You don't always have to see it

We hiked for nearly two hours on dirt paths along the Algarve coast, stopping only briefly at the beaches along the way. There was a destination in mind that day: Ponta da Piedade.

Until I arrived I was sure that kind of paradise only existed in paintings or parts of the world untouched by man. I attempted a thousand times or more but no photograph had or ever will completely capture the intricacy and simultaneous simplicity of the unimaginable scene. Towering cliffs make up the coastline and offer a view of the ocean, complete with huge boulders that protrude from the surface of the water; breaking waves before they reach land like destructive children. Tall grass and fragile white flowers waltzed together to the song the wind played while the sun smiled down from overhead.

I maneuvered my way onto a more risky cliff to attempt to capture the grand views from a different angle; not realizing that the thin land bridge I crossed, thirty meters above a rocky fall, was the door to a different dimension. With the exception of the vast, open sea and merengue clouds resting only feet above the water before me, I was alone. A cool breeze flowed over my skin and into my mind. Suddenly every crease and cranny of my brain was engulfed by an overwhelming loveliness which began to leak into my eyes and run down my nose. It filled my lungs so I could hardly breathe and I was overcome with a sense of peace and wholeness. Never in my life had I imagined something could be so beautiful and perfect and also real.

I sat on top of the world for only a brief moment in my discrete dimension before the girl with whom I was traveling found the hidden door and entered my secret heaven to inform me I had been missing for over an hour and it was time to leave my enchanting throne. Ponta da Piedade translates to “Cape of Piety” and it was not until that moment that I understood why.