THEN OLHÃO
FOUND US...
W
... and we weren't even looking! Hank and Carina's story of how they came to live in and love Olhão
elcome to our monthly column celebrating Olhão. After exploring Portugal top to bottom from Braga to Tavira, enjoying so many coastal and inland locations in our RV, we decided Olhão was the place to buy our home to celebrate our “golden years”. Olhão was not on our radar at first. In fact, the discovery of Eastern Algarve was a pleasant surprise with the scale of development so much less than areas to the west. A chance winter rental introduced us to Olhão, a place we quickly found attractive for many reasons. “Walkability” is, above all, a main highlight and each month I will introduce you to places only steps away from our front door. We hope you will enjoy our column! Follow THAT Flounder! We just did that. At least we think we did. Here’s how this all started. One recent sunny day, as we enjoyed riding to Culatra, Carina snapped this image of a fishing vessel alongside our ferry. We wondered…. could we somehow follow the fish from the water to our plate in Olhão? So, the next day I started to ask around at the harbour located on the eastern side of Olhão, armed only with the name of the boat, “Vila do Mar”. Some friendly guys working on nets dockside declared Culatra as the home port for the vessel! That led to another sunny Sunday ferry ride (1.90 Euros each way...a bargain), back to that offshore Ria Formosa island where I hoped I could locate both the boat and it’s owner. Sure enough, there it was, just a minute walk from the ferry landing. Lucky for me, a gentleman named Marc was fixing something on the boat AND he spoke enough English for us to communicate.
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Marc suggested I walk across the island to find Jorge, the owner of the boat, who on his one day off, was at home fixing his nets. Culatra is an island where most people know each other. A local woman responded to my request to find Jorge by leading me pretty much all the way there. Obrigado! Angelique, the owner’s teenage son, offered his experience learning English in school to help me communicate with his dad. More good luck.
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