I visited Tavira Island, I walked the 2 km to the ferry, tried to hitchhike, I hate walking . When I got on the boat the people who wouldn’t give me a ride were on the boat. Nice. I got in the Mediterranean ocean for the first time.

You can rent an umbrella spot with lounge chairs for about $13. I was thinking I might have lunch on the island, the rental guy said PAVILHAO DA ILHA was the best place to eat. I had bought a local soda,SUMOL, (it’s awesome, slightly sparkling orange juice) from him on the way in. So I went and told him make me something for 8 or 10 Euro ($13),”no problem”, they bring bread, olives, sardine pate, water, & some prawns. I get the bill 18 Euro ($24). FU. no tip I paid and walked away, my only revenge is he has to live here and try to struggle out a living. Anyway, even a savoy traveller like me gets taken every so often.
On the boat ride back I hand sign a ride from a Portuguese for a ride back to town, yep (no walking)
Back to my lovely hostel ALOJAMENTO LOCAL LAGOASand my host Miguel.

This is a bed that’s outside on the rooftop terrace

I never miss an opportunity to mix with the local officials
I’m heading out on the bike today to Monte Gordo, the last campground in Portugal before entering Spain the next day. The “campgrounds” have swimming pools, tennis courts, showers, restaurants I feel like I’m at club med and its only about $6 a night.

It Is an awesome place to stay, when in Taviro stay here!

I’m about 25km from Spain, in Tavira a town with 37 churches and part of a castle. I’m sad to be leaving Portugal so soon, but I gotta keep moving. I’m staying at LAGOAS a hostel, with my own room, I’m getting the low down on Portugal politics and the corruption from the economic crisis. The owner, is super funny, I think it the hardest I’ve laughed the whole trip and I laugh a lot. I’m sitting on the roof top terrace at 6:30 in the morning.
I’m thinking about going to Morocco, without the bike. I’m so close and the chances of coming this far again are somewhat slim. I really wanted to avoid a third world type country on this trip. I love the third world, but at the same time it’s some really hard travel, but rewarding somewhat?
There’s camping on an island not far from here I was going to leave my bike and make a overnight pack, but it doesn’t open for another 2 weeks.
The weather has been incredible, sunny & warm, the tourist season doesn’t start here for another month or so. It gets real hot and dry here, water here is like in Portland, expensive! I’ve got my sleeping bag from Portland, it’s a little to warm I mean HOT. I’m going to the Sierra Nevada National Park in Spain after that I’m getting a summer bag.

View from rooftop
I went to the Castle remains yesterday, again, where’s the railing?

I saw this guy while riding to Tavira, he wanted me to pay him to take his photo.

Do you think I paid him?
I’m meeting lots of other cyclist, this is a popular route.

Roger and father in law from Holland

This is Antonio, Sm…. ( I couldn’t pronounce her name) and their very friendly dog in the homemade Bob Trailer. They were from Spain.

<img src="http://j

It’s interesting that their using a bicycle to help sell which is literally thousands of empty Condos. Below is one of the many unfinished condo projects.

Tavira Clock tower shot from Castle with sun behind the clock
If you like this blog tell me, if you want to learn something else about the country tell me what you want to know, I might be able to find out. Comments are always encouraging.
Jeff

My normal touring routine is 50-60 miles a day riding, not here, 26 miles. I stop whenever I want, no set distance (just to the next campground). I stopped at a electric bike shop and talked to the mechanic for 1/2 hour, he works for a dutch guy who buys everything from Holland. I stopped and had business cards made:

I’ve written this 3 times, last time. While waiting for the cards, where I had lunch the guy said that Olhao has great ice cream. I was planning on riding to Tavira, well I got to the turnoff to Olhao, out with the google maps, type camping and sure enough just on the other side town, camping. I pull into the water front area, it’s Saturday Farmers & Crafts market. I saw comkwats for 1 euro, I knew the farmer didn’t speak English, I hand him a euro and he fills my bag. The the snails were there too, but hurry they’re escaping, ever so slowly!

Im staying at a campground about 2 km from “centro”. When I walked in he told me camping was 50% off, OK. $8 a night. I went to the pool showers only cold water, then I went to check out the other building, I could see the solar panels on top, I scorched my skin, that was the hottest-longest shower I’ve had in years.

This is the view from the closed on site restaurants, there is a recession here.
The huge water slide is covered with weeds. Some things in Portugal are struggling. But the Portuguese as host keep a helpful and cheerful attitude. The facilities that are operating are in top condition, in operation and cleanliness.
I wanted to bike from Sagres across the whole south coast, but since I’m in the middle and didn’t want to back track, I signed up for a tour bus excursion. For only $12 I got to see Legos and Sagres (the most western point in Europe). The were asking where people were from, I was the only American, it’s not that surprising, Americans don’t travel as much or as far as a lot of other cultures. They had these beautiful sweaters for sale only $35. I have zero room on my bike.

3 Dutch cyclist touring with electric bikes!

Yep that’s me, these photo stops on the bus tour never have guard rails, that would never go over in America. We were told at one stop to stay from edge because the winds were strong WTF!

</a

You can see those people in the background , their being crazy for a picture
One more thing, in the off season you can rent an apartment with 3 meals a day for $27 a day! It’s a real recession , get ready America it could be coming to your town someday soon too

campground site

I feel like I’ve been gone for 2 months, in reality it’s only been 16 days. I just biked one of the most amazing tours ever. I was told Portugal was bike unfriendly, that’s the farthest from the truth. 99% of the drivers were way in the other lane when passing me, honking, waving, thumbs up. It was super awesome. Using Google maps enabled me to take lesser used roads. There were times I wouldn’t see a car for 20 minutes or more. I couldn’t have had a safer mor enjoyable trip if I had bought a packaged tour, wait I packaged it.
Usually when I bike tour I have say, 2 weeks and so many miles (kilometers) I must travel in order to finish and return to work. Having a year to accomplish my goal of reaching Istanbul, Turkey, I stop when ever I want. I slept by a lake last night. I saw a 35-40 cm fish, Mathew! I feel so empowered being healthy enough to pull this off.

my bike is down on the right next to the lake
I stopped at a super mercardo and had a chocolate croissant, she took it out of the oven for me. I passed a wind farm, they wind turbines were right next to the road Amazing.

I was looking for a camping spot someone told me about in Serpa, In town some locals didn’t acknowledge the existence of any such campground. They sent me down some road on a wild goose chase, I think they were f-ing with me. I turned around and found a hotel, $30 with breakfast. It’s funny the beds & bathtubs are for short Portuguese. My legs hang over the bed and I feel like I’m taking a bath in a 1/2 size tub.. Breakfast was hot, so to speak. As I road off my tire went flat, the valve leaked. I’m down to no spare tubes after this. Anyway as I’m leaving I look across the lake and see the campground I was told about.. When I got to Mertola, the lawn mower/bike shop replaced the valve and sold me another tube, back to 2 spares. Another funny thing is the Chinese stores, like a Walgreens without drugs. I remember being in Panama the Chinese were the merchants of that town too. They are the merchants of the world, what do they think? There’s too many people here in China to open a store, I’ll move to Portugal maybe Panama and open a shop.
I camped in this gorgeous meadow filled with flowers and wildlife. It rained for the first time, nothing really, it was a nice break from the sun, saves on water too!
I’m very comfortable biking, camping, cooking food, shopping I feel so secure and unafraid of what is coming down the road, so to speak. But every time I say that I get tested.
I bought the mini-Ipad for map stuff, come to find out the phone is more than adequate. There is free WI-Fi everywhere, even the city parks.

These cranes had nest along 12 power poles in a row, then smaller birds had nest around the outside of the big nest, symbiotic relationship so to speak.