Portugal!

Roxana and Javier are visiting us, and invited us to accompany them to Portugal. We've had a bit of cabin fever in our cramped city, so we jumped at the opportunity.

We originally planned to go by bus, but realized that we'd actually save money renting a vehicle. The only catch was that there were 6 of us, and every normal car only seats 5.

Enter the minibus.

It's a 9-seat diesel 6-speed, and the picture makes it look smaller than it really is. I had lots of fun in the tiny streets of Cadiz and Faro. I only scraped 1 car and 1 dumpster, and didn't even lose paint!
















A suspension bridge outside Sevilla. The small red box in front of us is a 3-wheel scooter-car. While enclosed like a car, it steers with scooter handlebars and has a buzzy little 125cc engine that is certainly not capable of keeping up with traffic on this road. I actually almost hit this guy because I didn't see him.















Another shot.















Sevilla city. Our destination of Faro, Portugal is actually not far down the coast from Cadiz, but we had to take a very circuitous route that took us inland to Sevilla because of a large nature preserve along the coast. Sevilla is where you will fly to when you come visit us! *ahem*
















We stopped at the Police Station at the border to ask if we needed to register or show our passports. They told us that the guy who does that wasn't there, but that we should stop at another police station at our destination to register. If they couldn't be bothered, we couldn't either!















Outside our hotel in Faro. Check out the bird's nest!




















A pretty smile!
















This lady keeps trying to kidnap our son! Roxy and Javier helped us so much with the kids. We would have gone nuts without them.
















This thing was awesome. It looks like a Jeep, but was branded a 'Moke'. Never heard of it, but I bet it's a blast to drive.















On the beach.
















The water here is much sweeter and less salty than in Cadiz for some reason. The waves are also much stronger, and the beach drops off very sharply in the water. I enjoyed it very much, but we had to be careful with the kids. The surf was strong enough to throw me down a few times, although it's not apparent in the picture.
















This guy was relaxing on the pier where we were dining. He looked so peaceful.
















Eating with your feet on the table is considered good manners in Portugal. Several people complimented us on our boy's foot-table skills.
















Sisters!















Javier!
















Aryanna would smile more, but she's too hungry to exert the effort.
















The view from our hotel room.
















And another.
















An alleyway in Faro. There was an interesting Che Guevara graffiti in the background.















Central Faro along the pier.
















It's genetic.
















All the awesome pictures are Carrie's. She's got the knack!

We also visited Palma Del Rio in the Cordoba province on the way home, which is where we will be probably working this fall. It was a beautiful little agricultural white town, but we neglected to get pictures. It was 41C in town, which is 105.8F, but the humidity was low so it wasn't that bad. We also found good leads to find a flat there from a friendly lady at the police station. The city was much cleaner and more spacious than Cadiz, although we will miss the ocean.

Because of this detour we spent most of today on the road, and I'm totally beat. The sun through the windshield overpowered the A/C and left me travel-sticky and exhausted.

Til next time!