Não Gelato em Janeiro

Não Gelato em Janeiro translates to No Gelato In January.

Apparently, all the gelato places in Tavira are closed for the month of January. I’ve heard of dry January, but what is this called – no gelato janeiro? The last time Muxagata gelato was open was early on NYE. Later in the afternoon, we noticed it had transformed into a bar for the night.

Feliz Ano Novo

The way to say Happy New Year in Portuguese is Feliz Ano Novo.

Speaking of New Years, Tavira hosted a party from 10pm until 4am. The first band played until the fireworks started over the Rio Gilão at midnight. The bridges were packed and we were fortunate to get a place alongside the river for one of the best firework shows I’ve ever seen. Here is a 💎 Highlight Video of the band and fireworks.

After fireworks, another musical segment called The Battle of the 2000s started in the main square, Praça da República. We went back to our apartment but could hear it just fine. All night parties like this happen only on NYE and on Tavira Day in June.

Slow News Day Stories

Here are the slow news stories for January.

Adeus Luzes

Adeus Luzes translates to Goodbye Lights. Adeus looks a bit like the Spanish word adiós, but it is pronounced “add-dee-ooosh” and luzes is pronounced “loo-zeh-sh” (more or less).

By the light of a full moon, we strolled along the river to get one last good look before the lights are packed away for the season.

Study Area

“Se quero aprender português, preciso de estudar. Assim, compro uma mesa.”

“If I want to learn Portuguese, I need to study. So, I buy a table.”

Setting up this space has given me a place to focus on my homework, listen to dialogs, and stare out of the window. There seems to be a lot of staring out the window.

Sports and other ways to become injured

I mentioned that I started playing a form of basketball called Netball. And I sustained my first injury — a dislocated middle finger. This has taken me off the court for a bit, but just across from the gymnasium is the municipal pool. This complex is incredibly clean, with a spacious locker room (pictured below), private changing stall, and showers.

Tom also joined the pool, but after sustaining a pretty nasty cut on his finger, he is out of the pool for a few weeks.

Pretty Skies

A walk to the store in the early evening was suffiently distracting.

A Praia No Inverno

A praia no inverno translates to the beach in winter but I just can’t help but read it as a negative. The word “no” in portuguese is actually a contraction of the word em and definite masculine article o (em + o = no). It looks like bad math, right? If it were a feminine article then it would be em + a = na. Nah, no way.

Not all the beaches are directly accessible because of the barrier islands. On the map, zoom in to see the barrier islands from Santa Luzia to Cacela Velha.

Praia da Manta Rota is one of the beaches you can just walk onto. From here, the beach stretches to the east toward Spain and to west toward Cacela Peninsula.

We visited Cacela Velha, the tiny village to the west of Manta Rota. The village sits above the peninsula and the views are captivating. It was a moody cloud day, so I took a picture down through the town for added drama.

Volunteering

We joined East Algarve Cleanup, a group of volunteers who clean up trash every Sunday. Volunteerism is one of our core values, and keeping the town in which we are living free of debris is something we are happy to do.

After our first cleanup, we had a week of heavy rain. The river brought down a lot of debris and so the goal for this week is to start at the mouth of the river. I am sitting this one out because I caught a flu. But Tom is taking the ferry ride from 4 Aguas to Ilha de Tavira (Tavira Island). In the map, zoom in to see the route of the ferry and the approximate area of the cleanup. On the way, he had the opportunity for flamingo sightings.

Flamingo Sighting

The portuguese word for Flamingo is Flamingo, but it is pronounced “fluh-meen-goo”

Flamingos can be seen in the salt pans, mudflats, and shallow lagoons of the Ria Formosa marshland in Eastern Algarve. This sighting was taken on January 26th.

A Deeper Dive

We’ve decided to really understand the history of this town, and its culture. The resulting blog posts will be in a new section of the blog, and will be a bit slower to write given the in cultural to write as there is quite a bit of information to sort out.

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