Nude Beach
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| From Western Algarve |
The Algarve area of Portugal is tailor made for exploring due to the many beaches lining the southern coast of Portugal. As you go west, many of the beaches are tucked in between rocky cliffs. After Tavira, we headed west to Salema, a small fishing village in the southwest corner of Portugal, upon the recommendation of our friends Brad and Rachel. We used Salema as a base to explore the other beaches. Salema itself is located down a green meandering country road that leads to the ocean. (Unfortunately, most of my pictures of the town were the ones located on the camera card in our stolen camera, but I do have some.)
Since our hotel room had a small refrigerator, counter, knife, cutting board and a couple of dishes we took advantage and made some of our own meals. It also had a corkscrew, allowing us to get our own bottle of Portuguese green wine for under 3 euros. Since the Algarve is renowned for its seafood, we made sure to eat out one night and tried cataplana, a delicious and flavorful stew with fish, shellfish, tomatos, peppers and lots of spices cooked in special cookware.
We spent one day beach-hopping. Unlike the crowded, commercial or residential beaches at home, most of the land leading up to the beaches is protected and undeveloped. We drove down country roads lined with wildflowers, never sure what type of beach would pop up at the end. We happened to hit on the best one first. Tucked into between rocky cliffs, the sand was softer than the beach we visited on an island in Tavira. We found a spot between some beach rocks and listened to the waves crash up against the rocks. The Atlantic Ocean’s waters were still too nippy to do much swimming, but some people surfed in wet suits. Sean and a few other swimmers braved the waters for a quick swim.
It didn’t take long to figure out that the beach was divided into segments. Closest to the road, families with children made sand castles and frolicked in a pool of water leftover from high tide. Further down, it seemed to be mostly adults. Like the beach at Tavira, some, but not all, of the woman chose to go topless. But at the end of the beach – the most scenic part next to the rocky cliff – we quickly realized that many people, both men and woman, were full on nude. The men in particular seemed to strut up and down the sand in this section of the beach, scholongs waving back and forth. The funny part about nude beaches is that most of the people who are nude or topless aren’t the ones you probably would want to see. In case you were wondering, we both don’t feel the need for a head to toe tan. With my luck, I’d get a nasty sunburn in a place where the sun doesn’t normally shine.
About Surrounded by the Sound
Naming things has always been my weakness. And it is true that all of the good blog names are taken. After trying about a million different names, we finally settled on Surrounded by the Sound, which is a tidbit from a classic Paul Simon song, You Can Call Me Al. After all, couldn’t we all use a little amen and hallelujah?
You Can Call Me Al (lyrics by Paul Simon)
A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle, now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don’t want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bone digger, bone digger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beer Belly, Beer Belly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me
You can call me Al
A man walks down the street
He says why am I short of attention
Got a short little span of attention
And, whoa, my nights are so long
Where’s my wife and family
What if I die here
Who’ll be my role model
Now that my role model is
Gone, gone
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All along, along
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al
A man walks down the street
It’s a street in a strange world
Maybe it’s the third world
Maybe it’s his first time around
Doesn’t speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the
Sound, sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen! and Hallelujah!
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al
Na, na na na…
If you’ll be my bodyguard, ooooh
I can call you Betty, ooooh
If you’ll be my bodyguard, ooooh
I can call you Betty, ooooh
About Us
We are Amy and Sean. We are leaving on March 29, 2010 to begin a year long trip around the world. We are a thirty-something couple who have been together for almost 12 years (married for almost five). Before we voluntarily became homeless and unemployed, we lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Amy worked as a lawyer and Sean worked as a computer programmer. We spent the last four years of our lives fixing up our 112 year old house money pit. Just when we were finished, we sold it to turn our travel dreams into reality.
We speak no foreign languages (long forgotten high school Spanish notwithstanding). We did not get passports until this year. Our house was less than five miles from where we grew up. Sean has never been out of the United States, save for one daytrip to Tijuana, Mexico, nine years ago. Amy’s illustrious travel resume includes the same daytrip to Tijuana, as well as a trip to Niagara Falls, Canada. She also travelled to Jamaica, where she was most fascinated by the airplane bathrooms (granted, she was five).
The following things remain unclear as of this March 2010 writing: how we are going to follow the Pittsburgh Steelers; whether we can survive without Fabulous, our trusty feline sidekick; whether it is possible for Amy to fit a year’s worth of stuff into her backpack; and can we Amy maintain a steady supply of chocolate worldwide. Stay tuned, and we’ll let you know.