Big sun this morning.
Louis wanted to get up early but ended up lazing around until 9am.
We have lunch and we will go up the stairs that is situated behind the marina around 11am. I see the marina security guard and ask her how long it takes to get to the top of the hill. She says she never took the stone path. In the end, she will have missed something amazing.
It's nice to walk somewhere, without having to find a parking space. We are starting to climb and I must say that it is not like in Quebec with our CNESST and the whole protection of users. Lovely, quaint stone stairs built out of lava rocks, but not level, not the same height, no banisters or railings to keep us from falling off between each set of stairs. Nothing! We have to rely on our own sense of balance and preservation. We live dangerously!
We see lots of small lizards rushing into cracks / crevices between the rocks. Too cute! I like! We look at the view practically at each level. There are more than 13 so we will have taken full advantage of them. About 30 minutes later we are at the top. Yes I know. Just 30 minutes, that surprised me too. I expected more. Guess I'm in better shape than I thought.
The view is beautiful. We see the city and the bay in all their splendour. There is even perched at the top, a historic communication system made of metal pieces to be able to communicate with the other parts of the island. For 3 or 5 squares/rectangles of metal, they could interpret more than 60 signals. They were resourceful back then. I have to give them that!
Oh and walking up the landings, we saw a huge poster announcing a music and food festival in the village. All this as of tonight and for a whole week. Yep!! No more relaxed and peaceful evenings! We'll sleep when we get home.
Before going down, I go to see the monument and I see, just behind, a road and young people getting out of a car. They will have missed the chance to experience the stone stairs, which is definitly the best way to get there!
For your information, you have to be more vigilant during the descent. And this is not a joke. Take your time. Remember that nothing stops you if you fall. But enjoy the moment anyway.
We then went to the beach next to the marina for dinner, at the small restaurant, and to take advantage of the water for swimming and snorkeling. I offered to go scuba diving to Louis, but he told me that I couldn't do it because I pinched my nose in the water. I told him that was no excuse and that I could work it out over time. He suggested I start with snorkling. I showed him that I could do it and that even with a little water in the mask I could do it. Diving will be for next time. There is an advantage to seeing in the water, you can see the small jellyfish. Definitely, diving will be work, if ever I get there one day. With all the monsters and creatures lurking at the bottom of the water, it should be a great experience, huh!
We then take a relaxing moment on the boat before going for a walk in the streets of the city. We discover superb buildings and we appreciate each discovery!
We'll have dinner in the tent near the marina. In fact, during the festival, several restaurants from the mainland (Lisbon) come to show their cuisine to the people of the islands, inside the tents. We will choose a fish restaurant tonight, Tasca Algarvia. Meal for 2: Cataplana de Peixe. It was different and nice to eat in the big tent, surrounded by all the little restaurants. Really enjoyable evening!
We then went to the huge second tent for desserts. You have to discover the desserts of Portugal, of the continent I should say. We tasted two small tartlets this time, but believe me, it's not the last time we'll go... Louis will soon have an irresistible urge to go back several times.
I'm going to carry my computer to recharge it since we can't put electricity in the boat (we don't have the right end for the boat's electric wire at the dock. The security guard tells me to come back in 2 hours and it will be recharged (it's 10:30 p.m.) I tell her I'm going to sleep at 12:30 a.m.... and she says "I doubt it" I ask her what time the music stops, she tells me around 6am laughing and that I won't be sleeping much until the end of the festival, which ends after we get on the plane. Yeah!!
I'll pick up Louis from the boat to at least see the people around the various food and music stalls. Two different musics for the moment, people are beautiful, well dressed, it's fun to see. Different shows during the week for all tastes. Really fun to see the island come alive like this. The big shows (with tickets) start after 11 p.m. We climbed the stone stairs of the hill/cliff to see all the action from above. But we didn't get very high because it was difficult to walk in the dark, especially to go down and we didn't want the trip to end abruptly with a fall. Around 11 p.m., the music from the main stage started. We recognized several songs including: Phil Collins (covered by others) and "Eyes of tiger" (at 00:30). The music continued past 4am. The security guard wasn't joking, it really ended at 6am. That's not counting the revelers who left the stage (farther from us), to come back to the center and share their joy of being drunk with us. There is one, near the beach (I imagine), started screaming and making noises with his mouth. He was quite happy that the echo answered him and so he continued for a long time, but a long time to monologue with himself. I couldn't wait for him to stop and go to sleep. I saw Louis sleeping next to me and I just couldn't wait to get back into Morphee's arms.
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