Cave and Dolphins (not) tour & Falasia Beach

My morning job, making fresh squeezed OJ

First time we saw a Para-sailer, things are getting busier

 Another busy day for work, but today I started a little early, then left a little early so we could go on a boat tour. Last night we watched all the boat tours come back into the marina and decided that we thought the smaller boats that seat about 13 people would be good. The boat tours include going along the coast and into caves, then to see the dolphins. A forewarning for anyone that books a dolphin in the wild tour with us, you will not see them, enough said.....

So we arrive at the tour about 30 minutes before it starts, get paid up and get in line. There was one family of 8 in front of us, so we figure we would be it. Then another family of 5 join the line, and when they start to board us they say there will be two boats, one for the large family, and one for us with the smaller family. At this point the family of 5 jump in front of us, they were from the UK, nothing more to say, anyway karma comes around, the younger kids that were about 6 and 10 did not like the tour! First off the nice comfy seats that we saw on the first boat we did not get, we basically sat on saddles, I hope I can walk tomorrow. When we first pulled out of the marina I so thought of Liam. The driver gunned it and did some S turns that were a little scary, this is where the crying started from the kids. Joey, remember Liam in the Bug thing at Disney, this was exactly the same, except there was nowhere to hide, no picnic to be had on the floor. These kids were beyond themselves, the driver had turned up the music, and the noise of the motor, he had no idea what was going on, all I thought to myself was karma, aren't you glad they took the front seats!

Same type of boat we went on, but the seat were not like that.

The many boat tour companies

We are thinking about getting a Penthouse suite in Legoland.

I know lots of people who would love to try this

Not the boat we were on

Fisherman boats with view of Albufeira

Anyway we then slowed down and toured about 20 km along the coast, a lot of places Andre and I have visited over the last 5 weeks. It was really beautiful to see it from the ocean, such a different perspective. Lots of places you can only get to by boat, no access by car. Because we were in a smaller boat we were able to go right into some of the caves, very cool.

Cool vertical rock formation

Rock formation that looks like the Sphinx

Is it a bird, a plane?

No it's a hole in a cave

Beach with some fisherman's house

Into the cave we go

Lima, what about this one next year instead of Mexico

Small beach with Fisherman's boat and small restaurant

Tunnel connecting 2 beaches

Guide offered to drop us here for the night and pick us up tomorrow

Neat arches

One of the first beaches We went to 4 weeks ago

One of the many arches we saw

Rock formation called castle rock, I like the layers

Yellow Submarine rock

Another cave

Bird rock

After touring the shore for about an hour we then went out in search of dolphins. It is not dolphin season here, so we really weren't anticipating seeing any, and of course the driver went really fast again to get out to sea, so the crying started again. Sorry, but Andre and I could not help but laugh, especially thinking of how much our nephews, grandsons, and Symone would have loved this. Lots of bumps, I basically stood up on my “horse” to absorb the bumps, a good quad work out. No dolphins to be found, but it was still fun. We did see some dolphins from shore a couple of weeks ago from the beach, but they are just arriving here, I guess in the summer you can go out and see hundreds of them.

Back to Albufeira after looking for dolphins

Wendy found a dolphin, I offered to put in a euro

Following our boat tour we decided to go for a walk along a beach that we had seen from another beach. Andre had a map and said no GPS required, this beach is close by. Well 1 hour later we finally find access to this beach. We parked at a hotel complex that has a huge fitness club beside it and it turns out there are many athletes staying there now preparing for the London Olympics. There were so many young people out running on the beach, on the streets, and in the soccer fields, it was fun to see. They had a cross country course running set up, we thought of Liam. The views along this beach were amazing, nothing quite like we have seen before. We walked around for about an hour, then decided to head home. Much faster on the way back, even with our stop for 68,00 euro worth of gas to fill up.

We got Symone a watch, just need to figure on how to get it home

The seashore flowers are out in full bloom now

Neat erosion formation

Falasia beach

Olympians doing sprints uphill in the sand with their coaches watching

Above falasia beach

Bull ring on the edge of town, not the season

Back to the apartment and we made the executive decision that we do not want to cook tonight, so headed out for one last meal in town. Tomorrow night we will clean up the cupboards while packing. We went to a nice little Portuguese restaurant that Andre had visited while I was away in London, once again I had Piri Piri chicken, Andre had pork and mushrooms. Another delicious meal. Back at the apartment now, had our last glass of port until we restock on Porto this week-end and will call it a night soon. Turning this over to Andre now who has the fun of picking from I'm sure the hundreds of pictures he took today to add the visual....

Buskers are now in town, want a puppy Wendy?

Our last glasses or Port until we get to Porto