Blogs from Lagos, Algarve, Portugal, Europe - page 5

Well, I finally couldn't take it any longer and decided to part company with some really irritating gallstones. The plan originally was to wait until we return to the US but that would've meant waiting until January and these suckers were really beginning to irritate me (sorry couldn't resist). There is a public hospital and a private hospital in Lagos. Our friends Sandra and John told us the private hospital was much smaller and the care was quite good. So on November 19th after a rather excruciating three-day attack we went up to the hospital and made an appointment for the following day to meet the surgeon. Luckily I had all of my records from when I got the diagnosis I had gallstones back in September in the Azores. The surgeon looked over the information and ... read more

We have now been in Lagos, Portugal since October 3rd– hard to believe that almost a month has gone by. We have met quite a few of the cruisers that are here for the winter in the marina – most are from Europe and many are repeat customers coming back to Lagos year after year. One of the first comments we heard was that many call Lagos, “Port Velcro”. We understood what was meant by this as we had heard the same comments made about Georgetown, Bahamas and those that stay in Grenada during the hurricane season. Now that we have been here for a few weeks we understand the comment. One of the things that first attracted us to this marina was the convenience to the train and bus station so we could explore other ... read more

For those of you that have been following our other blog that we used while making our crossing from the Azores to mainland Portugal are aware that we made it to Lagos, Portugal. We left Santa Maria on Tuesday, September 25th at 10:30AM and we arrived at the reception pontoon (dock) at 2:30AM (local time) on Wednesday, October 3rd. It was longer than we had originally thought it would be, but we are safe and happy to be here. The trip was alittle rougher than we had hoped especially in the beginning, but fortunately the last couple of days got better. The last day, October 2nd we had a very good sail and at 4PM we were greeted by a large pod of dolphin playing in our bow wave and putting on a great show for ... read more

Hello Hello! Sorry that I have been slacking, it has been quite the week. Last week was pretty uneventful given that we had finals and what not, but we made time to go out Thursday after all our tests to spend one last night with the kids who were only here for one month. I love the nightlife here, it's crazy, yes, but its also so so so..... energizing? I don't really know how to describe it. We left for Portugal friday, and I had the best weekend I have had so far. Portugal is definitely on the top of my list, after Granada of course. We stayed in Lagos, literally right on the bach and it was gorgeous. There are all these rocks that form Grottos and the waves break on them and turn colors. ... read more

We are at the end of week three and are finally starting to get the warmer weather we have been waiting for- our high so far is about 34 degrees. We have had our first experience of driving with no air conditioning along the hot highway with all our windows open and our first night of trying to sleep in the hot box of the van. After leaving Islares we headed further along the Spanish coastline and lucked out finding a beautiful little town called Llanes. Llanes is part of what is known as the 'Green Coast’, which is known for its outstanding shorelines and mountains. The town has a pretty little port and the stunning Picos de Europa mountain range as its backdrop. After finding a nice little free camping spot by the water we ... read more