Day 6 (Monday, 10/4/2021)
Costs for the Day are in the Table below:
Woke up at 7am and went for a 4 mile run from the Harbour and past Sao Goncalo de Lagos which is a statue of Gundisalvus_of_Lagos who was a Portugues Catholic Priest. According to Wikipedia, “Gundisalvus is often invoked as a protector of mariners. He is credited with having, 15 years after his death, miraculously appeared to a nephew of his, saving him from a shipwreck while en route to Lisbon. For this reason, he is often represented holding a book on one hand and blessing the sea with the crucifix he holds on the other.” After passing his statue, I ran on to the Praia do Pinhao, Praia de Dona Ana and out to Praia de Porto do Mos and then back. I used Runkeeper to track my run but my time was terrible since I stopped to take photos and also to ask the ONDA bus driver if they let people bring surfboards onboard (he said it depends on the driver and how crowded the bus happens to be). Anyway, the mornings here are absolutely stunning as you can see from the photos below.
After my run, I took a quick shower and then we headed to Millenium Bank to setup a bank account. In Portugal, it is a whole day affair vs. the 15 minute process in the US. We walked to the bank at 8:30am since that is when they open and took a number – we got C004, I think we were the 8th person in line.
I know we were still waiting at 9:46 AM but our number was finally called around 10am (So about a 1.5 hour wait). The gentleman, Jose, was very professional and cordial and we went through all our documents to setup an account. However, he said he could not setup the account because his colleague next to him was already setting up an account for another couple and they cannot setup two accounts at one time. Apparently, the account setup process is so long that the bank will only do one at a time so the other bank tellers can assist customers with quicker tasks. So, he checked all our documents and said they looked ok but that we would have to come back at 11:30am when the other couple might be done setting up there account. Then they would be able to help us.
So, we went back to our apartment which was only about 5 min walk and had some brunch on our balcony.
After brunch we headed back to the bank for more fun. We arrived at 11:30 and waited for about 30 minutes when they said we could now try to setup an account. So, we met with Jose again but he said now their system was down. Again we were unable to setup an account. However, we went through a few more documents and checklists and also reviewed the Private Health Insurance that they offer through Medis. They offer 3 different levels of service and the prices quoted to us were below for 2 people of our ages. We plan to go with Option #2. I previously quoted GED and MGEN and the prices fairly similar although a direct comparison is not possible since the coverages are all a little different.
Why get local Private Health Insurance? Mostly because while our travel insurance says it covers Covid, the fine print will tell you that it only covers Covid in countries not on the Covid travel restriction list. Portugal is on the travel restriction list for Covid for the US so therefore Covid would not be covered. Note: Portugal has both Public Health Providers/Hospitals and Privat Health Providers/Hospitals. If you want any kind of prompt care, we are told you need to use the Private Health Insurance and Network. Also, as you can see, it is fairly economical. If we stay only in Portugal, we can cancel our Travel Insurance once we get this in place.
Ok, so we have a plan for our bank account setup and private health insurance but Jose could not actually set up our account or insurance since the system was down. Since tomorrow is a holiday in Portugal, Jose said we would have to come back Wednesday morning at 8:30am to see if the system is up and then we can finally setup our account.
So, we will return Wednesday. In the meantime, we left the bank around 1pm and went to meet up with some new acquaintances at a nice spot near our apartment called The Garden. It is a beautiful alfresco dining area and we had a wonderful time chatting with our new friends and having a drink. (I will say though that the margarita I had was a bit disappointing.)
After leaving The Garden, I went back to the apartment to do some writing and Bi went with our friends to Hiper China Lagos to do some shopping. After shopping Bi stopped by Empanadas & Co to grab a bite to eat (7.6 EUR for 2 Empanadas and a Chocolate Dessert).
I cooked dinner at home while she was out and made a delicious spaghetti with spiced sausage, onions, peppers, and tomatoes.
