Four years ago, Gould wrote an article about Olhão, published by The Guardian under the headline “The real Algarve: ‘A white-washed village adrift in the kissing sea.’”
I told Gould I had read his piece as a love song to Olhão. Was he still in love?
“Oh, I definitely am. Olhão is a town with a great soul; it’s a working town, the biggest port in the Algarve.
“It’s not yet fallen prey to the vicissitudes of mass tourism…Your average tourist doesn’t come here because they say there is no beach.
“They don’t know that just a short ferry ride away and a stroll across the dunes there are two of the best beaches in Europe, on Armona and Culatra.
“And so the fact one has to work a little bit for one’s pleasures here dissuades quite a lot of people from coming, which is great.
“Equally, we have luxuries that money can’t buy here. We have fresh air, we have fresh food, and we have a distinct and virile local culture.
“So these are the things you can’t invent, and it doesn’t matter where else you are or how much money you have; you can’t always get these things.
“So as a consequence, our great joy in living here and working here at Chá Chá Chá is to visit the market first thing in the morning, where we buy exceptionally fresh, locally caught fish at reasonable prices.”
Gould said his conversations with the fishermen started around midnight to discuss who was going out to sea.
“We won’t look at fish that hasn’t been caught that morning… So the lovely thing about being here is one becomes more attuned to, in tune with, the weather, the tides, the seasons, the local emotions.”
If you love the sea and the lure of islands a short ferry ride away, Olhão could be just the place for you.
It suits those who want to live in a town that isn’t too big while also profiting from a more substantial settlement, the Algarve capital, Faro, right next door.
The population of Olhão town is about 28,000, that of the broader municipality about 45,000.
Local restauranteur Gould says of the culture, “Here, to be successful does not mean to be rich. Successful means to spend enough time with one’s family, to have time for one’s friends and neighbors, and not to work too hard…
“It is a very horizontal society. It’s not hierarchical, and everybody is expected to treat everybody else as their equal and not their better.”
Portugal is a good place to practice patience because the bureaucracy often moves with mind-bending slowness. In my experience, it can take literally years for the bureaucrats to register a change in property ownership, for example. If patience is not your bag, Portugal is best avoided.
Sincerely,
Stephen Powell
Contributor, Portugal Letter
