Lagos

On to Evora, an ancient city with Roman ruins and the Chapel of Bones, a room within a cathedral made with human bones.

Then to Lagos on the Algarve coast.  Here we discovered that a guy on the trip did not have his passport.  The hotel in Lisbon said it was not in his room, so it had to be reported as stolen to the police, which our tour leader took care of immediately, then it was found the next day since they were looking in the wrong room.  ?? But on the positive side, the 800 euros (about $1200) with it was also found.  In the meantime he has a document that may or may not be accepted by airlines to get home to New Zealand, so is waiting for his new passport – a huge hassle.

Lagos is a party town, touristy with cobblestone streets, bars and restaurants open late, 2 euro glasses of wine.  Again we watched World Cup soccer, this is the thing to do in Spain and Portugal. 

The next day we went for a hike along the spectacular coast, taking wrong trails and scrambling to get to stairs leading to a beach below.  The couple from Australia were going to turn back at one point but continued because they wanted to see our tour leader Marcos in his speedo.  Marcos granted their wish, he and a couple of others went in for a dip in the very cold water which never warms up much.

A few of us continued on to a lighthouse, then down steps to a series of grottos.  There were small boats for hire so we jumped in to get fantastic views inside the caves, with the boat driver pointing out rock formations that looked like a skull or gorilla or elephant. 

When we got back a few of our group had booked a boat ride to see the same coastline, so I joined for a fun ride, a stop where a few of us jumped in the ocean (wow it was cold!).  I was right back out again.  But the boat guys were impressed since it was a windy cloudy day and everyone else that day was chickening out.  But when again am I going to be out on the ocean off the Algarve coast of Portugal?