Day 176
3 hrs, 5 .0 kms

I've hiking all around the castle and wandered up and down the picturesque alleys of the town, I'm ready to start heading towards Portimao. But first I'm going to veer south to snag another sizeable town: Lagoa.

I have to follow a 4 lane highway for a ways, then a road that narrows to a one lane alley as in goes through the white and yellow arch welcoming me to Lagoa.

Here I the best spot I can find for my video clip is a shady little War Memorial plaza where young folks like to hang out. On a pillar in the center is an inscription dedicated to the Portuguese soldiers who fought to suppress independence movements in Portuguese's many colonies--Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau...

I wonder how Portuguese citizens of African descent feel about this monument... there are a lot of them here in Portugal. I wonder... what about a monument to the brave Africans who fought for their independence from what was often a brutal colonial rule?

All the same, it does seem that Portugal has healed better than other European former colonial powers. Here you do see the former colonizers and the formerly colonized living, socializing and intermarrying in multicultural neighborhoods.