Rua de Santiago
My home for the next 4 to 5 months. It is not a huge village. Maybe 600 people counting those on the outside farm land. There are three stores and two little bars. Elena who runs the little store closest to me speaks french, so that is good. Jess is english so that is great – someone to speak english with. And two days ago I met Marika and Tony who are from the Netherlands but speak english too. So between them and Skype, I’m ok.
Steps in the bedrock
I am here in Vale de Santiago. You can find it on maps.google.com. You just need to type in Vale de Santiago, Odemira, Portugal, and you will find me. It’s actually a pretty good location. I am about 10 – 15 minutes from the nearest train stop at Funcheira. That stop is on the Lisbon – Faro train route. It is pretty much halfway in between. So you can fly into either Lisbon or Faro and hop the train and you are where I am.
Tiled details on the houses
The area is within the rolling mountains of the Serra. The main industries are cork trees, olives, and eucalyptus. Sadly the eucalyptus is not indigenous and is planted as a crop and harvested much like clearcuts in B.C. It is hard on the soil and they do not replant with the rigour necessary to negate the damage that clearcuts can cause. Also the area supports cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. Lots of orange trees litter the area. Often the oranges just seem to be left to drop on the ground which seems to me a real shame – free food – wasted.
More details
It is in a region from a tourism perspective called Alentejo (see www.visitalentejo.pt). Here in this older village you get a sense of the unique layout that occurred based on an initial homestead likely laid down and the rest being built around it, the main well and the church. Whitewashed building are signature. Houses are made from clay and stone.
Ah ... spring
Whenever you visit a village, look for the most striking characteristics of the rural architecture: the single-storey houses; thick walls with few openings, traditionally built of lath and plaster, a solution well known for keeping in the heat in the winter and the cool in the summer while using few means; the enormous chimneys, sometimes higher than the house, whence exit the fumes from the hearths that heat the cold nights and cure the home-made sausages and prepared meats; the privileged place the kitchen occupies; the bread oven, sometimes common to the whole village, with its unmistakeable arched roof; the texture of the outside and inside walls which, every year, the women cover with a layer of fresh whitewash; and the coloured edges and skirting which, in olden times, were predominantly painted yellow-ochre or blue.
The village - with the church at the back close to my place
Here daily the horns blast from the vans coming to deliver bread, fish or vegetables. I have yet to go out to them as I drive to go shopping. But it is an interesting place and I am only just still getting to know it and explore it, so stay tuned.