Portimão, Burnt Food, Travel-hack List, and Benigal Caves

I’m on my usual quest to find a decent grocery store—this time in Portimão. The two big ones along the main tourist strip are lacking in the meat department. One has emaciated, wrinkled rotisserie chickens, the other has a spatchcocked baked chicken that looks almost as pathetic—I’m a little spoiled by the quality of prebaked food in Armação. Neither of these stores have butcher-counters. Near our place is a “Supermercado,” but it’s not super. It’s the size of our front-room with only dry goods. On our way out of town the other day we drove past a giant grocery store. It’s at least a mile away, but we’re going to make the trek today.

It’s been overcast and rainy these last couple of days. A bit disappointing because I love hanging out at the beach. Fortunately this town has tons of restaurants to go to... Some with squirting snails! It's always entertaining to watch people lean over to get a closer look.

We made the grocery store trek and it paid off. Continente is big and has a huge variety of stuff. It’s in a two-story mall with a food court. They even had a fast food place with bicycle seats to burn off the calories you consume… brilliant. The store had Skippy peanut butter (pause for spontaneous happy dance) and my favorite wine, Hermalinda Syrah Reserva. Most importantly they had a meat counter. I picked up chicken for dinner last night and managed to not burn it this time—barely. I also got ribs for slow-cooking for tomorrow night.

Portimão is an incredibly convenient city with big beaches, stores, cinemas, bowling alleys, a million restaurants and bars, but this half of the city is completely lacking in any kind of culture (unless you call expats and tourists a culture). I want to head to the old town north on the river and see what I think.

We went to Ferragudo for the day. We drove through old-town Portimão to find it wasn’t impressive from the car. We had a couple of options for getting there. The water taxi was appealing because it’s fun, but it would mean a fairly long walk to get to the pick-up point and costs about $5 bucks apiece. We decided to take the Uber and got there from our doorstep to the Praia Grande beach for $6 total. 

Spent the day wandering around the beach and gazing up at the gorgeous private castle and eating yet more food.

Last night I put in the ribs to slow cook. Having learned from the burnt chicken, I set the oven 50ᵒ C lower than the recipe called for, and at the end of 3 hours we ate black crunchy ribs. I’m so frustrated to have an oven that doesn’t work properly. I finally told the property manager that it was dangerous. He said he’d have his electrician look at it, but no one had ever complained before. Maybe it broke just for me, shrug. He also said no one had mentioned the broken espresso machine. I’m guessing that people are here for such a short time, they just accept things that don’t work, and maybe they don’t cook?

I get asked a lot about what we pack for a three month journey, (or a one month journey) so I’ve jotted down various oddities like spices we never travel without. I’m not talking about the obvious things, like clothing and a first aide kit. So, here’s a list:

Collapsible back scratcher (I’m obsessed with this item), human-grade diatomaceous earth (for killing off exoskeletal bugs like ants and cockroaches), tiny little sewing kit with tiny scissors (I’ve used this four times on this trip), fly swatter (cheap plastic one takes up no room), zip-lock baggies (for snacks), adapters and converter, night light (we have a European one), saccharin (not easy to find your fav sweetener), clamps (to close off bags like coffee), rubber-bands, manicure kit, fabric grocery bags, notebook or cue cards or sticky notes (Joe uses them, I use the note app on my phone), little tiny backpack salt and pepper, Cajun or blackening seasoning (If I lived here I could make my own seasoning, but I’d have to buy all the ingredients),

Ear plugs (I don’t know what I’d do without these), toothpicks (I like the little plastic ones), wine kit (opener, drip-ring, soft flexible corks), chargeable fan (which I set next my bed for air and noise), hanging fan (a gift from my sister to hang around my neck on the plane, hand fan (for my purse), tiny multitool, magnifying glass (or super-strong readers), eyeglass repair kit (don’t need it until ya need it), flashlight (Joe’s obsession), coffee filters (we’ve been places that have no idea what a coffee filter is), a little backpacker’s pour-over for coffee, 

Note app for groceries, rubber bands, batteries (can be purchased abroad, but then you get a whole pack), recipes with Celsius conversions on note app (or photos of recipes), hook-straps (great to have on your backpack for hanging shoes/jackets/towels/etc., itty-bitty spray bottle (this is an absolute must for me to calm my curly hair down). So, there you go… pretty much all of that can fit into a shoe-box.

We do love the beaches here with the massive rock formations providing a wind-block and shade. The stairs are a bit much at the end of a long hot day. We found a beach just west of us that has a street-level entry point, so IF we were to move here, that’s where I’d look. Joe is enamored with Portimão, but I’m not. It’s okay, but I just don’t like the superficial feeling. I think Armação de Pêra is a little better. I only wish the ocean wasn’t so painfully cold here. I’d be in it everyday if it were.

Last night we wandered up the street to a place I’d heard of for dinner—Urban Grill. It was so good. A wood platter full of steaks, chicken, sausages, and pork ribs, plus a salad and fries. We ate like kings and the wine was lovely… Bill says his Pepsi Zero was very nice too ;) The meal was expensive, but worth it.

We went on a boat tour of the Benigal Caves. This is the second time Joe and I have done this tour with Atlantis Tours. These guys do a great job. It’s magical to see the caves and cliffs from the sea level, and the day was completely calm. Bill was properly impressed.

Our guide, Rogerio, was a very busy guy trying to make everyone feel special… not easy on a rubber boat packed full of people. He even made reservations for us at a restaurant in downtown Portimão. I won’t give the name because it was very expensive and not good enough for the price, but we had fun chatting with the sommelier. He was incredibly knowledgeable and determined to make me happy after I sent my wine back. He succeeded in making me happy with a wine from the Alentejo region.

We’re heading back to Lisbon in a couple of days. Tonight we’re going to watch Hercule Poirot and eat garlic butter chicken and white rice. I may have time to blog one more time before I get back home to Sacramento, CA. We’ll see.