Easter Portuguese style involved a fair of cakes and sweet treats along with a live band - the fair of Grandma's sweet things. The local schools had made Easter trees decorated with eggs, bunnies and chicks. I thought this bubble wrap chicken as fantastic, the rest of the 'tree' was made from toilet roll middles with chicks made out of egg boxes. Very Blue Peter!


Bubble wrap chicken

In the afternoon a group of dancers came along for some country dancing with comedy thrown in. Some of the men staggered around pretending to be drunk, fighting each and being randy. The women dancers did not look amused! It was quite funny and more entertaining than Morris dancing.


Easter dancing

We have been anchored up the Guadiana for a few days now. Rather than being the back of beyond place we expected, the villages have plenty going on. Today we stocked up on veg from the market, there is also a basic grocery store, cash machines, electrical shops, bakery, library (with free internet), bars and restaurants. There is a castle to visit on the Portuguese side (the Spanish castle is closed) and a river beach with real sand. A well marked path runs along the Spanish side of the river and there is also a zip wire thats runs from Spain to Portugal. We had a look down the wire from the top and I decided it wasn't for me.


Looking across to Alcoutim from Spain

There are around 30+ boats here, a few on the pontoons at each village and others anchored upstream and downstream of the villages. The holding between the villages isn't so good as the bottom is rocky; we are down stream anchored in mud. We've had a free a few bamboo canes and various other debris stuck around the anchor chain and caught up on the dinghy. The canes float up and down the river with the tide, some of them forming together to make rafts.

On Friday this massive trip boat arrived at the village! Must have been a tight turn to get turned around.