DAY 244

Sunday 11 March 2012

Beauty, and the Beast --

Charles took advantage of another night of fitful sleep to steal out under the near-full moon and go down by the cliff edge (safely, carefully) to watch the waves crash and spray against the rocks below. Hard to get enough of this kind of nature's power and beauty, and we were due to move on from Porto Covo the next morning. Come 8 AM he went down again for one last look in the daylight. Dian and Nicole got up soon after so we could get an early start to Lisbon.

On the scenic drive there, an ominous sign: our GPS was signaling it was low on power. That confirmed our fear that both cigarette lighter-type plugs on the front dashboard drew not from the car's main battery but from the secondary battery which had been getting progressively weaker and not recharging from driving as it should, but then we hadn't been driving much, just hanging out on various Portuguese beaches. But what kind of setup was that? No tap into the main battery? We thought we were screwed. The worst thing to lose, especially when driving into a big city, was the GPS. Cross country, maps will do, but European cities required GPS, one steel-nerved driver and two all-seeing, quick-witted navigators.

James GPS Bond got us to the first camp listed in Lisbon, but it didn't look good. Big fancy-tacky entrance with fountains and R-rated statue, uniformed guard, turnstiles to walk through to even check out the place. Hoity toity meant expensive which it was-35 bucks/28.50 euros. No way.

So on to the second/last camp in Lisbon. James just got us there before expiring but we were crestfallen to see it was not a camp but a closed office of a camp association. So we grabbed a good parking spot to think things out, across from a police station and a Lidl grocery store, and set out on our uppermost goal, a Wi-Fi place where Nicole could receive an important call/interview about Camp Kesem. We found one a few blocks away and she was able to get the call -- later, because no one remembered the daylight savings time in CA that clicked in early that morning.

 We had a few hours of daylight so we decided to splurge on a cab ride to a Rick Steves-recommended part of town, the Belem district, and that was a good decision. We packed it in: first to the imposing monastery of San Jeronimo, then across the street past the huge fountain to the Monument to the Discoveries, a towering white wedge with larger-than-life statues of Portugal's most famous explorers on either side (led of course by Vasco de Gama), and on our way to the famed old Belem Tower (the last thing departing sailor's could see of Portugal and the first thing that signaled they were home). We heard music from the park and stopped for an unexpected treat, a band called Katharsis. We heard only two and a half songs but they impressed us with their skankin' mixed-up sound and mixed instrumentation which included trombones (as a lead instrument), accordion, flute, mucho varied percussion, sax, a turntable DJ, and yes a tuba! Of course they had a bass and guitar and a chick singer (that's not sexist but a shout-out to an LA musician friend of ours by that name) and best of all an electric didgeridoo. Seems each musician played at least three instruments as they switched around on each song. The main guy up front had a ponytail halfway down his back but the rest of his hair was an inch short -- that's dedication to a style. We had to leave the area without sampling the famous pastry (200-year-old secret recipe) at Pasteis de Belem -- the line was huge.

Monument to the Discoveries

A return cab ride got us back in time for Nicole's call, which seemed to go well. Her folks were proud of how calm, self-assured and downright charming she could be in pressure situations. Sebastian, our genius German mechanic, called us to consult on the battery situation. It was so nice to know we always had that lifeline. Having all overcome a lot of hurdles in the first half of the day, we were satisfied we packed so much into the last half, and retreated back to the van for sandwiches and an early bedtime.