Local

Saturday 20th January 2023. Monchique, Portugal. According to the latest most recent census of 2021 there are still 5,462 residents living here. We’ve seen better times, when Monchique still boasted 14,779 residents. That was in 1960. At the time everybody was in work, meaningful, worthwhile work. This dictatorship thing wasn’t great, true, but at least you had your stock of medronho at home. Right? Exercising his profession, a shoemaker would earn what he needed to live. A farmer had his shoes made to measure at home by travelling shoemakers from Monchique. Monchique provided the potatoes, the bacon and the sweetcorn …

Saturday the 8th of July 2023. None of the following is a joke. You wanted to read a story by me? You will get this story. Right here, right now. Imagine you had an accident in your youth. Maybe a sporting accident, playing basketball, say – or a motorbike crash on a rural road – or an accident at work on one of the many constructions sites of the Algarve… or anywhere else between Beja and Faro. So you are taken to hospital, to be operated on the spine. An operation that is not straightforward, taking up many hours. When …

What is wrong and what is right? If only this were always so clear. A decision had to be taken. It’s always easy to be wise after the event. On the morning of 3 August 2018, a group of men assembled at the Lisbon HQ to discuss the day’s business, weighing up the pros and cons. Should they switch off the overland power lines in southern Alentejo and the Algarve, or should they allow them to carry on as normal? This was the kind of day when anything could happen: an ideal day for a misadventure, an ideal day for …

Saturday 3rd December 2022. So these days Monchique is hosting a walking festival. In the run-up to the event, a lavish publicity campaign was already announcing, in several languages “hikes along the waterways, workshops, shows and talks”. This all sounds like relaxation, harmony, tourism in touch with nature. By the looks of it, a major event with plenty of foreign visitors might be in store. I’m one of those foreign visitors. I’ve been coming here for years, and have friends here that I like to visit. If it wasn’t for them I would probably choose different destinations – because I …

The fire in Monchique in 2018 was considered to be the biggest in Europe that year. It was active from 3 to 10 August and consumed more than 27,000 hectares. In the aftermath, several failures were detected. Many people were left without their belongings and without any support to help them cope with their losses. The local population seem to want to say that’s enough and have joined together to form the Monchique Alert Association – Mountains Free from Fire (Associação Monchique Alerta – Serra Livre de Incêndios). They believe that they can be part of the change, fighting for …

The 3rd International Walking Week will take place at the end of this year, from Friday, 27 December to Monday, 30 December. This event will support the development of ECO123’s new botanical garden. On the mushrooms and truffles walk, we will forage for, collect and learn to recognise various mushrooms and truffles. The route will be dictated by the weather conditions, depending on how much rainfall we have had in the area. Will we unearth chanterelles, parasol mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, morels, elfin saddles, honey fungus, oyster mushrooms, milk caps or agaricus mushrooms? Come along and find out! Distance: 8 km; …