Things we learned in our time in Portugal:
So, here are a few final observations about beautiful Portugal and the eight months we have spent here.
❤ We count ourselves as incredibly fortunate to have ended up in the presence of a calm and measured community when a global pandemic struck. The people of the Algarve did not stockpile goods which meant that there was plenty for everyone. Only once did we witness tempers flared outside a supermarket but, the vast majority of the time, people were respectful and courteous towards one another and towards shop staff. There was no fuss about mask-wearing, there was no push against social distancing. Our impression has been of a community that values equality and egalitarianism.
❤ It has been quite an experience to watch a tourist area out of season, then entering into the tourist season but without the vast numbers, and now becoming quieter once again; to see the pace of life rev up as the weeks went by, airplanes taking to the sky pulling adverts behind them ( I hadn’t seen that in years!), the seas filling up with jetskies and touring boats, the skies with paragliders. A few weeks ago, the place was full of Portuguese and Spanish visitors, in a change to the usual tourists. Now they have returned home, and the enormous motorhomes of wealthy retirees from France, Belgium, Germany and the UK are arriving for the winter months.
❤ To comment on the tourism industry in general, I suppose many of us have been considering how our world operates and the relentless, insistent push forward of our economies. The halt brought about by the lockdown has given us an opportunity to see what the world looks like when all that go-go-go actually stops, for once. Observing it from here in Portugal, a place hugely reliant on the constant influx of new tourists, week after week, packing out the countless apartment blocks, waited on by the locals whose livelihoods depend on having a good summer season….the whole enterprise struck me as being almost obscene, if that makes sense. Seventy years ago, before the barragems/dams and reservoirs were built here, the Algarve was a quiet area. It was a region dotted with fishing villages, unspoilt and comparatively untouched, because of a lack of water. And now, here are we, tourists as much as anyone, and I question the damage that travel and meeting the desires and demands of travellers places on an area of such beauty, between resources, culture, and the balance between served and serving. Planet-wide, we need to reconsider.
❤ We have also seen some of the effects of climate change in this area. To some degree, these risks would have existed previously, but the danger is increasing. Wildfires are a big concern here, which isn’t a surprise but somehow did come as a surprise to us when we realised just how close we were to some high danger areas. There was a major fire to the west of where we have been staying, earlier in the summer. It lasted for several days. And when fires occurred outside Silves, when we were living closer to the coast in Guia, we would see helicopters flying overhead, back and forth to the coast to collect water to drop on the fires. They have an effective system in place here to cope with the fires, dousing water over and around properties from overhead in order to limit the damage to people’s homes. With higher temperatures, the risk of fire increases, of course, and advertising campaigns are widespread, advising people that BBQ’s and fires are not permitted in rural areas, nor is wild camping for the same reason.
Morgan and Olwen pointed out Tsunami Meeting Points along the coastline at Portimao, a huge, wide, beautiful beach! I’m not sure why that beach in particular might be more prone than others to tsunamis, but they had arranged multiple meeting points at higher levels in the town….
Not climate-related, but other dangers to which we are not accustomed! An earthquake hit the area a few weeks back and Morgan and Saul felt our building shake. (Olwen and I were in the pool and noticed nothing!) The apartment developed some cracks in the walls as a result.
There were also some shark sightings! Our friends, Simon, Emma and their children were at one of the beaches which was cleared for this reason. No injuries were caused, but it’s not the sort of thing you’d find on your daily swim in Greystones!
❤ Another thing I love and appreciate about life here in Portugal is the seasonality of produce. It reminds me of how things were in my childhood. Fruit has a season here and if it’s out of season, it’s hard to get. Take strawberries… available much earlier in the year here than if they were growing in Ireland, but then they’re gone! And another thing is that the fruit spoils much quicker, which leads me to conclude that the nectarines, bananas etc. that we eat at home and that stay edible for several days must be treated to make it so. It has got us back into the habit of buying what we need, when we need it.
❤ One aspect of life here which we found challenging is the postal system! We discovered that this is a common difficulty. A few items of post went missing en route to us and this was a bit frustrating. Many others that we spoke to have experienced similar. It led us to appreciate and value ever higher the wonderful, reliable postal service we have at home – hi, Gary Little! These samples below demonstrate the unusual efforts to which An Post staff will go in order to deliver – and take care of nesting birds also!
To beautiful Portugal and the Portuguese community, we say Obrigada and we hope we see you soon ❤