Happy Earth Day + More Volunteer Plans

Happy Earth Day friends!! I have about a week left for me here in Portimão and I’m very happy to say that the puzzle pieces of my difficult volunteer puzzle have all finally fallen into place! Scroll down to read more about my volunteer plans.

The last few weeks have been busy. I’ve had several Belgian friends over for visits which was wonderful. It’s so great to show them around and even explore a few places like Silves & Ferragudo that I had not been to yet!

Easter was also the busiest time in Portimão since I arrived mid November. The weather during the Easter weekend was gorgeous with temperatures up to 26°C and the beaches were filled with tourists. Though I must admit I’m happy that I can leave Portimão before the busy summer season starts. It will be at least 10x as busy as it was now and I fear that’s just a little bit too much for my liking!

The Libra Full Moon

Last Saturday there was the full moon (the pink or Libra full moon) and my friends Eva and Natalie who I met through the digital nomad group here, organised a full moon women’s circle and it was amazing!!

We got together on a quiet part of Praia do Vau around sunset. Eva led us through a beautiful guided meditation and we got to witness the rise of the beautiful big full moon. It was magical! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a full moon that big (the picture simply does not do it justice!)! They will try to organise full moon women’s circles every month from now on. It’s one thing I’ll miss for sure when I leave Portimão!

More Volunteer Plans!

And I have some really great news!! In my last post I talked about my frustration with my search for volunteer places and the fact that so many of them don’t bother replying to your messages. It actually came to the point where I felt I’d done enough and stopped trying to find more new hosts and sending them messages. Instead just letting whatever needed to happen come to me rather than trying to force something. I had already managed to organise 2 wonderful volunteer places, one in Tavira from mid May and one in Santa Cruz from mid August and I decided I would simply let adventure come to me those first two weeks of May and in the 2 months in between! I got to the point that instead of feeling annoyed about the not being able to organise something I felt excited for the possibility and unexpected opportunities that would surely come my way!!

And of course right when I completely let go of that frustration and surrendered to the not knowing, the Universe came through and provided what I was looking for 😉

I received the wonderful news that I can go to another place in Tavira, a beautiful boutique eco-hotel with permaculture garden for those first two weeks of May and I can return there after I’ve finished my month at the organic farm and stay there til August. So this means that next weekend when I leave Portimão I can head straight to Tavira and meet my new hosts. I’m pretty excited to finally spend some more time outside, getting my hands dirty in the garden, growing food, learning about how they do things — how they built their permaculture garden, meeting some interesting new people, …

My first 2 volunteer places are close to the small fishing town of Santa Luzia and Tavira, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful towns in the Algarve. The coastline near Tavira with its stretched out beaches and the river Formosa with its lagoons is very different from the cliffs here near Portimão. After 5 months in Portimão I’m looking forward to the change in scenery and I think it will be wonderful to go explore Tavira, Santa Luzia and the surrounding nature in my spare time!

And this means that I’ve more or less sorted out my volunteer plans from the beginning of May til the end of September! I might take a week or two to relax and travel a bit in between the volunteer places in Tavira and the 3rd place, another boutique eco-hotel with permaculture garden in Santa Cruz, an hour north of Lisbon.

It feels good to have it all organised and I hope the volunteer places will be as great in real life as I think they will be!

Algarvedigital nomadPortugalSilvesthe journeyVolunteering