Monumental Rock, Monsanto, Portugal

Perched high above a patchwork of olive groves and cork forests, a holy mountain juts 758 meters (2486 feet) from the surrounding plain. It’s a sacred playground overlooking neighboring villages where naughty gods once used huge granite boulders as their croquet pieces, and left them scattered, forgetting to clean up after themselves. Over the centuries…

IKEA Pilgrims

Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs. Once upon a time, long before the giant Shanghai Bazaars arrived with their low-cost, low-quality plasticy imitation rags, legend has it that Cacereños would drive…

Lunch in Monsanto

Wild Boar with Greens 2009 has been a year of Deep Travel, delving further into places rather than just skipping on to the next. With this in mind, a Saturday road trip turned into a visit to another country. Granted Portugal is just over 100kms from here, I don’t seem to visit the country that…