South to the Algarve

On the move again, we boarded an early morning Flix bus in Lisbon headed south for a 3-1/2 hour ride to Lagos in the Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal. Influenced over the centuries by the Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, and Muslims, ‘Algarve’ derives from the Arabic ‘Al-Gharb’ meaning ‘the west’. The western Algarve extends from the city of Portimão to the western Atlantic coast. Dotted with small fishing villages and towns and one large city, Portimão, the coastline here is notably rugged and windswept.Our long-time cruising friends, Brit and Axel, whom we hadn’t seen for 17 years, were waiting for us at the bus station in Lagos. We’d first met them in Panama after transiting the Canal. We sailed with them up Panamanian rivers and then on to Ecuador. We parted ways on different routes across the Pacific, but met up again in French Polynesia, Tonga, and later in New Zealand. We made lots of good memories together during our travels. View fullsize Cold beer in a tiny…