Life is Good, Portugal Style

There were many sad stories which came out of the storm of wildfires which recently hit Portugal, but we learned about one unfortunate winemaker, João Tavares de Pina, from our Porto People expat group.  This poor guy had his vineyard and facilities burned TWICE, once by a wildfire several years ago and again this year.  He rebuilt from the first one, only to have it burned again.  Here he is in a video where he talks about his wine (in English). 

People are pitching in to help.  He doesn't want charity, he just wants to sell his wine so he can rebuild again.  His distributor is helping by waiving their commission and giving all their proceeds to him, and asking people to buy his wine.

We couldn't find any of his wines locally, so we ordered five bottles from the distributor.  They just arrived Friday and we started sampling them.  We are lucky that doing good tastes so good.  And we do sincerely hope this fine winemaker can recover again.  Maybe he needs some more help.  We should send in another order.  

Saturday was a beautiful day and we went to Pat's favorite haunt, the bird refuge at the mouth of the Douro river.  Oystercatchers, one of her favorite birds, are sometimes seen there this time of year.  We saw no oystercatchers, but plenty of flamingos and a beautiful little iridescent kingfisher.  We watched the kingfisher hover and dive for small fish for quite a while.

Sunday was also nice.  We drove out to the town of Ponte da Barca, the furthest north we have been in Portugal, to see another likely-looking property and its neighborhood.  We couldn't see too much, but the surroundings didn't wow us.  We're going to put this one in a secondary category and move on.

The dehumidifier we ordered arrived on Monday, ahead of schedule.  It's about as loud as a medium sized fan, which is not too bad.  It works well; we typically get about a gallon of water after running it overnight in the main room, where it drops the humidity from about 80% to 55%.  In the bedroom it should dry the clothes well.  It's strange to pull a bucket of water out of the machine and realize that it just came out of the air!

Pat found a website with Portuguese tongue twisters.  Here's a great one that shows off the raspy Portuguese hard R sound: O rato roeu a roupa do Rei de Roma e a rainha raivosa resolveu remendar ("the mouse chewed the King of Rome's clothes, and the queen, angry, decided to mend them").  Fortunately that's not a phrase you use every day.

Pat noticed some cracks in the shower stall grout a couple weeks ago and Gerrit told the landlord he'd caulk them up.  On Tuesday he used the new dehumidifier to dry out the bathroom thoroughly to prepare for that.  About noon the bathroom (and the cracks) were nice and dry, so he caulked them up.  

Yesterday, Wednesday, we went to see the house we're interested in, near the village of Arouca.  Our agent Bernardo drove us there, about a forty minute drive from here.  We had a great time in the car getting to know each other.  He is the same age as Gerrit's youngest son Ian, he has had an interesting life all over the world (like Ian), his English is excellent, and we shared stories and house philosophies.

In Arouca we met with the seller's agent, who spoke very little English, and we drove to the house a few minutes away.  It had been raining but was just drying up.  We met the owners of the house there and we toured it inside and out, accompanied by the Portuguese practice of everyone talking at once.  Fortunately Bernardo steadily interpreted and we learned about the property and had our questions answered too.

When the woman of the house got home she gave us our first ever beijinhos (little kisses), the little kiss on each cheek which is common in Europe.  It's an air kiss, but you touch cheeks.  She did it so naturally and sweetly that we passed with flying colors without embarrassing ourselves (by heading for the wrong cheek, slobbering, or the like).  What a sweet custom!  Beijinhos for total strangers and friends alike.

The place is a beautiful rustic property, being sold by the original owners after 30 years.  The walls are thick stone and there is lush greenery all around.  It is really beautiful.  Unfortunately the property would be a bit too much for us.  It's quite steep, which we didn't get in the pictures, and it would require a lot of work to maintain.  It was a little dark inside too.  Afterwards, the seller's agent gave us a tour of the village of Arouca and stopped just before we left to buy us a gift of a box of castanhas doces ("sweet chestnuts"), made by a local confectioner.  They're not actually chestnuts, they're egg yolk, almond, and a bit of sugar rolled up in a little chestnut-sized ball and lightly flame-roasted.  Oh, they are so good!

On the drive home we arranged a guided tour of Porto with Bernardo, including a fado performance (fado is a traditional Portuguese song form) and dinner.  He has also been a custom tour guide in Porto for three years.  The friends we saw when we took our brief trip to England in early August will be in Porto for eight days in a week or so and it will be a great way to show them the town and to hear some fado, which they wanted to experience.  We've been meaning to attend a performance since we've been here, too.

It was a beautiful day!  We met some lovely people, experienced more Portuguese culture with the castanhas doces and beijinhos, and set up a very authentic Porto tour with an expert local.  Life is good.

Bernardo picked a persimmon for us from a tree at the house we looked at yesterday and explained how to prepare it.  We tried it with our breakfast this morning and it was delicious: juicy and delicately sweet.  It would be great in a pork dish, so Gerrit has a new recipe to pursue: "Gerrit's Pork and Persimmon Surprise".

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