Portimão

Portimão

Today we hopped a train from Lisbon to Faro, a town on the southern coast of Portugal. We only saw the train station in Faro because we had to catch another train to Portimao. The only reason we chose Portimao was because there was a room available there in a hostel. In other words, it was chosen for us.

We passed villages and cities. The landscape changed from tall pines and Eucalyptus to shorter, more squat long needle evergreens of some kind with distinctly rounded profiles and olive trees. We passed fragrant orange orchards cotton clouds shining in the sunlight. full of blossoms. There were multicoloured bee hives stacked in the distance. The dirt turned from tan to bright orange, deep rust and finally to pale sand.

The land flattened out and burst into patches of white and yellow daisies. Here and there, under the orange trees were splashes of azure, magenta and cayenne where spring had painted with her brush. The sky was blue with a few

We stepped off the train into a small station with blue and white tile pictures of it’s history. After inquiry, we discovered that our goal was far up the hill towards a water tower that cold be seen in the distance.

I unzipped the lower leg of my pants for the first time in the balmy air and shouldered my pack for the long walk up hill. I felt light and uplifted, agile and able.

We arrived in a town of white shapely building bleached in the sun. Across the water I know that there is the whole continent of Africa. I want to hop a boat and go to see Cathy in Kenya, but Eric reminds me that it is more than 4000 km away. Africa is a big place.


Our room was very nice, room for both of us, private bathroom and a little porch all our own. I took the opportunity to lie on a lawn chair in the evening light and listen to the sweet birds sing in the palm trees. My mind turned to home and I miss everyone so much. It is a strange feeling to try and enjoy the here and now, yet being aware that half way around the world there are people I love living their lives and I can’t touch them or hug them or see their glowing faces.

I look forward to seeing your faces. I think I will never look at you in the same way again. Now I have so much more appreciation of each of you, the color of your eyes, each nose, each chin, each hand, the way each one of you speak, your gestures and your concerns. You are precious to me and I miss you so much. How wonderful it will be when I see you again. I want to hold you in my arms and kiss your cheek. I want to be silent and listen to the song of your voice. I want to touch your wrist and feel your heart beat and let the gratefulness that you are alive and in my life wash over me and saturate my senses.

This a nice room but the shower leaked. I mean really leaked! It has it’s own enclosure, but the seal was hanging limply over the glass. When we got out, there was water all over the bathroom floor, running under the door into the front room and under the door to the hall outside the room. Wow, we have never seen such a thing. We need to run out and put down a towel to stop the flow of water, but we are both in our birthday suits. The manager needs to be fetched, things need to be mopped up, but we are both standing in this misplaced pool in our birthday suits. Eric hopped around, managed to half dress and run to the office. She brings a mop that is woefully inadequate for the job and the damage control begins. Now we try to figure our what to do next, we can’t stay here another night.

Off to?