Boats and ships

We are beside the ocean so, boats/ships are an important part of life here and from time to time, we see them pass.

Be sure to click on the images (especially 2, 3, 4 and 7) to see a larger version

Most, of course, are fishing boats which are plentiful and usually in the morning we can see at least a half dozen or more presumably still fishing or on their way home.

In an earlier post I showed some close ups of colourful fishing boats from Santa Luzia - here are a some of photos of less colourful fishing boats putt-putting slowly past the beach, one with numerous companions, bunches of gulls, clearly circling overhead.

In the second photo you have to look very closely to see the fishing boat, but I like the photo so included it. Click on the photo to find the fishing boat.

Quite often there are sailboats of various sizes and some are close enough to get a reasonable photo from our balcony with a zoom lens.

The three photos here include a range of sizes, including a beautiful looking large two mast sailing ship.

A couple of days ago I saw what I thought was someone on a sailboard - couldn't see it well from the balcony but here is what it was. Definitely the smallest sailboat we've seen here.

Then there are the less appealing tanker like ships - one in particular that has been involved in the building up of the beaches, has been prowling around for several days. I included it in an earlier posting, but here is one photo of it close to shore and another quite far out.

The last photo doesn't really show the ship but I include this photo, again, because I like it.

Click on the photo for a better view.

Sunrises, sunsets and oceans

Almost every morning early and evening just before the sun goes down I go down to the beach with my camera - about a 5 minute walk. I go for two reasons: first to make some photos - of sunrises and sunsets and for the light just after sunrise and before sunset which is usually best for interesting highlights and shadows.

I have posted several photos of light and shadows and various patterns on the sand and water and a few of sunrises and sunsets mixed in with other photos. Here are a few more of my favourites.

This is a sunset reflection on the sand.

We are on the top floor of the Clube Oceano and this was taken looking up from our balcony.

Setting sunlight on the clouds at the end of a stormy day.

But I also go to the beach to watch and listen to the water constantly moving and rolling waves crashing and "thundering" on the rocks and sand - the "living and breathing" ocean - and to try to figure out why it attracts. I guess, as I think about it...awesome is the word that comes to mind - in every way; power, apparent endlessness, beauty, peace, anger, melancholy, frightening, diverse, constantly moving and constantly changing and I guess that's why we love to walk beside it!

Eastern Algarve - Tavira

From Santa Luzia we went east to Tavira where we spent about an hour and a half.

Tavira straddles the Gilão river, which is spanned by a couple of bridges, one is reputed to be a Roman in origin, although its present appearance was acquired in the 17th century. Because of flooding damage in the 1980's it is now limited to pedestrian traffic.

Tavira is a picturesque town but, unfortunately, I have very few pictures and the ones I have show essentially nothing of the town, but I have included them anyway.

Between the 8th and 13th centuries Tavira was under Arab rule until its conquest by the Knights of the Order of Santiago in 1242. It was elevated to a city in 1520 by King Manuel I and was the main trading port in the Algarve during the 16th to 18th centuries.

The 13th century castle, re-built by King Dinis on Moorish fortifications, gives fantastic views across Tavira from the walls. The photo to the right and the one below were taken from the top of the walls of the fortress.

Tavira, it is said, has some of the finest churches in the Algarve and they are plentiful too, in fact there are more than 20 in and around the town! The 16th century Igreja da Misericórdia is often cited as one of the finest churches in Tavira, with its blue and white azuejos, magnificent carvings and scenes from the life of Christ. I don't have photo of it.

The 13th century Igreja de Santa Maria do Castelo is next to the castle. Santa Maria (the church in the photo to the right) is famed for holding the tombs of the seven Christian knights of the Order of St. James who were killed by the Moors. There is also a plaque marking the tomb of Paio Peres Correia (a master of the Order) although there is a church in Spain also said to hold the tomb!

We saw three churches from the outside and one also inside while a service was on. They were Igreja da Misericórdia , which is apparently no longer functioning, St. James and Santa Maria. I have photos of two of the churches - the Santa Maria in which, it is said, Prince Henry the Navigator was knighted and, I think, St. James' - the last photo.

On the walk up to the castle there is an active archaeological dig. These relatively recent archaeological discoveries contain structures and artifacts concerning the Phoenician, Islamic and Portuguese history of Tavira. We didn't see this during this visit but did in a visit to Tavira in 2009.

We had "coffee" in a place in the main square and then left for our visit to Rato, the final destination which I described in the first post on our eastern Algarve trip.

Eastern Algarve - Santa Luzia

After leaving Olhão we drove a short distance to Santa Luzia, a tiny fishing village.

We have been here before and on that visit I took a lot of photos of traditional brightly painted Portuguese fishing boats - but I inadvertently took them with the wrong settings on my camera and they were all badly underexposed and, as a consequence, very dark.

I was able to partially recover some of them but the colours were not representative of what I had seen. So this time, I was careful to get the exposure right.

Though the boats were at a dock rather than on the beach as they were last time, which I would have preferred, I did get some quite good photos of these characteristically colourful boats packed with all manner of fishing gear.

Portugal, as an Atlantic country and an historical seafaring nation, has a long tradition of fishing. It is among the countries in the world with the highest fish consumption per capita.

Species like the sardine, Atlantic mackerel, tuna, and the European hake have traditionally been important for the Portuguese commercial fisheries. Another widely used species in Portuguese cuisine is the cod, known in Portugal as bacalhau. Salt cod has been produced for at least 500 years, since the time of the European discoveries.

Before refrigeration, there was a need to preserve the codfish; the ancient techniques of drying and salting keeps many nutrients and the process makes the codfish tastier. Though the Portuguese tried to use this method of drying and salting with several local fish, they found that the method was ideal for fish from much further north.

With the "discovery" of Newfoundland in 1497, Portuguese fishermen started fishing its cod-rich Grand Banks. Thus, bacalhau became a staple of the Portuguese cuisine.

In the 18th century the town of Kristiansund in Norway became an important place of producing bacalao or klippfish which, according to Wikipedia, is still exported to Portugal.

We stayed in Santa Luzia only briefly - maybe 30 minutes at the most - before moving on to Tavira.

Not about Santa Luzia

Once again, I misled - I said this post would be about Santa Luzia - but it's not.

It's about a couple of things that I thought worth including.

A couple of days ago we were having lunch in an outdoor restaurant overlooking the ocean and part of the beach. Here are a few photos of what we saw below us. This is a quiz - what do you think is going on in photos 1, 2 and 3?

Check the text and photo at the end of this post for the answer.

That same day Ruth had done some hand washing in the morning and hung it out on our balcony. When we arrived home after lunch we found some of the clothes had been blown off the rack. In addition, there was a gull on the ledge with two of Ruth's socks which were still attached to the clothes pins - the gull was holding one of the socks in its beak. The socks had been clipped to the metal grill you see in the photo and I doubt the wind blew them off into the gull's waiting beak. I managed to chase the gull away and retrieve the socks.

I wasn't quick enough to get the camera when the gull had the socks but it returned shortly with one of our clothes pins in its beak - its antics with the clothes pin served as entertainment for the gull and me over the next 5 minutes or so. That clothes pin we have not been able to recover.

This photo gives a bit of a clue to what is happening in photos 1, 2 and 3 above. They are building up the beach by adding sand. The ship in the photo goes out a Km or so, picks up sand, comes back to where you see it in the photo, gets hooked up somehow to the large tubes on shore then pumps the sand and water onto the beach (see the sand-water mix spraying out of the end of the pipe on the right side of this photo) and the machines spread the sand around.

Eastern Algarve - Olhão

From Faro we drove about 15 or 20 Km to Olhāo, a fishing port city of about 30,000 people, situated immediately adjacent to the Ria Formosa (more about the Ria Formosa later). Olhão takes its name from a big natural water fountain, an "eye of water", the locals call it (Olhão means Big Eye).

On arrival we visited the very busy farmers' market and the quite extensive fish market. The markets here are not unlike those in Loulé - both have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables including things like fresh oranges, lemons, almonds, figs and dates, all products that were introduced by the Moors - and both are very busy.

I know almost nothing about fish but there are definitely fresh fish here that I haven't seen in the Hamilton market including things like octopus, golden bream, giant eels and monk fish. To the right is a Monk fish - nearly a meter from end to end.

And this is the jaw of the Monk fish - the open jaw is about 8 to 10 inches from top to bottom. Click on the photo (or any of the photos) to see a slightly larger image.

More farmers' market looking toward the Ria Formosa and the ocean.

After the market visit we had lunch in a restaurant that our guide, Irie, knows well. Then we walked around the old town through characteristic very narrow streets while Irie related bits about the history of Olhāo, also known as Olhāo da Restauração or Olhāo of the Restoration.

The next two photos were taken on our walk around the old parts of the city.

The story behind the name Olhāo da Restauração is interesting. The Olhaneses (inhabitants of Olhão) are famous for a trip to Brazil made by 17 local fisherman in 1819 or 1820 in a small fishing boat (60-65 ft) without maps or any guiding tools but the stars. During an invasion of Portugal by the French, King John VI of Portugal and his family fled to Brazil for refuge. When the French were defeated Portugal was without a monarch and government so 17 local fishermen set out for Brazil in a sailing boat like the replica in the last photo to inform the King that the French had been sent packing and the country needed him to return. The King and family returned to Portugal restoring the monarchy and, therefore the government. Hence the new name, Olhāo of the Restoration.

One of the King's sons, Pedro, was in love with the South American colony and decided to stay in Brazil. It seems that he loved Brazil so much that he decided to grant the colony independence, an act which did not gain him favour with his family and made him "persona non grata" in Portugal but, likely, a popular man in the independent country of Brazil.

Next, Santa Luzia.

Eastern Algarve - Faro

Our first stop was Faro - capital city of the regional municipality of the Algarve. It was very quiet on Saturday morning and apparently this is typical.

The earthquake of 1755, centred near Lisboa, caused lots of damage even this far south, so many of the pre earthquake buildings are now mixes of part old and part newer 18th century restorations and in some instances the totally new buildings incorporate mixtures of architecture of earlier eras.

The National Bank of Portugal (right) is an example of the latter; the arch over the main door and in the high windows is the Moor or Arabic horseshoe arch and window arches on either side of the main door are Manueline or Portuguese late Gothic (early 16th century). Colorful ceramic tiles in the Moorish style decorate the partial dome like ceiling of the main doorway and the facade around the arch of both the door and the upper windows.

Click on this photo to get a better look at the decorative ceramic tiles.

Faro was a walled city with fortress style entry portals through the walls, characteristically narrow winding streets and, often, a Christian church built on a site previously occupied by a mosque.

At the end of this street is one of the entries to the old city. On the left is an 18th century building with arches consistent with that period.

The Moors' (Arabs) walled cities often had double entry arches, one behind the other so that if and when the enemy breached the first, thinking they would be inside the town, they found a second barrier - they were now susceptible to attack from defenders in place above the barred second entry. Photo down to right.

The Moors and other Arab groups from north Africa occupied the Iberian Peninsula, including what is now Portugal, for nearly 500 years before they were driven out by the Christians in the 13th century. During the Arab conquest in the 9th century the Christians were driven to the far north of what is now Portugal and Spain. Over the years of Arab control the Christians gradually organized themselves and began the long process of trying to regain control over the territories they had lost - it took centuries of constant warfare before the last of the Moors were finally driven out and the Christians again took control over Portugal and Spain.

In the light of todays' perceptions of Arab and Islamic culture, it is of interest that the Arab culture during their occupation of this area was one of tolerance in which Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in harmony and were allowed to follow their own religious practices. All this changed when the Christians returned.

This church inside the walled part of the old city, built on the site once occupied by a mosque, is an example of the mixed architecture; the front is likely a 12th or 13th century structure while the rest of the church is likely 18th century post earthquake.

The photo to the right is taken on one of the narrow streets in the walled area of the city. I liked this brownish building and wondered what was inside - a view through a small hole in the wall revealed that there was nothing inside - in fact there was no roof so it was just a stone frame of a building.

We also visited Our Lady of Mount Carmel church which houses in the rear the chapel of bones. The inside walls of this small chapel are covered throughout, as in this window arch, with skulls and femurs of priests of the order that served the church. The theory is that bones were used in this way for two reasons - one was to make space in the cemetery for new tenants (the bones used in the chapel were from priest who were disinterred) and the second reason was to remind those who view these walls that our time is short and such bones are all that will be left of us, so be sure to live in a way that will get you to heaven. Not quite sure how that message derives from these bones.

Next, the town of Olhão.

Eastern Algarve trip

We were lucky once again - the weather for our trip to the eastern Algarve couldn't have been better. The cloudless sky with temperatures in the mid 20's that we had had on the two previous days continued on Saturday - definitely shorts and t-shirt weather.

We went to some places that we have been to before but saw both familiar and different parts of them and heard different stories.

We drove east from Albufeira about 35 Km to Faro - the largest city and the capital of the regional municipality of the Algarve. We stayed for about 2 hours there then went on to the beautiful town of Olhāo where we went to the busy market and had lunch, after which Irie took us on a walk around the maze of the old town streets.

From Olhāo we went to the tiny fishing village of Santa Luzia where I got some photos of several colourful Portuguese fishing boats and then eastward to the town of Tavira where we spent about an hours and a half, had drinks.

Then to an area of the Ria Formosa, a protected lagoon area which extends from near Faro to beyond Tavira. One of the commercial activities allowed in the Ria Formosa is the harvesting of salt - we went by several of the salt harvesting "beds" . I would like to have stopped there but it was getting late so, unfortunately, we didn't stop. We went on to an area called Rato - I think but need to check on this name - of very flat land interspersed with bits of ocean water at low tide. The sun was setting and because it was the day of the full and very large moon I was able to get some very nice sunset and moon rise photos - what a spectacular way to end a spectacular day!

So in this blog are a few photos of the sunset and moonrise at the end of the trip. I didn't have a tripod so these photos of the moon were taken hand held in very low light conditions so placement of the moon is not consistent and they are not in focus.

More photos and stories about the rest of the trip in the next posts.