Corinne CrawfordAlvor is such a small town that they don’t even have an actual bus station but I got off at the main bus stop in town which was just a 6 minute walk from my airbnb there. Alvor was a small fishing town with a small typical downtown and then the harbor area. I wanted a little break in a quiet charming small town before spending my last 5 days in Faro, which was a bit of a bigger town, a bit bigger than Lagos. My first day I only went to the grocery store and got some stuff for my breakfasts, lunch and dinners. There is a famous cave and beach that can only be reached from the water called Benagil Cave. The weather was not super conducive to a boat tour when I was in Lagos so I researched options that I could do from Alvor because the weather was supposed to be a bit more favorable while I was there. After several failed attempts during this whole trip to get out on the water, I was determined to make this happen along the coast of Portugal. I booked with a company that did a boat tour leaving from Albufeira which was only about 1 hour from Alvor by bus. I made the reservation for Saturday, my second and last day in Alvor for 2:00pm. I made pasta for dinner and called it an early night excited that I would finally get to see the coast from the ocean. The next day I took a long walk around town, including the old castle walls that now surrounded a playground and garden in the center of town.
One of the big draws for me in Alvor was a series of trails and boardwalks out in a nature reserve area between the harbor and the beach. The beach was humongous and I can imagine how busy this must be in the summertime. As it was, I was one of maybe 6 beach walkers when I got there. I walked along the boardwalk for a while following a barefoot old man who was on his way to to harvest some clams it seemed and I saw a few kite surfers practicing in the shallow protected area between the breakwater and harbor. I spent several hours taking my time and sitting on the beach reading my book before going back to the apartment to make some dinner.
But then I got an email from the tour company that evening and they were cancelling the tour the next day because of weather conditions. I did not understand, the weather forecast was for sun, no rain. I thought maybe it was because they did not sell out the tour because it was the very end of the tourist season so maybe they didn’t want to take the boat out for just a handful of tourists. I was ticked- so many of my plans to do anything ocean related have been foiled throughout the trip and now it seemed that bad luck was continuing. So now what do to on my last day in Alvor? The next morning, I decided just to work and relax for the day and I looked into more options for a boat tour that I could do from Faro and found one so I booked it and hoped for the best. This one was scheduled for Tuesday, 2 days after my arrival in Faro. I would need to get myself back to Albufeira to catch the the boat. And now because it was Saturday night, I thought I would go out on the town in Alvor. I did not plan very well because my last Saturday night in Europe was in a sleepy quiet town. I probably should have arranged to be in a spot a bit more lively for my last Saturday night. I wandered around a bit and noticed that there was an alarming amount of Irish bars and steakhouses for such a small town and figured this must be a vacation area for the English who I had been told flock to southern Portugal in the summer to go to the beach and golf. Many of the Irish bars and steakhouses were closed for the season but a few were open showing the World Cup that had started. I watched a bit of the game in one of the Irish bars for a bit and then found a Reggae bar that seemed lively. I tried hard to not pull my book out like I normally do when I am out so that I didn’t seem unapproachable for any good conversations that might be had. Not that there was anyone in particular that I wanted to approach me but I should at least attempt to be open to social interaction. I actually did end up having a great chat with an older couple from England and two brothers from Denmark. It was a lovely evening and I went back to my apartment with a smile on my face but still wishing I had many more Saturdays to spend in Europe. The next morning, I was heading to my final destination before flying back to the States-Faro.