Living it up in Lagos

Let me start by saying that Portugal has been our favourite country so far - the people are amazing and so friendly, the cities and beaches are beautiful and the lifestyle is so relaxed. Not only this but Portugal has been the only country so far to sell easily accessible cider (WOOO!) and sour cream, oh and as an added bonus 99% of people speak English so we barely even bothered wit Portuguese!

It's certainly safe to say that Lagos did not disappoint us!

After several weeks of sharing rooms in hostels we decided we really needed a room to ourselves and we felt like we hit the jackpot with our room, for 10 euros a night we got a private room with balcony (kinda ocean views) and a bathroom and kitchen we shared with hardly anyone = awesome! We had a mini celebratory picnic on our tiny deck table (note: cider)!

We spent our first day in Lagos walking around and checking out this beautiful place! Below is a picture of the gorgeous marina, which is filled with boats owned by both local fishermen/sailors and tour groups. There are so many tourism companys lining the marina offering boat and kayak tours, surfing, fishing, whale/dolphin watching, booze cruises - you name it!

We then followed the paths along the marin and towards the beach. There is an amazing clifftop walk that takes you along all the main beaches in Lagos, the views were absolutely amazing and the beaches stunning! It was a fairly long walk in 32 degree heat but totally worth it!

Below bottom right is a picture of Batata (the closest to the town) and bottom left is me at Camilo Beach.

An old old wooden ship

There were so many beautiful beaches and gorgeous views it was hard to stop taking photos. Some of these beaches are the most photographed beaches in the world and come up when you Google search Portugal. Below is Michael and I at Ponta da Piedade, a small lagoon full of caves and grottos, lots tour boats and kayaks come here to explore.

Michael and I posing at Camilo Beach. 

Dona Ana Beach - gorgeous! 

 Myself at Batata Beach, which is supposedly one of the most popular beach in Porugal (probably because it's close and people are lazy).

Camilo Beach again, apparently it got its name from the supposedly camel shape rock on the far left of the picture (you can't really tell from this angle...)

Michael at Camilo Beach (can you tell this was our favourite,  I would have loved to have spent an extra day in Lagos just to lie on this beach all day!)

After we spent a long day walking amongst the cliffs and gorgeous beaches of Lagos we headed to the Nah Nah Bah, a cool surfie bar/restaurant we had read about. This is where is famous "Bottom Line" drink originated - Rob has made these for us before so we both had to sample the real deal!

We also got some amazing food!

As you can see it is legal to drink is the streets here, they often give you drinks in plastic cups as if they are encouragning it too! We headed out to another bar in Lagos (no idea what the name was) for happy hour cocktails (3 euros each thank you!) which I definitely made the most of!

The next day we had a fairly decent sleep in, had a stroll around town and a quick lunch before going on a tour of the West Coat of Lagos. The tour was run by a guy called TJ, who is actually from Missouri, USA, who came to Lagos about a year ago and loved it so much he never left. He has started his own tour company called West Coast Tours and is the only guide who takes anyone to this remote part of Lagos. While we were there we barely saw another person aside from local fishermen.

Our tour consisted of 2 hikes that were about 2-3 hours each. For the first one we walked out to a view point which reminded us both so much of Australia (above photo, bottom right - Great Ocean Road?) and then made our way around the coastline and down into a valley like area.

The photo below is taken about half way down the valley.

Michael on top of the world!

After we had hiked down some pretty steep terrain (not good for my fear of heights) we climbed back up slightly onto this rocky outcrop and chilled for a little while with some lemonade (with actual lemons) and a few snacks while we took in the amazing views. 

A group shot of everyone sitting on the rocky outcrop (TJ, our tour guide, is on the top left), this was a really fun group as we had Argentinians, Slovakins, Americans and us all mixing together, lucky for us English was the communal language! Michael did his very best to make sure the Essendon logo on his shorts was in the shot!

In the photo below you can see Michael standing at the top of this set of cliffs and also Michael and I hiking down it (it doesn't even look steep here which is a little disappointing).

After hiking back to the top of this set of cliffs, we hopped in TJ's van and drove around to another section. This section is called The End of the World - it is the south western most point of Europe and I imagine at some point in time it was actually thought of as the end of the world.

Below is a photo of Michael checking out the amazing views from the top of these cliffs.

These photos show us heading down into the valley between the this section of cliffs - it doesn't even look steep but I swear it was!

And finally pictures of the gorgeous scenery at the bottom - reminded us of Australia again!

Beautiful view and we were surrounded by sheer cliff faces! This is looking out towards The End of the World.

We took some time to chill here for a while also, admiring the views and exploring the rocks - I made the mistake of climbing up high rocks, which I was then afraid to climb down from.

Finally we had a picnic (with cheese, bread and meats - this should really be a food group of its own for Europeans!) and some wine, while we watched the sunset over the lighthouse at The End of the World.

We had left our hostel at about 3pm and weren't home until about 10pm - it was definintely one of the most amazing tours I have ever been on! It was amazing being in such a remote area with barely another person in sight (aside from a few local fishermen) and being surrounded by amazing views and fresh air! If anyone ever heads to Lagos I highly recommend looking up West Coast Adventures on Facebook and getting in touch with TJ for one of the best tours you will ever experience!

We decicded to spend our last day in Lagos (sadly) kayaking! We booked a 3 hour kayak tour, which took us along the coast line and through many of the caves and grottos off the coast of Lagos. 

This was another amazing experience and also filled with gorgeous scenery - seriously, I think Lagos is hands down one of the most beautiful places in the world! We jumped into kayaks and headed off after our leader Pedro, who was quite possibly the most tanned white person I have ever seen in my life. 

As you can see Michael was working hard on the Kayaking while I smiled for photos! Taking one for the team!

We kayaked through heaps of little caves and grottos, the water was beautiful and it was nice to get wet and cool off (it was about 30 degrees the whole time we were in Lagos). 

More photos of the coastline and Michael rocking the kayaking look.

It was hard to take photos the whole time, I did think I should help Michael with the paddling at least a little bit. The photos don't even do it justice, the water was beautiful and the views of the beaches and inside the little caves was amazing (I have said that a lot...).

This is my favourite photo and kind of gives a better view of what it was actually like - too bad its a picture of other people and not us!

This is another tour, which didn't even cost much, that I would also recommend to anyone ever in Lagos, it was a really cool thing to do, although a pretty bad day for Pedro, who lost all our snorkelling equipment and had to head back out after everyone returned to search for it.... whoops!

Lagos, hands down, has been our favourite city so far in Europe and will be very hard to beat!