Last Day in Portugal

I started the day with a run down by the water. There’s nothing like spending time around damp
mudflats in hot weather to stimulate an appetite for a big breakfast.

Then back in the room, I crumpled up my t-shirt, buried my face in it, inhaled deeply and surprised myself by deciding I could definitely go another day in it.

I spent the day on the water around here. Faro is basically at the edge of a large saltwater marsh that is home to lots of birds, turtles and baby fish whose parents come in from the ocean to the marsh to give birth (thereby avoiding the large predators in the ocean but, unfortunately for them, delighting hungry birds).






I started the day on a boat ride through the marsh with a biologist who identified many kinds of birds and crabs we saw, but don’t ask me to repeat any of the names. Boats in the marsh have to navigate through narrow, winding channels to get out, but you can eventually hit the ocean if you know what you’re doing.

We also stopped at two islands to walk around including Isla Deserta (the red dot on the map above). This is technically designated as an uninhabited island, but it turns out there’s one guy who lives here.








This is his house. He’s a local fisherman and he started living here before the area was designated a national park. Everyone says he’s a nice guy, and he pops into Faro once a week or so to grocery shop and visit his wife. Otherwise, he just lives here on the island with his solar panels and shallow well.

On the far side of the island there’s also a beach (that you need a boat to get to).















Across the inlet is another island that has a bunch of really pretty beach houses. In the summer the island population is about 2,000 and in the winter about 20.

In the four hours I was on that trip, the tide rose sufficiently that many of the marsh islands disappeared. This is a view just past low tide.







This is the view just before high tide. The sticks in the water mark where the islands are so that boats don’t run into them.

When that trip was over I hopped on a ferry and went to the Praia Faro, or Faro beach. That’s on what is essentially the other island that makes up the barrier between the ocean and the salt marsh (the green dot on the map). By the time I was done exploring the beach I was pretty much done for the day.









That leaves the only tragedy of the trip so far; I didn’t make it to the Hellgarve Tattoo Rock Festival. I’m just too tired to do it justice.