The South Coast

We barely slept.

Even though we were only staying in Porto for three nights, I had unpacked about half of my suitcase. I had buttoned shirts that needed to hang and I had t-shirts and underwear that I needed to access. Also, more than half of the items in my suitcase was camera gear, and I used both D-SLR cameras, one of my 360-degree video cameras, and accessories.

And they all needed to fit back in the suitcase exactly the right way.

DW also wanted to take her breakfast cereal with her. Her mornings didn't start right if she went without her fibre.

Thankfully, we had ordered an Uber before we turned out the lights and the driver arrived exactly on time, just as DW had slipped our hotel keys in the mailbox for the reception. By the way, we were staying at the Pinho Apartments, in case you're heading to Porto and want a good place to stay in a great location.

The streets in Porto were all but empty as we passed monuments and landmarks, and headed outside the core to the airport. We were catching a Ryan Air jet to Faro, in the Algarve region, on the southern shores of Portugal.

Everything went according to plan, and I even dozed for about half of the one-hour flight. We touched down at 9:00, got our bags, and made our way to the bus stop, just outside the airport. It was a local bus but it would take us to the Faro train station.

Faro was not our destination, though we would have liked to visit the historic town centre. Another trip, perhaps.

The bus was late and the lineup for it was becoming long, so DW and I ordered an Uber, which was available immediately. The driver who accepted the ride was literally 30 metres away. She was a pleasant woman who tried to get us to hire her to take us all the way to our destination, but we respectfully declined. The train, while not necessarily faster, was considerably cheaper.

The train was about 20 minutes late but because Faro was the starting terminal, we had a good pick of seats. But over the course of the trip it did fill up and by the time we reached the terminus, Lagos, there was standing room only for so many passengers.

Lagos is a picturesque town with a dark history. It is the home of Europe's first slave market, in the mid 15th century. The market building, from 1444, stands today. The town stands as a symbol of colonialism. It was difficult to embrace the city, today, as a thriving seaside town and host to thousands of tourists, like us, without first recognizing and reflecting on Lagos' past.

DW had booked our stay in Lagos, so I followed her as she led us up the labyrinth of narrow streets and as we climbed steep hills to the top, just above the old centre and within the fortified walls, to a place called the 3 Marias Guest House.

We were greeted by Carla, who has been working at the guest house for about six years. She showed us our room, which was located on the first floor but up a few stairs. Because the hotel was fully booked, and we were only staying two nights, we had a simple room with no private bathroom inside. We had to go down the hall and around the corner, but this bathroom, which was almost as large as our room, was for our use only, and so we could keep our toiletries in it without worry, we also used the room to hang our handwashed clothes.

With our belongings in our room, Carla led us up to the rooftop, which was beautifully decorated and had lots of tables and chairs, and a sofa for relaxing. It even had a hammock for anyone who wanted to nap. From here, we would be served breakfast each morning, between 7:30 and 9:00. But the kitchen, also on the roof, was open 24 hours and we were told that we could help ourselves to anything.

Carla served us a refreshing flavoured water and gave us a map of Lagos that she had circled with a few restaurants and bars, as well as some sightseeing attractions. She answered any questions that we had, and then she left us to freshen up and unwind.

We took one of her restaurant recommendations, a nice place called Reis, where I had fresh squid and DW had cod. We didn't have a lot of time to linger, because we had big plans for 3:30. We stopped at a wine shop, picked up a nice Douro red table wine, and headed back to the guest house.

We changed into our swim suits and sun-protective gear, and made our way to one of the beaches, Praia da Batata or "Potato Beach," where we checked in with our next adventure: kayaking.

We had signed up with Kayak Explorers for a three-hour trek along Lagos' rocky coastline. We were equipped with a dry bag, life jacket, and paddle, and we were given a tandem kayak to use. It took DW and me a minute to get used to being in the same craft, with her in the front and me in the back. She had a tendency to want to steer, which she is naturally used to doing, but that meant that she'd take extra strokes on one side, and I had to keep pace with her to avoid smacking paddles. But we were the only couple in our group who had experience in a kayak before, so the bunch of us moved slowly.

This worked out in our favour, as we'd keep up with our guide and I could capture some video while we waited for everyone in the group to catch up. We could also move our kayak into the caves and under rock arches, while either DW or I worked the camera, without any issues.

Except when another kayaker would uncontrollably ram us.

Overall, it was a fun adventure and we got to cover three-and-a-half kilometres of the shoreline from a great perspective. At the end of the tour, we hitched our kayaks in two chains and a motorboat slowly towed us back to Potato Beach. As we made our way back, we could see storms approaching from two fronts and heard a steady roll of thunder, but we avoided showers until we were safely back at the 3 Marias.

As we reached the front door, we were met by a man who introduced himself as João, one of the owners of the guest house. He was friendly and welcoming, and as we discussed dinner options, he made two recommendations and told us where we could find these restaurants, which were directly across from one another.

DW and I showered, put on some clean clothes, and set out to find these restaurants. By the time we reached them, a light rain had started to fall, but we had the forethought to have our rain coats with us.

We saw that there was seating available in Taninos Wine & Kitchen, so we went in. Folks, this place will go down as one of the best meals I had during our entire stay in Portugal.

We decided to order from the tapas menu and went for four items: two items that we'd share and one item, each, that we knew the other person wouldn't want but that we wanted to try, ourselves. We shared a charcuterie board with fresh bread, pâte, cheeses, sausage, and olives, and a dish of cubed, grilled beef that was succulent and flavourful.

DW had a mushroom dish that she thoroughly enjoyed (I don't eat fungus), while I had tuna tartare with a mango purée and crispy onions that was to die for. We sipped from glasses of locally grown red wine, and even went for dessert (which I rarely go for, myself). It was a chocolate mousse that was so light that we didn't feel like we were overindulging.

While we ate our dessert, the sky opened up and the thunder and lightning grew intense. There seemed to be no rush for the owners to show us out and we weren't rushed to leave, so we ordered coffee and I further indulged with a glass of 10-year-old tawny.

The rain let up enough for us to make our escape, but the lightning was so steady that when I took a photo of the street with my smartphone, I actually captured some of the lightning in my shot.

We returned to the guest house, grabbed our bottle of wine that we had purchased after lunch, and made our way to the rooftop. João was up there, moving some glass partitions to shield the covered part of the patio from rain. He lit some candles on a table for us and told us that we could help ourselves to wine glasses in a cupboard in the kitchen. He also provided a corkscrew.

We told him about our dinner at Taninos and thanked him for his recommendation. He bid us a good evening and left us to sit in candlelight, sipping our wine, and enjoying the light show over Algarve.

It was a long but very good day in Lagos. We'd get to bed at a decent time to get a good rest. After all, I wanted to get up before sunrise and capture the early morning light as it illuminated this view of old Lagos.

Stay tuned.