling my old on, it won´t work. Not sure what the new number is but when I figure it out I´ll post.
