Sail 7Cs

Breaking up is hard to do!!

Well, we ended the love affair with Lagos Marina. After arriving back in Portugal June 2 from our Canadian junket, we trolled around the internet for a week and a bit waiting on potential work prospects, and decided enough was enough. If nobody was going to put us to work, we might as well continue cruising until they do. And so we left the fine little port of Lagos and all the friendly people of Portugal behind and set sail eastward toward the Mediterranean.

But we before we close the Lagos chapter, I want to share some sadness about the place. Lagos, like all of the southern coast of Portugal – you may know it as the Algarve Region – has become another great big-condo-barren. Don’t get me wrong, the dozen or so historical, and I mean HISTORICAL Portuguese towns like Lagos in the region are cobble street, piazza quaint and charming, but they seem from our experience all to be surrounded by 10s of thousands of mostly empty condos. The historical city centres have been very nicely tarted up and ‘touristized’, but the rings of suburban condos surrounding them are, well, disappointing. Irena and walk frequently in these areas, in our losing fight to keep fit, and I can tell you, “we are in no danger of being run over!” We walk down street after street of condos frozen in various stages of completion. From holes in the ground, through hulks of moss covered multi-floor shells to empty finished and landscaped buildings, these neighbourhoods tell the sorry tale of a little bit of real estate folly. The building cranes are long gone. Judging by the age of the overgrown vegetation on the unfinished building sites, I would guess the workers put down their hammers probably sometime 2008, when the subprime recession kicked in. In the buildings that were finished, most of the units have been sold -- and some for a pretty penny in the early days --- but most of them are pretty much empty nevertheless. Purchased by speculators in the boom years, they have been left now ‘unloved’ apparently in a declining market. And like the deserted streets, the never occupied shops on the ground floor and the moulding pools behind rusting fences, these barren neighbourhoods are haunted by their emptiness. The ex-Planner in me sees the car oriented suburban neighbourhoods of condos soulless in the best of circumstance, but to see them all but deserted is a bit unnerving, especially given, that with a little more thought and a little less greed, it could have been better.

And what does this means for the people who live in this part Portugal? They will need to find a new way to make a living. Historically, the people of Lagos, and in neighbouring villages, made their living by fishing and by trade. The slave trade did a roaring business in Lagos for nearly a hundred years. We stood in the main town square in Lagos by the town docks and read about how families of slaves were separated -- husband from wife, children from parents -- and auctioned like animals. Now there is a statue and a fountain at the foot of the steps of the catholic church which otherwise oversees the square. A darker time. Then there was a period of industry in the Algarve, but this moved overseas with globalization. Today, in Lagos we see the remains of industry -- half a dozen stunning brick chimneys -- preserved by some romantic Portuguese, now jealously occupied by the ubiquitous heron. They make great nesting sites! And now that the high end recreational real estate market is in retreat, and tourism begins to wither in the European recession, these people must again find another means of getting on. But knowing what we know now after some time with the resilient Portuguese, I think they will find a way. I spoke with a boater on the docks one day close to where Conversations was moored in Lagos Marina. This fine fellow came to Portugal from Brazil to fund his retirement with real estate investments. Ten years ago, he bought a whole building. Now the unit he and his family occupy is the only unit occupied in a building of 10 units. At least, he says, “It’s a quiet building!”

Reflection:

The wheel of change rumbles ever on. As Europe struggles to heal the Euro, Portugal struggles to find a new basis for an economy, and Lagos seeks to hold its real estate market together. We see transition is everywhere.

You would think transition would be easier when we volunteer for it? To misquote William Shakespeare on greatness: Some are born in transition, some achieve transition, and others have transition thrust upon them. (Twelfth Night). Maybe. Maybe not. I think transition is always hard.

While we wait for work, Irena and I have been girding ourselves by remembering, by virtue of our lifestyle, we have chosen transition. The pressure of transition is one of the costs of the lifestyle we live.

Like the Portuguese, we too will all find a way. 

Can’t wait to tell you about Seville in our next Blog!