Beginning of week two

Tomorrow we are off on a tourist trip to 3 small communities north of Albufeira. These are said to be traditional old Algarve villages "unspoiled" by modern living. It is a bit of a puzzle how they remain so when tourist buses descend on on them on a regular basis. We'll see tomorrow.

I mentioned yesterday that I walked to the western part of Albufeira. Adjacent is a view of the ocean from a street in that area.

I was especially interested in the relatively new "marina", which is protected by a couple of large breakwater structures. When Ruth first came to Portugal about 6 years ago, the multicoloured Portuguese fishing boats were pulled up on the beach in old town. This is was a tradition that was nostalgic of earlier days but it is no longer the case. The boats now dock in the protected area of the rather extensive marina. Those of us looking for nostalgia are disappointed, but it is likely much better for the fishermen.

This is a view looking out to the entrance to the marina and the ocean beyond. This marina area is much larger than I had expected, sheltering a large number of all manner of boats including sail boats and a couple of very large yachts.

This photo speaks to the current problems with the world and Portuguese economy. This extremely large development for housing the once growing number of tourists appears to be completely abandoned, at least for now. The number of tourists has apparently decreased substantially - for example we are told that the number of Canadians coming to this community is down by 50%.

This is not a trick of photoshop. This is exactly the way the sky looked yesterday when I was sitting having fresh orange juice and apple pie at one of our usual refreshment places.

Sorry, I couldn't resist showing these beach images. This one from yesterday and the one below are my favourite sunrise beach images from this morning.

This sunset from tonight is a preliminary to this - click on the link "one click closer to being here" - then when you get to Picasa, choose full screen and click on the photo. one click closer to being here!
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