Portugal Road Trip: Heating Up in Aljezur

On a Monday, we headed back to Lisbon to drop off one rental car and pick up the next. It went smoother than we expected with having to possibly illegally park, get the new car, switch over the luggage, and drop the old car at a different location.

We got through it without hassles, then we headed south to Aljezur.

It was about a three hour drive to our next guest house. As expected, it was slim pickings for finding last-minute accommodation in Southern Portugal in August. We found a private room, but this was definitely our most “hostel-y” experience (shared bathroom, community kitchen, lots of people in and out), which can be fun, but isn’t always the best for digital nomad life.

Things might have been fine on a normal day, but the day we arrived was a 95 degree heat wave with no AC or fan. At night, it was way too hot to sleep. I went out and jumped in the pool at 1am to cool off— and saw that other guests had also gone out to sleep in the cooler living room and outdoor patio.

The moonlit dip actually worked, and I dozed off for a few hours. The next day, they brought us two fans and the heat broke, so all was well.

There were waves that week, so we surfed at Carrapateira, Monte Clérigo, and Amoreira. I think the heat and tiredness got to me, because I had a struggle with surfing a few of the days. Plus the conditions were sometimes shore break close outs that I don’t really know what to do with. Anyway, afterwards there was açaí (Sea You Surf Cafe):

And we found a couple of multi-cultural restaurants, including Indonesian (Maxi’s Warung) and Middle Eastern (The Hummus Kitchen):

Back at the guest house, it was still stuffy, buggy, and hard to work in the communal spaces. We weren’t too sad to say goodbye to that place.

So, it’s not always fun and games on the travel road. But it’s still pretty good.