Settling in to the Portuguese way of life

It's a leisurely pace  of life in Portugal

It's been over two months since I last posted, mainly because we are in the midst of some exciting and important changes, and I kept putting off writing until matters had been concluded, so I could do a 'big reveal'. However such is the gentle pace of life here in Portugal that things don't seem to get concluded very quickly, so whilst time certainly flies when you're having fun, you can't always achieve as much as you hoped or intended, especially over the easter period which is celebrated to the max here with numerous public holidays and local festivals.

So instead I'll bring you up to date with how things currently stand and fill you in on what Portugal's been like for us this spring.

Happy to be back in this gorgeous place

We left Spain at the end of March and headed straight for Penamacor, in mid Portugal - a charming, picturesque town we visited briefly in November and where, despite losing Nina on the first day of our arrival back then (and finding her with the help of some lovely local folk), we fell completely in love with the place. We felt like we needed to get back there and give it a 'proper look', with a view to finding some land to buy, to use as a base, and potentially settle on, for good.

Our journey on this occasion was not without incident, when in Spain, near Toledo we came across a crashed vehicle, a fellow Mercedes bus, no less, the driver unconscious at the wheel, engine running, a worried looking dog on his lap and the bus dangerously angled into one of the motorway lanes. We were afraid to move the guy, who we couldn't bring round but did manage to turn off the engine, put out some cones, contact the police and wait there until the emergency services arrived. It looked like he had fallen asleep at the wheel and when he came to, seemed extremely disorientated and confused. Thankfully the police didn't require much from us and we soon went on our our way - the whole episode probably taking about an hour.

After another hour or so's driving we experienced a sudden jolting sensation and a bit of a wobble - one of the back tyres had blown! We limped to a garage in the nearest town, and without too much bother got it changed, the only problem being that our spare tyre turned out to be the wrong size, slightly smaller than the others so in the end we had to buy another tyre, also slightly smaller so they matched (as its twin wheel at the back), then take off the good larger tyre, to have as a spare. However the larger tyre wouldn't fit under the bus on the tyre rack so we now have a large wheel permanently on board, getting in our way.

The hill over which our tyre escaped

Or at least, we did..... as a crazy thing happened today - we are currently parked right at the top of Penamacor town overlooking beautiful rolling hills, with a nigh on vertical drop just in front of us. Whilst sorting out the bus this morning, said wheel rolled out of the open back doors and continued downwards at a ferocious speed, landing in the scrub some 100 feet below. We think we can retrieve it, but will wait until later when it's cooler. You couldn't make it up, it was like one of those comedy scenes where a tyre is on the run, thank goodness it was travelling through trees which eventually stopped it and that no one was in the way!

Anyway, enough about that and on to more merrier subjects, such as what we've been up to since the beginning of April....

The town of Penamacor 

As mentioned, we totally fell in love with Penamacor and it continues to deliver on many fronts. The warmth of the people, both Portuguese and other nationalities is astonishing. We were invited to our first party a couple of weeks ago, the hosts were American and Czech, the guests a mix of international and local. At one point musical instruments were handed out and everyone was jamming - I was on the castanets, whilst others played guitar, ukulele, bongos and didgereedo! The home made wine was flowing and we were even given a lift home at the end of the night.

By day there is plenty to keep us busy, the countryside is beautiful and as we explore it we are often pleasantly surprised to come across lovely large natural bodies of water, or fruit groves in the middle of nowhere. The area is well known for its large natural boulders, which are sometimes incorporated to the rustic houses to form natural walls. 

Me washing - cheaper than at the launderette!

There's a network of many pretty villages, each with at least a shop and a small bar and always a font where you can fill up with water. One such village, aptly named Aguas, has many fonts as well as a river and is abundant with water - I did some washing at the communal washing spot, and enjoyed watching a turtle basking on a rock there in the stream.

The climate here is particularly well disposed towards horticulture - everyone is a keen gardner and almost everybody 'grows their own'. During April we had a lot of rain, but no one complained about it as many people have wells on their land and the rainfall is good for keeping them topped up.

Nick, cooling down!

In contrast, this week, we're experiencing temperatures in the high twenties, low thirties, and it's certainly feeling very hot! We are frequently being given surplus fruit and veg by the locals. One lovely old fellow has even taken to giving us bread rolls, we've had two bags of six while rolls from him this week - not sure where he 'grows' them though!

Some of the fab street art to be found locally

Last week I had my first professional haircut since being away. A friend clippered it in December, and it grew out surprisingly fast. When Nick told me I was starting to resemble Lord Baylish aka Little Finger from Game of Thrones, it was time to get it sorted! I tracked down an English hairdresser and arranged to go to hers for a haircut, I knew it was going to be interesting when she gave me directions and said to call her from the bottom of the mountain and she'd collect me in a 4x4! The hairdresser and her lovely partner live on top of a mountain which is populated lower down by a community known as Rainbow City, something a bit like a commune where all kinds of alternative people have bought parcels of land and built dwellings, including Geo-domes. Portugal is very open to this kind of lifestyle and as such attracts people who are forward thinking, resourceful and self sufficient. I'm looking forward attending the Boom festival which takes place every other year near here at a beautiful lake called Idanha-a-Nova and is billed as 'a transformational festival featuring music performances and a broad variety of art exhibits'. The next one is in 2020.

Our much loved bus at Idanha-a-Nova lake

We have stayed within about a thirty kilometre radius since we arrived back in Penamacor because we are waiting to get a minor repair done on the bus, it doesn't stop us from driving her, but we are waiting for a part and then a local mechanic will do the job. We toyed with the idea of selling the bus for a few weeks to get something smaller but after much deliberation we've decided to keep her, especially as we've fixed up more grape-picking work in France for later in the year and she's ideal for that and has enough room for Nina to live comfortably in too.

As for my 'big reveal', for now I'm keeping it buttoned as we are awaiting news on a certain something. Suffice to say, if it all comes together we will be entering an exciting new chapter here in Portugal, and one that we are very excited about and keeping everything crossed for. 🍀🤞

Stay tuned folks!