Faro

After Porto we headed to the south of Portugal to the Algarve. It's one on the most beautiful regions of Portugal with long sandy beaches and a really laid back relaxed atmosphere. We were lucky enough that my great uncle Bob and Auntie Moo have a casa there called Quinta Lara. The property is in the town of Santa Barbara De Nexe which is about 20 minutes from the city of Faro and the beaches. Although summer was officially over the weather was still quite warm so most of our time was spent lazing by the pool reading. They have a fantastic garden at the house with heaps of veggies and fruit, come mid afternoon you can walk around and gather things for dinner and pick quinces figs and limes. There is a house keeper Betty who lives there year round with her husband Carlos, they both like a drink so most evenings were spent drinking outside trying to communicate with one another. Betty doesn't speak any English and Carlos would get stuck translating our atrocious Portuguese all night.

Karl's birthday was the day after we left the Algarve so on the last weekend our friends Sam and Dang from London came to stay. We rented a car and drove up the coast to Lagos which is a tranquil beach community. Betty cooked us a traditions Portuguese meal and we had a party for Karl.

There is a lot of nature down that way. most days we would walk the dirt road in to town, one day we nearly trod on a baby snake that was sunning itself. The best thing is that the Portuguese word for snake is Cobra, so we got to tell everyone that we came face to face with a Cobra. Carlos also caught us a hedgehog that was rummaging around in the garden one night.