A Perfect Day in Lagos

When my alarm sounded, at 6:45 am, I almost thought I would say, "Screw it, I'm going back to sleep. I've seen countless sunrises. What's so special about this one?"

I had never watched a sunrise in the Algarve before. That's what was so special about this one.

I drew the curtain back in our guest house bedroom, and it seemed fully overcast. Perhaps I wasn't going to get a sunrise anyway. Still, it was worth a shot.

And besides, the sun was set to rise a few minutes before breakfast was ready, anyway. I might as well freshen up. I went down the hall to our bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and combed my hair. I put on some clean clothes and then returned to our room, where DW was just getting up. I grabbed my camera, tripod, remote shutter release, and a neutral-density filter, and headed up to the rooftop patio of the 3 Marias Guest House.

As I passed the kitchen, I met our other host, Maria, who was busy preparing food. Her helper, Charlotte, was also occupied with her duties. On the patio, João was setting tables and straightening up from last night's storm. He offered to make me a coffee but I declined, telling him that I would have one when breakfast was ready to be served.

I set my tripod up in a corner that didn't interfere with João's work and pointed my lens toward Igreja de São Sebastião de Lagos, one of the town's oldest churches, dating back to the 14th century. Every hour on the hour, its bell rang out across Lagos. In the foreground was a cluster of white buildings with a scattering of red tiled rooves, and in the distance I could make out blue hues of far-off mountains.

It looked as though the sky was going to clear enough for sunlight to peek through and I was heartened. Sunrises and sunsets are always more dramatic when they are accompanied with clouds. But it also looked as though the sun was not going to line up with my composed frame. I was pointed more to the northeast than to the east: to frame my shot for the sun, I'd have to point to the backs of neighbouring buildings, which just didn't make for a good shot.

I'd just have to rely on the sun to paint the clouds over St. Sebastian. I don't think I was disappointed.

Not wanting to miss the sun entirely, I took a couple of shots with my smartphone.

DW joined me as I was collapsing my tripod and we were seated at one of the tables that João had prepared. Other guests were emerging from their rooms and taking seats at various tables. Maria came and offered us bacon and eggs, and directed us to a table that had various assortments of breads and jams, coffee, tea, juices, fresh fruit, and more. It was a perfect homemade breakfast.

Our plan for the morning was to hike the trail along the coastline from Praia da Batata (Potato Beach) to Ponta da Piedade—essentially what we had paddled in kayaks, the day before, only from above and on foot.

I threw my Nikon D7200 with a 70–300mm zoom lens in my backpack, clipped my D750 with a 24–70mm lens to a shoulder strap on my backpack, and carried my Insta360 One R video camera, with the 360 module, on a three-metre selfie stick. I also put a two-litre bottle of water in my backpack. It was a lot to carry but I knew that I'd use everything.

People were just starting to show up on the beach. We had the first part of the trail to ourselves but some of it ran onto private property, so we had to take to the main streets and find our way back. By that point, more people were on the trail but it was by no means crowded.

It was interesting to see a group of kayakers, below, doing exactly what we had done the day before. It gave us a great perspective of our adventure.

Not until we reached Farol da Ponta da Piedade, where there is a lighthouse and several lookout points, as well as Miradouro da Ponta da Piedade, a lookout with steep stairs that lead down to the water. Everybody wanted to be there, and several people asked us to take photos for them.

We couldn't resist taking several photos, too.

Not ready to turn around, DW and I continued along the boardwalk paths until we reached Praia de Porto Mós, further west along the coastline. We had travelled at least as far to this beach as we had from Potato Beach to the lighthouse.

By then, we were tired and hungry so we grabbed some snacks and drinks on the patio at Campimar Restaurant. By then, I was falling in love with Super Bock Stout, ordering it wherever it was available, and even claiming it as my official beverage of choice on our trip.

(Except when a good glass of port wine was available.)

We were close to a bus stop and decided to wait for the next one, but when it didn't arrive, we ordered an Uber, instead. It cost us four euros, which was just over a euro more than what the bus would have cost the two of us (€1.40 each), but it was faster and took us directly to our guest house.

DW wanted to do some shopping and I was feeling too tired to wander stores (I hate shopping), so I took our laptop onto the rooftop patio and wrote out a few blog posts while she ran her errands. I helped myself to some of the fruit-infused water and another patron was lounging on the hammock. I later learned that he was a fellow Canadian, from Montreal, and had been in Lagos for nearly a week.

DW returned just as I was finishing the last of my posts for the week, so we decided to wander the town to explore and take more photos and video. We had hoped to visit St. Sebastian Church but it was closed, even though both Google and our tour guide said it was open (never trust Google for hours of operation).

We made our way to the marina, from where we made a FaceTime video call to our kids, and then checked out the Infante Dom Henrique Plaza, which gives a nod to Prince Henry the Navigator. On one end of the plaza stands Igreja de Santa Maria, a Catholic church; across from it, the Mercado de Escravos – Núcleo Museológico Rota da Escravatura, a museum that remembers the slave trade and Portugal's role in human trafficking. The building is the old market house for when Africans were sold off to the highest bidders.

Dinner hour was approaching so we decided to take one of João's other recommendations and went to the restaurant that was directly across from Taninos, Taberna da Mó. Like Taninos, Taberna da Mó offered a tapas menu that was tasty and fresh. It's a larger restaurant and seemed to lack the same cosy atmosphere that we had experienced the night before, but perhaps the thunderstorm added to that ambience. The owner was friendly and recommended some good dishes, and when we told him that we had been given a recommendation from the 3 Marias, he said "I know João and Maria. They're good people."

They really are.

We strolled the darkening streets for a bit longer before returning to the rooftop patio of our guest house, where we finished the bottle of wine that we had started, the night before, and made our plans for the next morning.

Again, I wanted to get up early, but this time I wanted to head to a beach to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic. I wanted to find a good setting and I knew just the place.

Stay tuned to see where that spot was.