This entry will discuss two beach days in Fuzeta: the first was right after we got here, and the second was the day after we went to Tavira.
Our first full day in Fuzeta was spent mainly at the beach. We woke up late-ish and gathered all the necessary equiptment for a day at the beach: umbrellas, towels, cooler full of beers, little chairs, etc. I drove the folks down to the beach while some of the younger ones walked (we can't all fit in the car). The beach is a quick 10 minute walk but Jared's Mom's feet hurt and we had lots of equiptment. Down at the beach Jared and I stopped into a bar. He got an espresso - he had been up working all night and needed some energy. I got a pastri - the same pastry Luis brought us on our first day in LIsbon - a pie shell whith custard in the middle. I scarfed it down. We then got a "water taxi" - instead of taking the public state-run ferry we rented out a small motor boat to take us out to the main island. Fuzeta has a lovely beach but many people go out to the "islands" around Fuzeta: thus the ferry and the water taxi services.
The water taxi ride was short, and the island was only a bit more than a sand bar. It was wide enough to house two shack shacks / bars, a life guard station, and a WC. We set up camp on the wave side of the sand bar. See - the island has two sides: one side faces the Atlantic ocean and the other faces the shore. The Atlantic side has surfing, while the shore side is calm. I wanted to get right in the water so I walked and and proceeded to go past the break. Immediatly the life guard blew his whistle at me and made me come in. Apparently the sea at that particular spot has a rip current and you are not allowed past the break unless you have a flotation devise such as a surf board of boogie board. So, I didn't get to swim.
Jared came and joined me - he hopped down to the beach and with me on one side and Tina on the other we held him up while we three tried to jump waves. He had a great time -and so did I. He kept getting hit in the crotch by somewhat powerful waves, so he decided to call an end to the wave hopping and rest on the beach. I got the boogie board and road some waves in like a child. I then headed for the blanket and read some of my book (Poisonwood Bible). I slathered sunscreen on and kept tryig to push it on others with no takers. The sun was pretty brutal. It was hot, but not too hot. I went to the snack shop and got a 12 oz. cup of sangria for $1 euro. Wow! Fun in the sun - nice day at the beach.
After a bit of reading in the sun I went over to the shore side of the island and played in the water. The water was deep and calm and allowed for swimming - which I did. You could see little minnoes swimming around in the water with you. Tina, Justin, and J. joined me at different points.
We were picked up by our water taxi at 7:30 pm - we had a little over 5 hours of fun in the sun. The boat ride back was relaxing and then we loaded up the car to return to the villa.
We then went on another trip to the supermarket and returned to cook dinner. In true Portuguese style, I think we ate dinner around 10 pm.
BEACH DAY #2
Our second beach day was after our trip to Tavira. We went to Tavira because people who didn't use sunscreen (and subsequently needed aloe gel) needed a day out of the sun. After our day in Tavira we decided to have a day in Fuzeta for more fun in the sun. First I drove JAred's mom and TIna to the store in town I had noticed on my walk the night before. Driving on the little streets is tough and parking was tougher. I parked way up on the crub, 2 inches fro the wall of someone's house - just like everyone else parked on the street. We walked quite a ways to the in-town grocery store which had tons of items, including way cheaper hair products than I've seeni n the past. Jared's mom neede detergent for clothes washing, as her and Glen were departing the following day for Germany and they wanted to bring clean clothes. We got some fizzy water at the store, chips, biscuts (digestive fiber biscuts - a big hit on this trip), and 3 bags of ice.
After our trip to the store we ate lunch athe the villa, and then we packed up all our stuff and headed to the beach. Jared and J. decline our beach invitation this time: Jared because he had to work and J because he had too much sun and wanted to sleep. We went to the public beach right in Fuzeta. THis beach had calm waters as it faced the island /sandbar that we had previously gone to. The air was cooler that day, and the pace a little bit slower. After a few hours we packed up and went home.
We once again made food at the house. I made penne with pesto and garlic and we ate the left-over indian food from our Tavira meal. I also made pretty bad sangria out of fruit, cheap wine, and some brandy. I think I' the only one who has been drinking it - but even bad sangria isn't all that bad, and I love the taste of fruit soaked brandy.
After our dinner I walked around town with Jared. You can do one big loop of the town in 20 minutes, so I showed him the loop I had done the night before: the pretty church with the cemetary, etc. We stopped at one of the big squares and sat down and had espresso. WHile we were there we saw that everyone in the town was sitting out watching the Portugal v. Northern Ireland soccer game on the TV. It was fun to be out and about, watching the Portuguese root for their home team. Jared was exhausted and didn't talk so much on our walk. Oh well.
We then walked to the restaurants along the beach and checked out the small night market of purses, cheao-looking necklaces and bracelettes... The town was hip hopping at 11 at night, Children were out playing soccer and parents were out chatting over wine and beers.
I realized on my walks about town that I was in no real danger from the locals being a woman alone, but the damn dogs that rove the streets are crazy. I was reading one of the guide books at the villa and they recommend you get a dog whistle to scare the random packs of dogs away. It's that bad. Eveyone here seems to own a dog, and those dogs are constantly hanging out, off-leash, barking at anything that walks close to them. Ugh Sooooo noisey. I don't know how the locals can stand it.
Anyway, we got back to the villa and Jared went back to work. I watched an episode of VEEP on the ipad and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour as I was going to wake up at 5:45 to drive Jared's mom and Glen to the airport in Faro.
