Leaving Nazare...

It's been something of a bittersweet week, what with the knowledge that we're moving on today for new, exciting cities, but also tinged with the fact we're leaving behind so many great friends and a quaint fishing port full of good, down to earth people.

We started the week in town at the opening weekend of a festival. We couldn't work out what it was for, but everyone seemed to be having a great time.

And other than a few dinners and visits to the beach, there was time for just one last sunset....

It's hard to sum up somewhere that was supposed to be a 48 hour stopover (and that we came SO close to skipping altogether), and instead transformed into a five month home. The crazy carp, the fishing boats surging back & forth, the mix of the surfers, fisherman, liveaboards and civil servants, and the constant crash of waves on the south beach.

It's not been all smooth sailing - the intermittent internet, the creak of the broken pontoons (7 weeks and going strong!) and the weather (sometimes amazing, sometimes horrific) - but we've enjoyed ourselves all the same.

We say goodbye to the fisherman, Avo Ricardo, the dogs - Boris, Whisker, Lilly, "Bubbles" and Cabbage, the crazy beagle who would come bounding up everytime Lauren or I left the pontoon gate - the community of liveaboards who for one reason or another, sat out another winter in Nazare, Luis and his cafe, Helder & George, and eternal Nazarites (Nazarians?) Dody and Alec. A huge thank you to everyone for making our winter 2015 / 16 the experience that it was.