Enjoying local fare in Santa Luzia

 Sunday 08/08/21

Stunning sunset with rare clouds providing some colour

We were discussing today how our decision not to drive anywhere in Bokkie while on this sit has affected our experience.  

We have to buy all our grpceroes and dump all our rubbish by bicycle and this, coupled with the fact that each village around us has a few little shops with limited supplies, has led us to tour around more, visiting them all.  If we had driven, we would have probably done what we do in Brittany, buy enough supplies to last two weeks or so and shop at a nearby Lidl (or equivalent supermarket).  

Resting in Garvao, picked up two melons in Galharda and bread in Garvao

Doing everything by bicycle has made us interact so much more with our surrounding area and this really gives one a feel for the area.  We are sampling the most fantastic local produce and are having to carefully plan our trips and what we buy to manage our resources.  

We have cycled around in every direction from where we are staying and no longer take the most direct route, opting to go for new directions and exploring new villages along the way.  It's been lovely!

Taking a scenic detour to Colos

Lovely smooth Portuguese café in Colos marketplace

The shops are often hard to find; Google only shows some of them and most of the time they look just like someone's house. Unless there is an advertising board at the door (there are almost never signs on the walls) or the door is open and you see in, you wouldn't even know where the shops are.  

When we enquired after some bread in the supermarket in Garvao we were told not to buy the stale bread on the shelf but to go to the second doorway on the street around the corner.  We were struggling to understand (after all, all we can confidently say in Portuguese is, 'I am sorry but I can't speak Portuguese) so the shop owner took us and showed us to an open doorway.  There we found the local bakery, no sign to advertise it but the most fantastic baked goods inside.

Someone's stealing our prickly pear fruit - at least they alerted us to the fact that they were ripe

Very tasty but no matter how careful we were, we both ended up covered in tiny bristle-like thorns

Pedro, the bread-man outside Colos market. You have to queue up outside the van to get
 your fresh, tasty Alentejo rolls and bread.

Our haul on Saturday, all carried home from Colos in our backpacks

Each village also gets visited by the fishmonger, bread van and vegetable supplier at certain times.  The vans are often unmarked but each have a distinctive hooter to announce when they have arrived.  We were in Santa Luzia one morning when one arrived.  We wondered who it was and it was the queue of local cats that tipped us off that it was the fishmonger - even they knew which hooter to listen out for!

We have been eating very well, the fruit and veg is wonderful and the local meat, and black Iberian pork in particular, is stunning quality.

The horses are also happy with the new arrangements of hay supplementing their grass diet 

Bonus video - Equine Hoover