Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Cabo Espichel, Portugal

Greetings from the end of the world.

We’ve rented a house for two weeks on the foggy cliffs of the sparsely-populated Cabo Espichel in Portugal. The cape is the western-most tip of Europe and juts out into the cantankerous Atlantic Ocean. Though presently the cape is home to only a few small, wind-swept villages and farming country side, historically it held great importance as the launching point for many of the western world’s most important exploratory missions. The first Europeans ever to see the Americas launched from here back in their Golden Age of Exploration. They actually first landed in Porto Seguro, Brazil, where we were based three countries ago. After six months in South America, it has been very interesting to hear the history from the European perspective… from the Spanish and Portuguese where the European explorers play the role of heroes and saints, which wasn’t generally the case from the perspective of the South Americans.

Though we’ve been in Europe for seven weeks now, I rarely find myself inspired to write. After eight months in the developing world, Portugal seems as comfortable as visiting home the Midwest. I guess that’s a good thing; we really are on vacation. Our first few weeks here, based in the university city of Coimbra, were mainly spent exploring the villages of Northern Portugal trying to find a good base from which to host my family in July. We will have six beloved visitors from stateside with us next month and (now that we have reserved homes big enough for the whole crew) we are anxiously awaiting their arrival.

When in Coimbra, we were lucky enough to catch a performance of Fado when we had the kids out on the town way too late one night. Fado is the traditional Portuguese folk music belted out with heart-wrenching lyrics accompanied by the traditional 10-string guitarras. Unfortunately my study of guitar will have to be second hand during our time here. Since it seems every European (and their dog) has July and August off, it’s been impossible to find a home for any extended period of time. Vacation rentals have long since been gobbled up, so our three month stay here will be divided into numerous short stays in lots of locations. This is ideal for seeing a lot of the countryside, of course, but won’t allow us to really live in one place and get to know people or take language, guitar, or cooking lessons as we have done in other countries. Ah well, we’re on vacation for the summer I guess. We’re slowly getting back into the groove of speaking Portuguese.

For now, we are enjoying our home here on the cape… surrounded by gardens blooming with lilies and roses, herbs and lavender, daisies and vines. The orchard is heavy with lemons, cherries, mandarin oranges and plumbs. We spend the days hiking along the craggy shoreline or exploring Moorish castles, then in the evenings making lemonade and cherry crisp and gathering flowers for the table. Each night Jason grills up a feast, generally featuring one of the many local varieties of seafood and lots of summer veggies like the big-ass Portuguese green cabbage I’ve fallen in love with. Life is good.

Long live Michael Jackson! Judging by the number of times I’ve heard the Thriller album played in tribute today, the Portuguese loved him too…

Angela