March 15: Baleal Beach

We left our campsite just after 9:00 am and arrived at our first stop of the day – Obidos, which is famous for hosting the International Chocolate Festival each year. Unfortunately, we were a few days early as this year’s festival begins this Friday.  We walked around this charming medieval village and were amazed by the condition of its well-preserved city walls.  As is customary, we sampled a few varieties of sour cherry liquor before landing on a moderately priced bottle at 17 euros.  While shopping, one of the salesmen alerted us to the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal World Surfing Leagues Championship event in nearby Praia dos Supertubos.  It seems our bad luck was continuing for us as we learned that the surfing competition ended yesterday – I was really hoping to see some professional surfers.

Undeterred, we continued to Baleal Beach where we ate lunch at another beautiful spot overlooking the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean.  We were also able to see a ton of amateur surfers in a scene eerily reminiscent of the one in Weligama in Sri Lanka.

Later in the day, we met a really cool couple from Germany who have been traveling the world since 1981 — they have been everywhere in their tripped out truck. Next, we walked down to see the surfers up close and personal while catching the sunset at a nice little bar/restaurant.