Porto -> London

Ok, we are such an extreme lucky bastards...

After less than a day and a half and only 4 different cars we arrived in London... thanks for the drivers who picked us up ;)... Marcio took us from viseu to after paris... almost non-stop!!!

Arriving in London we meet mark, laura and koala in mark's house and tomorrow we are going to look for bikes, meet friends and some autonomous spaces...

Lagoaça -> Pocinho -> Marco de Canaveses

In order to still get my grandmother in Porto, visiting my mother, we decided to catch a train, so we could short the trip in one or two days.

We looked for the first train station in the beautiful Douro landscape, and in Pocinho we caught a train to marco de canaveses, where we arrived already late and found a beautiful house where to cook the last dinner, drink the last wine and sleep the last night of this long trip :)...

it was also the last day of the spoon that i used to cook during all my trip (and even some smaller trips before)... amazing how it stand till the last cooked meal!

Cibanal -> Lagoaça (Portugal)

Another day of fog and cold...

last strawberry tree we stopped to pick fruits in spainlooking to portugal, after the river...

We entered portugal crossing the douro river near Bemposta, an amazing view and a huge climb up...

almonds for snack ;D

Then we cycled direction Mogadouro for a while in the top of the mountain, almost no traffic, a LOT of fog, and found a nice house in the middle of a forest where we could mount the tent, make a fire and get warm...

Junqueira -> Niebla (España)

Fire bhy the morning ;)

I cycled till the border of Spain, Vila Real de Santo António, and crossed the border by boat.

crossing Guadiana by boat

I then cycled direction Sevilla, my next stop, without a map. In the middle of the way i stoped to camp under a small bridge where i lit a small fire with the few wood i could find ;)

Mértola -> Junqueira

the place where I camp last night :)

I cycled in a national road with few cars all day. I entered Algarve and in that moment i could saw the first cyclist traveling Algarve i meet this trip, we didn't talk, as he was going in the oposite direction but was nice to think I'm not the only one traveling by bike in this crazy, and freezing, time of the year.

entering Algarve

Visited Alcoutim during the way and cycled in a nice path near the border of Spain (along the coast of Guadiana river) a really nice and calm way :D.
I found a old house when the sun was starting to set and used it to camp (the house had no roof, but the walls protected from the wind :D) there i found for some moments a nice baby cat who was following me everywhere, then he just disappeared :(

a nice evening with the fire by my side...

Aldeia das Amoreiras -> Mértola

Got out early and, after saying goodbye to everyone i knew in the village ;), i cycled direction Mértola.

ready to start cycling, in front of the social centre

a recently built small windmill in Aldeia das Amoreiras

Visited Castro Verde for a while in the way and tried to find a place to camp still at day time, my first time mounting the strange tent i got for this trip (not as good as it promised, really small, and hard to mount).

nearly free wild pigs I saw in the way, said they will end in someone bread :(

I found a strange depression in the land near to the road and camped inside it. When the night came, the temperature started to fell quickly and i lit a small fire to pass some time and get warm :). I heard that the temperature this night was zero degrees.

reading by the fire :)

Aldeia das Amoreiras

I was planning to get out today but i took too much time packing and after lunch the weather changed and it looked like it was going to rain (in the end it were just 20 minutes of rain all afternoon) so I arranged everything and postponed leaving for tomorrow ;)

I'm still waiting some answer from HospitalityClub to get place to stay ;)

Aldeia das Amoreiras

Stayed the sunday at home with Marco and Ana, Poejo e Banzé (two nice cats, that end every night sleeping in my bed) and Fogo a nice dog.

Banzé and Fogo trying to be friends ;)

During the afternoon I opened the Center for the free internet ;) and, finally, wrote this blog up to date.

Aldeia das Amoreiras

I wake up early and cycled till Garvão ;)

Aldeia das Amoreiras

At the afternoon i went with Lucy and André to catch more olives ;)

At night we visited André, Sara and Lua's house with Sr. António and had a great time ;). He cooked some wild mushrooms called Capuchos, really tasty.

Aldeia das Amoreiras

Centro de Convergência common room

a meeting under the sun ;)

Spent the day in the center with the volunteers.

At night there was a strange magic show in the small café in the village, sadly they used an wild snake and some pigeons in the show...

Animal-free spectacles are so much funnier (for all)

Aldeia das Amoreiras

After spending some time in the Social Centre, I went with Lucy, other volunteer at the center, and Ricardo to Sr. António's farm to catch olives with a big stick and a net...





Great time talking with the old villager and learning the best way to catch and use the olives and how to make olive oil ;)




At night there was a cinema session in the Social Center, with an episode of Planet Earth a BBC documentary.

Aldeia das Amoreiras

the social centre, behind the public water tanks

I visited the village a bit walking... and spent some time in the Centro de Convergência.

Ricardo, Ana and Marco's house ;)

At night i watched a movie with Ricardo, Ana and Marco (Ricardo's house mates) eating popcorns with honey and peanut butter :D (AMAZING!!)

Aldeia das Amoreiras

I visited the Social Center, helped with some cleaning and meet some of the volunteers who worked there.

Still found time to visit the village and get a shower in the public shower, as lots of houses in these small villages don't have shower at home :)... A nice day to discover a bit of the known village people's hospitality, it's a village with less than 150 inhabitants :)

Fresco paiting as a popular cartoon

I tried to understand the roll of this project in this community. They maintain an open space with library and free internet, give lessons of portuguese to foreigners (children and adults), some exhibitions and work in the village, they made a really nice mural in Fresco as a big cartoon in the public water tanks, they also give environmental education to the people in the neighborhood and organize events as movies, concerts, debates... I found it a very organized and strongly local volunteer project.

Think globally, Act locally!

At night, I made the dinner for Ricardo and Fred, a volunteer from France.

Setubal -> Aldeia das Amoreiras (Odemira)

I wake up early and catch the ferryboat to cross to Troia, then i cycled a lot, too much, to meet Ricardo, a friend who used to live in Porto and now works in a GAIA project in Aldeia das Amoreiras, called Centro de Convergência.

The way was really long and I arrive already night (luckily i have a great dynamo light in my new bike :D), after more than 140km cycling.

During the way, as I entered Alentejo, i could catch one of my favourite and strangest fruit, the Indian Fig, a fruit that grow in a cactus, you need to be really careful to peel the fruit without touching the spines.

Setubal

I hitchhiked back to Setubal, packed everything to start going south tomorrow and spend the day with my hosts and all their dogs :) at COSA.

Setubal

Stayed at the house or around it and got out to get water (as there is no company water in the house, just a d.i.y. piped-water project with a electric pump that work in a great way as a water saving exercise) during the day.

After I went with Saci and Noora to Kyläkancra, a squatted Villa in the suburbs of Setubal where a community of punks live and build an alternative project, organizing some debates, concerts, a small garden and recovering the small buildings. Really nice people with a much more political and practical ideas about a squat than i imagined before visiting. An amazing dynamic of most of the group ;).

Lisboa -> Setubal

After lunch, I still went to say goodbye to Mara at the Social Centre, where they were arranging the last things for a big party on Saturday, and then I went to Cais do Sodré, to catch the boat to the other side of Tejo river, where I meet Joana, a friend form Porto who is studding in Lisbon now.

When got in the boat I meet another cyclist, who told me also participated sometimes at Lisbon Critical Mass, and we cycled together for some kilometres, talking and showing me the way to Setubal...

During the way i discovered my camera is not working properly :(.

At noon I arrived at COSA, Casa Okupada de Setubal Autogestionada, an old portuguese squat in the center of Setubal, meet really nice people there. It's a great autonomous project.

At night we went out to stick some autonomous, anti-capitalist posters and visit Setubal by night.