I woke up really early (5:4 am) the next day to drive Jared's mom and Glen to the airport in Faro. We got there without a hitch (except the part where I almost ran over a pedestrian in a traffic circle), but I got pretty lost coming back. I'm totally used to getting lost as I know I will eventially find a) water b) train tracks or c) signs for the A-22 - all three options help me navigate my way back to the 125 to Fuzeta. So, I found the 125 and headed first to Ohlao and then onto Fuzeta (people here seem to go back and forth spelling it either Fuzeta or Fuzeta - I guess it doesn't matter).
I got back to the villa and went back to bed for a few hours. When I woke up I tried to get Jared up so we could all walk around Fuzeta. I'd already taken several walks around the small town, but many of the things I wanted to look at had been closed at the time. So, we all headed out around Fuzeta. The first stop was the beautiful cemetary next to the church on the hill. The cemetary was filled with manueline tiled mausoleums. The little rooms hold 10 coffins total, and many of them have open aired windows where you can peak in at the dead. It was both pretty and a little creepy.
We walked to one of the interior main squares and sat down and had some cheap espressos. By cheap I mean like 80 cents US for a coffee - not as good as the coffee in Paris but 1/3 the cost. We walked around some more and eventally settled on a SNACK BAR on the main strip by the beach. I had a tosta at the snack bar, a toasted tuna fish sandwitch. For $3 euros, it was darn good. There was some bizzare Portuguese telethon on the TV and a waitress who looked like she couldn't care less, dressed in her mu-mu.
We walked back to the villa and then dedided to head out to a national park to go on a quick nature hike. From the 125 the National Park Ria Formosa was easy to find - just like back home, sights are marked with brown signs (While road signs are white). We got there with a little over an hour before the park closed. $1.80 to enter the park - and I was happy to pay it for the 60+ K of wetlands, marshlands the park protects. We choose a 3 mile walk, one that was at first pretty boring. The initial environment was flat and reminded me of summers in Main -it had that pine needle smell. We walked to a working water mill originally founded in the 1500's. It was OK, but nothing to write home about.
We walked further and saw some Roman Ruins, which really were just stones on the ground in a square formation. At one time they had been baths (1st century). But just up from the Roman ruins, we saw a duck blind and went inside. The view from the blind was beautiful - scores of birds ust hanging out on a pond as the sun set in the distance. We took some photos - Jared took a photo with a flash, which scareded off 1/3 of the birds - but we got some good action shots! Very serene, very beautiful.. Totally worth the price of admission.
From here we walked to the shore where we saw one of three working tide mills in Portugal. Tide mills use the ebbing tide to crank a wheel, which mashed up various kinds of grain. I thought it was pretty cool. There was also a seafood "farm" where you could see crabs walking around a shallow tide pool. Again, very pretty and worth the price of admission. The pathways of the park were well maintained, and very flat. Someone with bad knees could totally have done the walk.
After the Rio Formosa we drove into Olhao. We had been driving through Olhao to get to the grocery store, so were were familiar with the stretch right off the 125. We went to the Rio shopping center, which I wanted to check out because they had a JUMBO grocery store that I wanted to look at. I went to the grocery store, and I went to a store in the mall which served traditional candies and liquors. I bought a traditional dessert, which up until this point I had not seen servred. I bought 4 figs filled with sugar and almonds. They were pretty good, but not as good as the marzipan candy I had in Tavira.
We also went into the bowels of the parking garage to find the largest indoor go-kart racing I have ever seen. It looked almost as big as a football field, with more twist and turns than I could count. The brothers decided they wanted a go. It was pricey ($28 euro per 20 minutes), but they thought it was worth it. They paid, and then it turned out that the one car Jared could have ridden in , one where the break was a hand break and not a foot break, was broken and the mechanic on duty couldn't/wouldn't fix it. Total bummer, and we left.
From the go-kart / Rio shopping center, we drove down by the water to find somewhere to eat. Olhao is the largest fishing town in the Algarve so there were tons of fish joints, and I wanted more octopus! But, there were SO MANY CARS! It was a real pain to find anywhere to park - where were all the poeple who parked those cars? I have no idea! Surely some of them were in the restaurants, but not all of them.
We finally found a quasi-legal spot (in a bus zone, but the busses were not running), and then we picked out a restaurant. I had octopus cooked in oil with peppers and potatoes. It was delicious. I got a section of the head as part of a steak and a few very long and meaty tenticles. I did feel bad eating the octopus, and I know they are smart animals and I felt bad taking away its life - but it was very, very good. Everyone else enjoyed their food as well.
We took our time with dinner, and then headed back to the villa for resting time and then bed.
