Trip to the western Algarve

This post is under construction. The links here are links to some of the places we visited on our trip from Albufeira, our home base, to the western Algarve on March 12. Photos and stories soon.

Some introductory comments. We had a wonderful day from every point of view. The weather was perfect; sunny and pleasantly warm in most places. The higher elevations such as Marmelete were a bit cooler but still warm enough for light clothing. The scenery and our leader and guide, Irie, were great. We learned much about Portugal and Portuguese history, only bits and pieces of which might appear here. As with Carnaval, there will be 3 or 4 posts about this trip.

We drove intially from Albufeira to the small community of Pêra then to Alcantarilha,(which means bridge in Arabic - names beginning in "Al" are from the Arabic or Moorish period in Portugal) then to Porches (a producer of decorated ceramic tiles - Azulejos).

Then to Lagoa (which means lagoon) and south to Carvoeiro. (which means charcoal burner) on the south coast. Here we learned about and saw an Algar, which is a bit like a huge "sink hole" - a hole all the way down to the ocean. There are some that are just a big round hole (we saw one that was about 10 meters across) to complex ones like the one in the photos.

The first photo is taken at the top of the Algar looking out toward the ocean and the second is looking down from the top.





If you look closely about 2/3 of the way down from the top of the enlarged version of the third photo you can see the small opening to the ocean. Photo 4 was taken looking up from about a third of the way down - if you look closely at this one you can see Ruth.

The 5th photo is another view from near the top and the 6th is a second Algar a couple of kilometres away. This one is just a round hole, possibly 30 meters across, that opens to the ocean at the bottom. For safety reasons there is a fence around it, so it is not possible to actually see the bottom.

From here we drove north into the Monchique mountains that separate the Algarve from the adjacent province, Alentejo, on our way to Marmelete, en route to Aljezur.

Just a word about the provinces in Portugal, of which there are 11. These are geographical division only and have no political or administrative functions. The Algarve, for example, is bounded by 4 natural boundaries - the Atlantic Ocean on the west and south, the mountains in the north and the river that forms the border between Portugal and Spain in the east. All other provinces have similar natural boundaries.

More about Aljezur and the other areas in the next post.