Better Now: Well, this is a fine kettle of fish!

The last couple of days we’ve had our usual misadventures: A dolphin watch minus the dolphins; a stop at our favorite restaurant to say good bye but they beat us to it—they were closed; a rental car that couldn’t hold our backpacks, let alone the suitcases (and we packed light). I leave it to Dennis to fill in the details.

The Gospel According to Dennis:
Saturday was the day when we set aside 1 1/2 hours to go dolphin watching—kinda...we walked down to the docks so we would arrive around 11 AM, 15 minutes before departure. After meeting with Captain Martin and his one man crew, we set off in a rubberized raft of sorts.

The raft has a powerful outboard motor. The seats are really more of a padded log that you straddle like a saddle and hold onto the bar in front of you like a saddle horn. Get the picture? We traveled the coastline at about 30 miles per hour and then headed 8 miles out to sea to find those elusive sea creatures.

The end result after bouncing off the “bounding main?” We saw a handful of sardines, silvery and swimming, not packed in olive oil. Captain Martin was very apologetic but then admitted that in 4 years of doing this, he’d never seen a dolphin. 😂. ...just kidding!

He actually said he’d take us out gratis for another trip to different spots later in the day. We thanked him but passed on his kind offer as we had other plans. Everyone we’ve met here has been kind and courteous.
That night we were planning to go to our local restaurant O Brito to feast and say Tchau (good bye). When we got there, it was closed. Luckily Jim did let them know on Friday how much we loved the restaurant.

Now for a word from our sponsor, Cindy:
On Sunday we got packed up to leave Lagos and head for Faro and Europcar where we had a reservation. Our driver with Viber Taxi was Isabel’s son Joao. He had a great sense of humor and told us that he has met Rick Steves many times and Rick is just one of the guys. Our first stop was just outside the airport but soon we were putting the luggage back in the car because it was the wrong rental place. Finally at the right one, we found that the car we rented was too too small for our bags. We spent about an hour with another Isabel trying to decide what to do next. We finally decided to cough up the extra money and get a car that would hold us and all of our stuff, was an automatic, and had a GPS. Next came the driving lesson—who knew the GPS doesn’t kick in until you’re going 5 - 6 miles per hour? Or that putting the car in reverse doesn’t show in a rear view camera but starts beeping when you get close to something either in the front or the back. So I got out of the car, Dennis got in my seat and a Europcar driver got into the driver’s seat and took the car and Dennis through its/his paces. Finally, we’re off...

First stop, lunch...

Lunch at your local bar and gas station. And up the road, meet the Portuguese Highway Patrol. No problem, Dennis had a Coke.
The GPS got us where we were going but after two hours of two lane mountain roads, I couldn’t stand it anymore. So I got out the trusty Michelin map and said at the next big town if our lady GPS doesn’t get us on the highway, I’m ignoring her and taking over. She and I both had the same idea and finally we got to Evora. It should have been a two hour drive. We left the apartment at 11 AM and got to Evora at 5:45 PM. But we got here, put the car to bed and got Dennis a big glass of wine. He did a great job and deserves a medal but until I can find one, wine will have to do.