When I started to plan my short and impulsive trip, I didn't know a thing about Olhao, and I am grateful for my couchsurfing host, Hugo, for showing me how a lovely place it can be.
Located only ten minutes away from Faro. This city is a traditional fishing village full with fairy tale like white houses. It is best described as a sleepy Portuguese town, but it can be so much more than that. While Lisbon has its chilly breeze, this region welcomes us with Mediterranean climate, which makes a perfect getaway for the winter and the summer too, especially if you want to escape the noise of the big cities.
For example, the street art is stunning. If you walk around the neighborhood, you will bump in many talented artists works.
Also, from an architect point of view, Olhao many really interesting buildings as it is considered to be the cubist city. Let me demonstrate:
Luckily I didn't miss out totally on the Carneval, because just as I left the house I stumbled across many cute children dressed up as clowns, pantomimists and even pastries. They had a procession and I was more than happy to follow their lead on the way.
I planned to visit the Natural Park of Ria de Fermosa but because of the influence of my host, I got a ferry ticket and ended up in Culatra island.
Let me tell, I was not disappointed. If you're a fan of long romantic walks by the beach (like every second tinder bio says *cough sound inserted*) then you need to visit this island as soon as possible. Here you can be yourself, you can sing and dance like no one is watching because - literally - no one is watching. More than half of the area is empty, not a house nor human to be seen. In some parts of the island you can truly feel like you had a shipwreck and ended up on an uninhabited island.
However, the people of Culatra will greet you with a big smile and a friendly bom dia, and some of them speak English very well so getting around isn't a problem. And they have lemon trees on their back yard! How cute is that?
I chose this island instead of Armana because as people tell it is two like two island converted in one, because it has the Culatra part but also the Farol part, a small village with a stunning Lighthouse that used to be a sign of hope to the ships arriving to the continent as we are very close to the southernmost point of Portugal.
At the end of the day I returned to Olhao, had a nice late lunch at this lovely local cafe serving locally caught fish and walk around the streets for some time.
Olhao, it was a pleasure!
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