Algarve BlogThis Algarve blog is intended to keep you in touch with the latest in Algarve affairs. Now that I'm living here, I'm trying to keep you updated with what's going on in the Algarve and around those wonderful beaches. So, here's my regular take on occurrences in what used to be my favourite vacation spot...
but is now my favourite place to live. Leap Year Blog - "... nor any drop to drink."When I lived in UK, I never bought, and seldom drank, bottled water. Even when we lived in the Aberdeen countryside and had water from a well, I was content to boil it, let it cool and then store it for later consumption. Of course, when holidaying abroad, I did tend to drink bottled water. Received wisdom from tales of 'Delhi Belly' and 'Montezuma's Revenge' ensured that I didn't trust the local supply on offer in foreign parts. But, even so, I did make hot drinks from whatever came out of the tap. When we moved to Algarve, I began to buy bottled water and to decant it into smaller containers so we could take it with us when out and about in the heat. Gradually, I started to add some tap water, and now we probably drink a 50/50 mix. If we suffer no untoward effects, this will eventually become 100% tap water.
So, I was amused and amazed to read that the authorities are now decrying the consumption of bottled water, which, in the last couple of decades has progressed from a fad to a fully-fledged billion-pound phenomenon. Neither, it seems, do the Portuguese trust what comes out of their taps. No amount of reassurance from health experts will persuade them that it's safe. Probably, that stems from the relatively recent provision of mains water in some parts of the country. Or perhaps they're just hankering after the sophistication promised by those designer water suppliers. Either way, I can't help reflecting that transporting water from places like Fiji can't be good for the planet. And the amount of plastic that goes to landfill is staggering even to consider. Sooner or later, there'll be a reckoning, I suppose. In the meantime, I'm considering the purchase of one of those in-line water filter cartridges that's supposed to take all the nasties out of what emerges from the tap. At least that way the landfill in my own area might be slowed somewhat... Friday 29 February 2008 The Backward ViewOne way to get a country into economic growth (so my favourite economists tell me) is to keep commerce flowing. Yesterday's blog about the old Arade bridge is one example of where Portugal (and Algarve) fall down in that regard. But it seems to be symptomatic... Early in the year, blue plastic piping of around 75mm internal bore appeared along the Estoi/Moncarapacho road. This is the inevitable precursor to traffic disruption, so we braced ourselves mentally. Sure enough, a few days later, the work started, restricting traffic heading for Moncarapacho from Estoi. The works covered around one kilometre and were controlled by temporary traffic lights. Once the trench had been filled, we looked forward to the resurfacing of that bit and the start of the next. No chance! The next kilometre or so was dug up, with traffic dodging about trying to avoid the rough and muddy bits of the filled in trench. Then another kilometre was dug up, with the second stretch being filled inadequately to accept serious traffic. Around then, we began to think of diversionary tactics... We could go onto another road and rejoin the messed-up route just before Estoi - Not! They only dug that road up at the same time! (And it must be very bad, because they put up a diversion sign directing traffic along the Moncarapacho road!) Who thinks this stuff up? It's too unbelievable to be a comedy script.
In addition to the inconvenience, there's the safety aspect. After the last rains, heavy wagons had sunk into the filled-in trenches and made them impassable for normal cars. Now, there are stretches where the road is useable over only half to two-thirds of its already narrow width. Which means that, when you drive toward Estoi on the right side of the road, you are approached by desperate drivers in lorries, vans and smaller vehicles, all driving on your side of the road, so as to avoid the Somme-like trench that constitutes their own half of the estrada! Sooner or later, someone will be killed on that stretch. It's the proverbial 'accident waiting to happen'. Why the filled-in bits can't be resurfaced so that only the stretch being piped up is impassable, I can't imagine. Whether it's the fault of Faro Câmara or of the contractor doing the work is hardly the point. Once an accident has taken place it's too late to apportion blame. Something should be done now. However, the general consensus at my tennis group was that no-one was holding any breath waiting for a resolution of this matter... They didn't wish to chance asphyxiation! It all adds to the high risk of driving in Portugal - and it's entirely avoidable. Wednesday 27 February 2008 Quotations are easy!Orçamentos (quotations for jobs) are relatively easy to arrange in Algarve. You just telephone (or email) and someone turns up, possibly even at the agreed time. Work may even start fairly quickly after the agreement is reached... ... But the completed job is an elusive beast! It's now some four months since I blogged about the closure of the old bridge crossing the Arade river at Portimao, and guess what? That's right, no discernible work has taken place! Considering the disruption and inconvenience visited upon the poor folk who need to get into and out of Portimão every day just to earn a crust, that's pretty disgraceful. I understand that the bridge needed to be closed for safety reasons, but it must benefit the town's economy to have it in use again as soon as possible; mustn't it? It now looks doubtful that it will be carrying traffic again in March 2009 as promised. At least I'm reassured that it's not just me that can't get any action out of tradesmen once they've started a job and would be difficult to dismiss! Tuesday 26 February 2008 Alternating CurrentWe have heard from various sources that the electrical supply in Portugal can be 'rough'. Which apparently means spikes and troughs in the supply voltage. We had brought an overload protection extension socket with us from the UK, which was easily converted to work over here in Portugal simply by changing the mains plug. That is used to protect the TV and hi-fi. Which left the PCs unprotected. It's not too bad on the laptop that Nev uses to work on Algarve Beach Life... It's got Windows XP, which is reasonably forgiving if the power suddenly disappears - but we weren't so sure about the effects of a voltage spike. And, of course, if any harm came to the machine, it would take a lot of work to recover the web pages... So, yesterday we bought an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) unit, which will enable the saving of work before powering down the laptop, should the power fail in the mains network. Thus far, so good: except that the UPS will plug into the mains socket, but its outlet plug is not right for European electrical equipment. We need to buy a suitable replacement lead that will enable us to use the UPS to protect the laptop. Today's Sunday, so we thought we'd find the required lead tomorrow, while Nev updated a few pages today... Then, BOINK! - out goes the supply to the entire area. We checked, and none of our neighbours had electricity either. When it came back on, we powered up the laptop, hoping that nothing untoward had happened; and we were lucky this time. But it reinforced the need to ensure that the 'iffy' voltage can't cause us major disruption, with lost files etc. 'Alternating current' in Portugal seems to mean: Now you have power, now you don't! Sunday 24 February 2008 How It Should BeThere's much in the local news about the trial of five Portuguese police inspectors. They are alleged to have beaten a confession out of a woman who was subsequently convicted of murdering her baby.
That is, they're suspected of breaking the law. Compare that to many areas throughout the world where the police operate pretty much however they wish. And the only time they end up on the wrong side of things is when they upset the people in power. Thank heavens for the rule of law! Saturday 23 February 2008 Sobering NewsDuring 2007, traffic police in Portugal detained more than 8200 drivers who had no valid licence. The GNR (national guard police) arrested more than 2100 drivers for the same offence. It's a small country, and not terribly populous, so that figure is rather worrying. Most of the miscreants were Portuguese citizens, but there is an increasing contingent of immigrants from non-Schengen countries in those statistics. Sadly, few seem to realise that they are uninsured when they are at the wheel without a valid licence. On the plus side, the police now catch more of them by dint of using in-car laptop computers that enable them to check the database of vehicle number plates. The sobering bit, of course, is that not all those drivers without licences are apprehended, so who knows how many of them are out there? If you're going to visit Portugal on vacation, then do take the opportunity to read my page of driving tips and information about driving in Portugal and the Algarve. Better safe than sorry... Friday 22 February 2008 Eyes Wide Shut?I read where they expect the Algarve race circuit to be ready by sometime this year (we'll see). And, even though I'm something of a follower of F1 racing, I wondered whether, given the planet's problems, this is the wisest move. I understand that it's important to boost the region's tourism... ... but aren't there more ecologically-sound ways of doing that than a high-octane burn-fest? Of course, we expect that, in the future, we'll have sorted out alternative fuels that will mean we can continue to enjoy the personal freedoms of motoring and international flights. But I can't help wondering who exactly is going to bring it about, when all I ever read about are new ways of consuming fossil fuels. Just to give myself a little righteous feeling, I bought a second-hand bike last week. It cost me 40 euros, and was a bargain, having Shimano gears, mudguards, a rear parcel shelf and even front and rear lamps worked from a dynamo. (Almost any kind of lamp on a bicycle being a rarity in Algarve!) I can't actually claim to have travelled far on it yet (it's still done more kilometres in the back of the car than it has on the road with me aboard), but my intention is to use it as much as I can. It won't be of much help when I do a 'big shop', but it's the start of my personal effort to save the planet. Wish me luck? Wednesday 20 February 2008 Better Late Than Never...Yet another of the never-ending lists of surveys and statistical findings that abound in the printed media landed on my breakfast table the other morning. This one was about average heights in various countries. Apparently, the Portuguese, who are a small race, are beginning to catch up in the human altitude stakes. This is put down to an improving lifestyle (rather than traces of growth hormone in meat products). The reason for it being mentioned at all was that the phenomenon occurred later in Portugal than in the rest of Europe where the end of WWII saw a spurt in average heights. It wasn't until 1960 that the Portuguese decided to start growing. A couple of things occurred to me when I read this stuff: firstly, since older people tend to shrink with age, doesn't that mean that countries where affluence assures an aging population should be shorter on average? And secondly, with global warming promising worldwide flooding, won't relative height (or ownership of a boat) mean a better chance of survival?
(Of course, having a property at the top of a hill - like this one in Castro Marim - would also help, whatever one's stature). Either way, an article telling me that things happen more slowly in Portugal didn't constitute news! Tuesday 19 February 2008 Who's right?Portugal's broadband service is one of the fastest in the world, I read the other day. Apparently, the average speed on offer is just under 13 Mbps. Of course, they use the words 'on offer' advisedly. My own 3G cell-phone-based service from Vodafone is a nominal 3.6 Mbps. I recently compained to the customer service department about the poor connection speeds I was experiencing. In fairness, they were pretty slick about trying to sort the problem and even upgraded my software to operate at a nominal 7.2 Mbps. But it is decidedly 'nominal'. I just downloaded a 13 Mbyte podcast so I could listen to it later, and the average download speed was less than 60kbps, which I count as considerably slower than it should be. (I know download speed is slower than upload speed, but really - only 60 thousand bytes per second, when it's supposed to be megabytes...?) Fortunately, the government has a plan. It's a Technology Plan, and therefore probably undecipherable to the man in the street, but at least it's a plan. Its 3-pronged approach to help Portugal benefit from its Internet future consists of education, technology and information. Unfortunately, since the claimed connection speeds are a tad optimistic, it's easy to see that the technology and information bits are being supplied by Orwell's Ministry of Truth. It's the opposite of what it seems. 1984 may have arrived late, but it's definitely with us. Saturday 16 February 2008 Somebody must pay...... and let's hope it's not the hapless tourists of 2008! The Lisbon-Dakar rally has been cancelled this year due to threats of terrorism. The French organising authority decided it was too dangerous and called it off at short notice. Now, it seems that some local authorities in Algarve ( Portimao in particular) through which stages of the rally would pass, are seeking compensation for money already spent in promoting and preparing for the event. I was struck by two thoughts when I read this news: firstly, aren't rallies dangerous by their very nature? I thought the whole point was the threat of thrills and spills? And secondly, why wouldn't those who were spending out on preparations have covered the financial risk with insurance? Surely there was some premonition that terrorism (or the threat of it) would affect the Dakar end of things? Whatever the outcome, it would seem that the investment has proved worthless and will likely be loss-making. I just hope that it's not recouped from residents and tourists in the form of higher prices. Why not make up the shortfall from the pension funds and bonuses of those responsible for taking the uninsured risk? After all, tourists have to insure before they travel, so why should they take a double-hit? Thursday 14 February 2008 Shop 'til you drop...They're planning a huge new shopping complex at Guia. It will bring about 2000 extra jobs, they say, although there can only be so many people available for retail jobs, you'd think? The thing is that the new complex is going to be right opposite the one that's there already! I don't know how the existing entrepreneurs will feel when they're outgunned by the new boys. I suppose the theory is that more shops will attract more shoppers from a wider area. I'm no town planner and no shop owner either, come to that, so I suppose we'll just have to wait and see whether it works out. Depending on the type of outlets it attracts, it might be yet another yawn-athon, vanilla-flavour mall... ... or they may surprise us and offer a rewarding choice of retail therapy. These things take a while to build, so I suppose we shouldn't get too excited just yet. I'll report back when there's anything worth reporting. Wednesday 13 February 2008 Wow!We went to see the finals of the Ladies' Open Tennis tournament at Vale do Lobo club today... ... And the standard was fabulous! Unfortunately, we only got to see half of the last set, as Nev had been playing tennis himself - elsewhere - and didn't finish in time. But he agreed that those girls could certainly hit a ball! The crowd wasn't huge, but that was probably down to it being low season for tourists. We'll certainly put aside the time to watch the next tournaments, which takes place in Albufeira and Portimao respectively (see Algarve Events page for details). Sunday 10 February 2008 Spot the misp
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Of course, if you shop around, bottled water
need not be expensive in the Algarve. You can buy 5 litres
for as little as 38 cents - still expensive compared to tap
water, but pretty cheap by 'rip-off Britain' standards.
Whatever
the outcome of the case, it's worth remembering, especially
given the international criticism of the national police
force last year, that they're on trial for the right
reasons.
Then
we tried to see the happening at Quarteira, but it seemed
strangely quiet. Enquiries at the Turismo revealed that
there'd been a misprint
in the dates published! Quarteira would happen on Sunday,
not Saturday - so we went to Loulé instead. While it may be
the biggest carnival in Algarve, this year's was probably
the slowest, too, with the floats stopping inexplicably
every 10 metres or so.
I
read in a Portuguese newspaper that medronho, the
fiery spirit brewed in and around 
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