San Gregorio Beach

gathering for sunset at san gregorio beach in april

Carrapateira, Portugal

Carrapateira in the Algarve region of Southwest Portugal is beautiful and windswept. It's a destination for surfers but I've never seen any area of Southern European coastline with such little development. Just water and sand and rocks and scrubby grasses.

Morning fog at Amado Beach

I guess European vacationers prefer the calmer (but less surfable) waters of the Mediterranean.  The Atlantic coast of this area was windy and the water could be rough with large waves.

Dunes at Bordeira Beach...

Most of the land around this sleepy village is part of Costa Vicentina National Park, which includes many trails including the long-distance Rota Vicentina of Southwest Portugal.

As this was one of my last stops in Europe, I was just taking it easy...biking and surfing and not volunteering on any farms.  However, there was a WWOOF garden behind a restaurant with an impressive vegetable garden and the guesthouse where I stayed was also a WWOOF farm.

Scenery on a bike ride...

In the bewilderingly sleepy village of Carrapateira

Shared kitchen in the guesthouse

Looking towards Bordeira Beach and the Atlantic

Malta: Around Rabat and the Island

Typical homes and street scene in Rabat

One of many catacombs beneath Rabat

In the old "silent city" of Mdina

The Dingli Cliffs 

Marié

In the Smurf Cave on the boat tour with il mitico Charlie

Marié on the beach with Clara...and Iva

Marié outside Mdina with Emanuel

Feast of Santa Catarina...

ground fireworks

Flying above Paris over the Champs-Élysées, the Seine, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe

Puerto Rico: the South & the West

Southwest Puerto Rico near the lighthouse of Cabo Rojo...

Tamarind tree in Cabo Rojo

Colonial architecture at dusk in Ponce, Puerto Rico's second largest city 

 

 Old firehouse in Ponce

Marié and her longboard at our surfspot Parking Lot in Rincon

Looking through leaves on Puerto Rico's west coast