Day 4 (Saturday 10/2/2021)
Costs for the Day are in the Table below:
Woke up at 7am for a 2 mile run on the beach at sunrise. Then Bi cooked up some french toast and we had breakfast on the balcony with a warm cup of coffee. It was an excellent way to start the day.
We packed up all our belongings and booked a Bolt taxi from Portimao to our longer term apartment in Lagos. (FYI Bolt was 45 EUR whereas Uber was showing 50 EUR both for an XL 5 person vehicle).
As we drove into Lagos on the small cobblestone streets with inviting little bars and restaurants, I could tell we would like the area. It had the quaint charm of a picturesque village by the sea and the many little beaches in the area are said to be fantastic.
Patricia met us at the apartment located on Travessa do Mineiro and was super friendly and welcoming. She made us feel right at home and explained everything about the apartment as well as the local beaches and restaurants. The place is wonderful but take a look at the video.
We took a few minutes to set our suitcases down and then headed out to explore the town of Lagos and pick up some groceries.
The streets are narrow and white with blue and yellow trim and some type of vine with beautiful bright red flowers.
For lunch we went to Qwazi Hamburgueria which was delicious! The orange ginger juice was zippy and the sweet potato chips are fantastic.
After lunch we picked up groceries from the local supermarket which is called SPAR. These grocery stores are not at all obvious in my opinion and have somewhat small storefronts. Fortunately, Patricia told us to go there or we would have walked right past. We stocked up on quite a bit of groceries so our bill was 106.72 EUR.
Once we dropped of the groceries at home, we headed back out on a long hike to explore several of the nearby beaches: Praia do Pinhao, Paia de Donna Anna, Praia do Camilo, and Praia de Porto Mos.
7.9km doesn’t seem that far but we definitely shouldn’t have worn flip flops. It is a lot of up and down hills and staircases. There are also some shortcuts between the beaches but be careful if you take those since the cliffs are going through extreme erosion. You can see in some places where previous viewing platforms have completely collapsed.
Here are some photos of the beaches! I think they would look better mid day or at sunrise/sunset so I will post some more on subsequent visits.
Praia do Pinhao (Above). A small beach with a break wall at the far end.
Praia de Dona Ana (Above). A fairly large beach with beach chairs/ umbrellas for rent and a resort overlooking.
Praia do Camila (Above). A steep staircase winds down to a small beach with numerous rocky outcroppings, caves, and arches. We were told this is the best spot to snorkel.
Praia de Porto Mos (Above). A very long open beach that apparently gets decent waves at times.
On the way back to the apartment, I stopped two different surf shops to check on the cost of hitching a ride to the beaches on the west coast when they do their surf lessons. They both indicated that it was possible and the charge would be 25 EUR/day. I booked at Jah Shaka Surf Shop for the earliest available which is Tuesday 10/5. They also included lunch in that price and indicated the actual surf lessons/ beach transfers were conducted by Tiny Whale Surf Lodge. You can only get a beach transfer when they are not fully booked with lessons. However, the surf shop indicated I might be able to get a better price on the beach transfers if I commit to a certain number of times per week and specific days.
