Azure blue of Portimao and surrounds in the Algarve

We have been staying in Portimao for the last few days enjoying the sun, beach, pool, food food food and more food. There is so much to say which simply can be summed up by the fotos. Today is a sad day for my mother and her sister as their best friend Isabel, has been taken away by the dreaded "C" word. The good thing in this sad situation is that mum and my "tia" (aunt) were here to see her and say goodbye.

Life goes on and we must celebrate life and live it to the full every day!

Enjoy the fotos.

16th July gathering of the masses for lunch @ Casa Correia

15th July shopping till way late for tomorrow's luncheon extravaganza!

Collecting ice from a nephew after midnight; fresh food markets; collecting cakes; wines; bread and the centerpiece: 'a suckling pig' from a relative who knows a guy.

Early morning: cleaning; fire up the wood fired oven for two legs of lamb & roast vegetables. The pig arrives and the kitchen is getting busy. Family arrive from 1pm and will be here until dinner. The table is laden and moaning under the weight of so much food. The crackling of the pig is
Mouthwatering (why am I fat? rhetorical ?)

Tias & Tios; primos primas (aunties uncles and cousins) with the next generation of young ones and one the way. Laughter, cries of joy, drinking and the party is gettin started.

I am truly attempting to speak Portuguese and sound like a 3yo. My Portuguese includes hello/goodbye; excuse me; how are you? God help me if they answer with anything other than good, and you? Smile & Cheers (smile as i am the photographer) & How much? For cafes & shopping. Oh, and Beautiful (es linda) which I mixed up with enchilada (a Mexican snack)??

All the cheap Poms have their annual pilgrimage here & Majorca - very 'Shirley Valentine' just Pizza & Chips & Egg with a pint of beer and they never have to speak a foreign word or God forbid take a closer look at the heritage and culture of Europe! Xenophobic a Greek word that applies to Poms. Haha so fun to be a cultural attaché on tour.

Life in the Algarve

On Tuesday 12th July the 2 Portuguese Tarts headed towards Algarve in our little Peugeot. We hit the A2 freeway and joined the stream of cars also exiting the city in search of sun and sea. Maria was the designated driver and Diana was the navigator. We pushed our little Peugeot as much as he would give and managed an average of 130km per hour, however this was quite slow based on the fact that even the old battered trucks were overtaking us. At least we enjoyed the scenery.

We arrived in the little village of Algoz. About 5km from the coast. We are staying at the villa with Maria's parents and uncles and aunts. Almost everyone in this little town is related.

The food gets better and better. Beautiful sardines and other types of fish bought fresh off the boat. The sweetest fruit, the juciest tomatoes and beautiful herbs. Thank God it's healthy !!! We are truly overdosing. We still continue our mandatory daily tart with coffee. OF COURSE !!!!

Maria's uncle Jose took Di on a Tour of the historic town of Silves. A town which was invaded by the Moors and where they built a castle. The castle of Silves dates back to 1200.

We headed off to the beautiful cove beach of San Raffael. More cakes.... Bolinhas, sold by men trawling the beach with baskets full of freshly cooked bolinhas, doughnut like balls filled with a custard made only with egg yolks and sugar, a beautiful yellow runny delight. After about 4 hours of beach, we then headed off to explore Albufeira a historical coastal town, now unfortunately, also a popular haunt for MANY poms escaping the English weather for the portuguese sun..

After the usual late dinner 10:00 pm, you go promenade with everyone else and have the last coffee for the day.

Today, 19 July, we started a mammoth shopping frenzy. Maria was shopping for a big family lunch she is holding tomorrow and while we were at the shopping centre we took the opportunity to see the other shops....of course. Our first stop was Zara. Retail heaven. They were on sale...Ahhhhhhhhhh. Di is now converted. Some amazing bargains were found. After. Some time we realized it was 9 pm and we still had not gone to the supermarket, thankfully they closed at midnight. How civilized !!!! There was time to spend drooling over the cheese section of the supermarket. We arrived home tired, hungry and with more luggage for our return trip. After an alfresco dinner of Portuguese grilled chicken and a fresh tomato and cucumber and coriander salad at 11:30pm we are calling it a night for a big day tomorrow with 20 of Maria's family for lunch.