Quarteira, Algarve paradise

Just a stoned throw west if Faro lies Quarteira. I have contacted João through Couchsurfing, but we suspect we know each other from 10 years ago. We had helped organise the Ecotopia bike tour of that year. There is a lot of money here, with detached houses owned primarily by the Irish and British and the apartments closer to the centre bought or rented by the French and Germans.... old habits die hard. 

Gorgeous sandy beaches and it's sunny enugh to go swimming in the 16C water. João has offered me my own private apartment a few hundred metres from the beach. What luxury - bathroom, multiple bedrooms, cable TV, huge balcony and best of all a fully equipped kitchen. It'll be hard to leave here.