Volunteer

Yeasterday i applyed to be a volunteer for united nations but today i received the news that i only can appply after 25, well i am just 24 so i will wait more one year.
In the other day arte e factos asked me about the volunteering. The voluntership i do is the short term volunteering and i normally go by the SCI-Service Civil International, this organization began doing workcamps after the first world war(i think) in camp between german and french i a way to build peace. Nowadays SCI is all over the world but not in Portugal. In Portugal IPJ is their partener and can send you to their camps, but you can also apply by sending them an e-mail that you are interested in attending their camps( this is only possible because there is no SCI Portugal).
Workcamps independently of the organization is all based in the same policy. in almost all camps i only worked in the morning and had free afternoon to do what i wanted to do and the weekend is also free.
When applying by the IPJ, you have to be less than 30 years old and normally they only accept for the summer workcamps, but if you go to the SCI website you will know that there is no age limit and that there are camps all over the year. In IPJ you will find a list of camps in majority they are in Europe. If you apply by the IPJ to a developed country you don't pay anything, only 25 euros that are repayed back(you pay your travel). In the camp you have food and a place to sleep, sometimes there are some activities included. In Bangladesh my work was to plant trees or mark the camp, the work was very few and we only worked in the morning and not every day. The bangladesh camp was the first in wich i payed(100 euros), this is not a fixed price it varies from undeveloped country to undeveloped country, for example to Mongolia i would have to pay 170 euros or in Zambia 270 euros.
Warning:Every camp is diferent, you have to choose the country, the kind of work, see what kind of extra work activities they have, how is the food (if you have to cook or not), and the place you stay(house, tent, etc). And of corse the duration of the camp and when. I also know that sci organises some long term volunteering but you also have to pay something.
Today i received by the Un a big list of organizations and websites where you can know more about volunteers projects in this case world wide and not only portuguese. There are some portuguese ong that do international volunteer service.
"from the e-mail i receveid by the UN"
http://www.unvolunteers.org/volunteers/options/abroad/otherops.htm
WorldVolunteerWeb at http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/ to obtain a wealth of information on volunteerism worldwide.
Country specific information is available at http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/dynamic/cfapps/national_profiles/index.htm.
To be informed about volunteer news, events and organizations, subscribe to the WorldVolunteerWeb.org newsletter athttp://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/dynamic/cfapps/interact/subscribe/

The sci website is http://www.sciint.org/wcamps/index.htm

If you become an UN volunteer, they pay you the trip, and give you pocket money, but if you have time you can search a litle more

My dream

( i looked like this when i arrivedback to Portugal)
My biggest dream is to become a volunteer in a remote part of the world. Since i am a young boy that i have this dream to be a volunteer and travel around the world. i would love to work for an ong, to UN anywhere. Well i have the contact of a ONg in bangladesh that works with GIs and even i have the adress of GIS company in Bangladesh.If anyone that has some influence on an ONG and look for a GIS especialist that has been in Bangladesh,
Poland, France, Spain, Germany, Malta, Cheq Republic, Slovaquia, Italy and Malta please give me a call.
I am happy today even i have a lot of things to do. I was back from Bangladesh on Saturday and next week on friday i am back on the road and i am going to Germany. I love this feeling. Moving not beeing in the same place for a long time. It's great. Before going to Germany i am going to Denmark so i can join one more country to my list.
In my last post i wrote in Portuguese but a friend of mine asked me to write again in english so i am going to speak just a litle bit more about bangladesh.
I arrived to bangladesh in the 1 of August, in the airport i got the visa only for 15 days( they don't give more), i took so much time getting the visa that i thought that i would lose my bags and that the person waiting for me in the airport. In the end i got my bagage and Mussaraf was still there waiting for me. The guy was very happy to see me and me also. Daka is a crasy city, full of crasy drivers, rickshows and a lot of polution and baby taxis. it's strange to just arrive and then be sent to a totally diferent world.
In my first day i got the news that i was going to the middle of the country to kalia( a very small village) and that the only international volunteers were me and 1 french girl and 2 guys from nepal that were somewhere lost in India. In the same day i left Daka and arrived to Kalia. In the way to Kalia i crossed the beautifull river Padma by boat, i was sorrounded by locals admiring my camera.
When i arrived to Kalia i wanted to call home, but it was a big surprise for me that there were no phones. Nobody contacted me for 2 days, my sister only called two days after in the midle of the night to a number that i have given to her just to call in case of emergency. i know now that those days were hard to my familly that were starting to get in panic.
Kalia is the end of the world, there is full of trees and rivers and mosquitos, and next to kalia there is tagherhat one of the biggest market citys that i have seen, the city is a market, if you want something you go there and find it( not including postcards, that new invention). The trip between kalia and tagherhat can be done by foot or by a king of rural rickshaw. The diference between this 2 villages are so big that i can't explain( one is the calm the other the stress).
Kalia is sorrounded by big agriculture fields maily rice and jute fields. The main food there is rice with something, doesn't matter what, the only excape possible was a litle bread in the morning with egg, but not always. The people in the camp didn't use a lot of spice because of me and Laure(french girl) but the food normally is very spicy.
I stayed 12 days in kalia. In the first day i was around the town like the candy men giving candy to every kid in every school, then in the end of the day i palyed a litle of football with out boots.
In the nexts days we worked in the morning planting trees and marking the football camp.
The football field was nice and the best thing on it were the cows and goats that lived there.
In the following days i went to a hindu marriadge. the bride is very happy(has you can see in the photo) and to a muslim marridge lunch. I saw people working handicraft in bambu and pottery. I also went to a very small boat trip. The greatest day in Kalia was when i participated in an hindu ceremony, i played drumms and all, it was really great. i miss that so much. Now for me the hindus are great.
After Kalia i went to cox bazzar, the beachg resort. The view there is great but i have to confess that there are much more nice places to stay and go than there.
just after one day i was once again in daka, this time trying to get a extention of my Visa(that only came 3 days after).
The next 3 days i was in the northwest, i have tryed the bengali train and it was great. I slept in a ong camp and in an arqueologic guesthouse in the midle of nowhere. it was my india jones days.i could write a lot about those days but they would be never enought.
My last days were spent in daka, seeing places that i thought didn't exist in that big city. I was in the hindu quarter and attended a great small boat trip. to end the day i lost my visa card.
And this where my 20 days in daka very resumed in this post.
Every photo correspond to a part of the text, try to find it.

the religions in Bangladesh:guess who is who

Bangladesh

É bom estar de volta a esta terra de camões onde a lingua portuguesa é rainha. Hoje escrevo em português porque é esta a minha lingua. Escrevo em Português também como forma de homenagem a Bangladesh.
No inicio do século XX, existia apenas India mas os Ingleses decidiram partir o país em dois na altura que deram a independencia, sendo que passou a haver a India e o Paquistão. Uma das grandes razões pelo qual o Bangladesh se tornou independente do Paquistão é o orgulho de falar Bengali, o povo de Bengala achou que era a gota de água quando o estado Paquistanês tentou proibir o ensino de Bengali nas escolas e obrigou o ensino de Paquistanês. É com orgulho que Bangladesh celebra o dia internacional das linguas todos os anos sendo também o seu dia nacional, dia da celebração da sua grande individualidade que é o Bengali.
Estive 20 dias no Bangladesh e foi uma experiência muito boa que não vou esquecer tão cedo.
Bangladesh é um pais pacifico onde as diferentes comunidades religiosas convivem sem nenhum problemas. As noticias sobre atentados de fundamentalistas islamicos não demonstram a verdadeira realidade do país. Eu estive numa pequena aldeia onde hindus vivem em harmonia com a maioria muçulmana.
Daka é a capital louca, com o stress do dia a dia, cheia de rickshows e babys taxis sempre prontos para te levar a qualquer lado pelo dobro do preço real. É sempre necessário negociar o preço, mas por vezes é dificil discutir com pessoas que só percebem a sua adorada lingua o Bengali. Daka possui também uma certa magia, principalmente em Old Daka. É nessa parte da cidade que sentimos a verdadeira alma da cidade, ruas estreitas, cheias de pessoas. Ai estive num belo forte antigo e até vi o pink palace, um testemunho dos tempos do colonialismo inglês. O rio que atravessa a cidade é cheio de vida, com os seus barcos, pessoas a nadar, a lavar os dentes , a tomar banho, a saltar para a água. Não muito longe do rio existe a rua dos hindus, onde de dois em dois edificios encontramos uma estátua de kali ou de outro deus, quando por lá passei a festa reinava e havia muita musica e cor, pessoas cheias de pó branco e amarelo. Foi bom tomar um chá naquela rua.
Kalia é uma pequena aldeia rural e pouco mais se pode dizer. Não existem telefones e durante 12 dias ou tomava banho no lago comunitario ou utilizava a bomba de água. De noite na escoridão total houvia a musica dos rituais hindús e por vezes houvia a reza muçulmana.
As casas eram simples mas de diferentes formas e feitios. Era normal ver uma cabra ou vaca calmamente a pastar.

O nordeste é rico em sitios arqueológicos com testemunhos de todos os grandes imperios que dominaram o país, desde os tempos do budismo até ao islamismo actual. A fotografia demonstra um dos poucos locais no Bangladesh que pertencem há lista de sitios pratimónio da humanidade. Este é um antigo mosteiro budista, no centro o grande templo e em volta estavam as celas dos monges budistas( cerca de 100). O templo foi queimado pelos hindus quando estes conquistaram esta parte do território. Mesmo assim os hindus aproveitaram o local e ainda podemos ver inumeras gravuras hindus.
Cox bazar é uma das maiores praias do mundo e o que mais se parece com uma estância balnear, a cidade em si não é muito interessante, mas aposto que se tivesse explorado um pouco mais os arreodores teria adorado. Esta terra fica muito perto da fronteira da Birmania e é dos pouco lugares onde ainda existe uma forte comunidade budista.
Neste belo país estive em locais de culto das 4 mais importantes religiões do mundo.

Para o ano Mongólia ou Nepal.

Bangladesh

I am back from Bangladesh!
At 23:30 my trip was over i was back to my city Lisbon.
Bangladesh is an incredible country and even i am here for soo few time i already miss it and i am sad.
Bangladesh is a very poor country but has a very big treasour that is their people. The kids are great always laufigh with a smille that can destroy your heart. Every where you can find someone that just want to help you and is just happy to be next to a forenner. The emotions, the feelings, the experience was so intence that is so hard to describe. i took photos but is impossible to define the feeling of being there.
i loved this days, even it was hard to have no privacy for 20 days, now that i am again in this cold europe i miss this people. their anoiace of asking us all the time, who are, where do you come from. I even miss eating with my hands opr sitting in the floor~, and the most strange thing is that even i am happy to eat the european food i miss bangla food. It's all so strange.only people that has been to this part of Asia understand how i feel.
i miss Bangladesh

still in bangaldesh

Bangladesh is one of the few countries that is safe and has very few turists.
the country is beautifull full of trres and rivers, since i have been here.this is a very big experience in all senses, i feel like i am in the national geograph.
there are very few foreners in bangaldesh so every time someone see me and my friend they say>
name
coutry
i am a bit tired of repetig all the same thing but it is ok.we are like a living show, everyone star at you. you are anormal thing.
since i was here i traveled by train, crasy bus, pantu, baby taxi, rocshow. i was in a hindu wending and in a party were i played drumm, it was great. i was also in a muslim lunch. i have been in big monuments. i was in a budist, hindu temple and tomorow i am going to old daka.i swamm in the indian ocean.
when i come back i will show my photos.

Good bye

This is the last post before I leave to Bangladesh, i will arrive there on Monday where Suez and company will be hopefully waiting for their bottle of liquor at the airport.
This is going to be my 8th camp, 8th camp incredible, I am a veteran I am even interview because of this. Two weeks ago I was asked to talk a little about my experience for a newspaper, I am famous now! David the work camp gueek!

What is a work camp?
I could tell the story how they started but I am too lazy to do it, I am only going to explain what a work camp is for me.
Work camp is a place where you may find people from different places, with different ways of thinking, different religions all working for the same porpose ( help some community). The work can be a lot of things, like tanking care of kids to recovering a church or try to clean a river.
I have been a lot of things; I was a cultural animator, a river cleaner, a fire vigilant, a saints photographer, an archeologist, a church recuperation worker or a English teacher. I’ve to Portugal form north to south, eat to west, I have to Spain, France and Poland.
I have done mountain climbing, canooing, cave exploration, went to bars, free swimming pool use, balloon fighting, tradicional Spanish fiesta, youth week festival with a lot of rock music, a ska festival, lots of games, lots of cultural visits, winery’s, castles, old villages, recreative walking, going to discos and bars. I have drunk and ate tradicional food and drinks. I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve friends everywhere, people that become important for me.

One thing I love to see is the appreciation of others for what you are doing.

I like work camps, I never feel like I am a tourist and I leave really knowing how a country can be, I leave that place really knowing it
It’s great

See you in a town near you

I leave in 2 days

Photo legend( church in bernardos-Spain my first camp outside Portugal

i am going to khalia, Rajoir upazzila, Mandaripur district, Daka division, Bangladesh

I am on my final days in Portugal.
This week has been bad because of so many things i have to do before i leave, but because i am lasy the majority are like they were last week. I have almost everything, i just have to buy just a few more things. I know now to wich camp i am going and what work i will do:"Leveling & Repairing of Village Road, Nursing & cleaning the Garden and Issue based discussion ". I am going to kalia in rajoir upazzila, in the midle of nowhere a few km south of Daka. The upazilla has 204356 people and 2048 sqkm. The majority are muslims but with a important hindu comunity There some religious facilities, Mosque 363, temple 286, church 7 and tomb 2. I am a bit sad because i wanted to go souther, in this way i will be really in the midle of nowhere, the guide doesn't say anithig about nice things here and i am staying there for 11 days. The study thems in this camp is pottery and boutique, i have i am not a big fan of this, we will have boat sight seeing but still learning about cup and dresses are not really my tipe. Despite this, i am happy to know that drinking is allowed there, one of the guys from bangladehs asked if i could bring strong alchol drinks. Their will be very few foreners there only be there about 4, french, irish and from nepal, 2 of them already had already arrived there.
So all thing are arranged

i leave in 3 days

Unesco-Portugal(1998,1999)

A lot of ink was spilled about the next portuguese world heritage.
When making studies for making a dam in the coa river someone discovered some strange drawings he had just discover what is now know has Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Côa. Valley. Not everyone was happy with this discovery, one dam was going to be built and this site was in danger, so there was a conflict between the ones that wanted the dam and the ones that wanted the paintings. The paintings won and in 1998 joined the world heritage list. Till today there are people that wished to have the dam instead.
"as figuras rupestres de Foz Côa" "is nothing more than exceptional concentration of rock carvings from the upper palaeolithic(22,000-10,000 bc), being considered the most outstanding example of early human artistic activity in this form anyhwere in the world" this word are not mine they are in the unesco site. Our antcestors loved to paint, art is in our blood.
Nowadays there is a park that even has a website http://www.ipa.min-cultura.pt/coa/ in english.Vila Nova de Foz Coa is in the interior of Portugal, not very far away from the spanish border, 380 km distance from Lisbon but only 182 Km from Salamanca. This region has big problems of population desertification. So help this reagion and go there.(i have never been there but do what i say and not what i do)

Even it has so many cultural world heritage Portugal only has one world natural heritage and is not even in continental Portugal but in the Madeira Island in the Atlantic Ocean not very far away from Africa. I am talking about the Laurisilva of Madeira.
The original forest in Madeira island is called Laurissilva that already existed before the portuguese discovered this island. This kind of forest used to ocupy large extensions of the european continent, all the mediterranian basin, meridional europe and north Africa, disapearing because of the glaciers. The Azores, Canarias and Cape Verde maintained this kind of vegetation. By thye discovery of madeira Laurissilva covered almost all the island, today you may find it it the nort side distributed between 300 m and 1300 m altitude.
For more information about this go to http://www.pnm.pt/florestalaurissilva.htm

Photos and information came directly from the web sites above and from this one:
http://www.cm-fozcoa.pt/php/home.php
http://www.ippar.pt/patrimonio/patrim_mundial.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pt

I almost can't belive it in just 10 days, 10 enormous days i live this sunny country to the other side of the world directly tõ the rainny Bangladesh.

I leave in 10 days
10 days i leave
leave 10 days
je me vais en 10 jours
eu vou daqui a 10 dias
yo me voy en 10 dias, qualquer coisa assim

Unesco-Portugal(1995,1996)

Six years after Mosteiro de Alcobaça, Portugal entered again in 1995 to world heritage list, this time with a place that is know has one of the most romantic places to go with your girlfried/boyfriend, also known for storys of witches and strange ceremonys in the sorroundings mountains, imortalised in many books but particularly in "Os Maias" by the portuguese writer Eça de Queirós, i am talking about the Cultural Landscape of Sintra.
Sintra is a nice village just a few km west of Lisbon and a obrigratory stop for who visits Lisbon. Sintra cultural landscape is a misture of monuments(palaces, convents, castels,etc,) with beautifull woods. Sintra is seen has one of the first places in Europe to start with the romantic architecture in the beggining of the XIX century. D. Fernando II transformed an old convent into a palace using a mixture of gotic, islamic and renaissance elements sorounded by exotic and local trees. Other followed and built using the same lines in the sorounding serra.

Just one year after Sintra, it was time reward the second biggest city in Portugal and one of the most proud of its origin:
Historic Centre of Porto- Porto only 300 km from Lisbon, the second biggest city in Portugal with their metropolitan area, also known has working capital of Portugal. The Porto city was built along the hillsides of the Douro river and has a beautifull landscape with 1000 year history. It was the romans that baptised city has Portus(the port). In this city you can see many and vaired monuments, including the stock exange, churchs, bridges, etc. This is also the city that gave the name to Porto wine even is not produced inside of the city, being only stored in the other side of the river.

Some interesting things that i heard about this two citys. Sintra was visited by lord byron and is told had writen some of his novels there. During the IIWW Sintra was a place where a lot of forenner diplomates were living and was a place full of German and English Spies.
Porto has a big number of english descendents, many of them associated with the porto wine culture has some of this big vinnyards belong to old english famillys.

This were very short introduction to this beatifull citys that show how much portuguese past is interesting. Here goes the links for more information and the origin of the photos.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pt
http://www.ippar.pt/patrimonio/patrim_mundial.html
http://www.cm-porto.pt
http://www.cm-sintra.pt/

I leave in 11 days

Unesco-Portugal(1986,1989)

After 1983 the Unesco continue to join Portuguese monuments to the world heritage list.
In 1986 Historic Center of Évora was the 5th portuguese place to join the list.
Évora is the main city in Alentejo region in the south of Portugal, it has about 56525 inabitants and has a great history. This quiet city was founded by the romans with the name of Liberalitas Julia, being after ocupied by the arabs and becoming part of Portugal in 1165. Like many other citys in Portugal, Évora golden age was in XV and XVI century during the Portuguese empire and when it was a also the kings residense. During those times there were built there churhcs,palaces, monestarys, military services,etc. The architecture of Évora had a big influence in the portuguese architecture used by the Portuguese in Brasil. Nowadays you still have well preserved city sorrounded by mediaval walls, many churchs, palaces, a great university, white houses from XV century and roman remains has the temple of diana (on top).

In 1989 Portugal was awarded again but this time for a single monument Mosteiro de Alcobaça
This old monastery was ordered to be built by the first king of Portugal D. Afonso Henriques, in 1153. During passing the primitive shape of the monastery has been transformed and you can find parts from the XIV, XVII and XVIII.
Inside you can also find two of the most beatifull tumuls of the XIV. These two tumuls belong to D.Pedro and D.Inês, the most famous portuguese love story. D.Pedro was a prince and the future king of Portugal, when he was going to get married he fell in love with D.Inês from his future wife weding cometee. When his wife died a few years later he decided to get married with D. Inês but D.Afonso IV(Pedro father) that was against this marriage ordered to kill Inês. When Pedro discovered that he ordered to kill Inês killers and nomenated Inês to be nomenated queen even she was dead. When Pedro died a few years later he ordered that his tumul should be next to D. Inês.

I leave in 12 days
http://www.cm-evora.pt
http://www.ippar.pt/
http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pt
http://www.orelhas.pt/canais/galeria_foto/sub_galeria_c/index1.asp

1.Unesco-Portugal(1983)

All around the world we can find remains of the portuguese architecture, some of them categorised has world heritage. This weekend one more has joined this list. This week i decided to talk about every place in the world that is in the unesco list and in someway is connected to the portguese culture, starting of corse in Portugal.
Portugal has incribed in the unesco list 12 cultural properties and 1 natural properties. Being the first ones added in 1983 and the last one in 2003.
In 1983 4 properties joined the list:
Convento de Cristo in Tomar - This convent is localed around 123 km distance from Lisbon. The convent was build inside the Tomar Castle where the first people from Tomar lived. The castle was ordered to be built in 1160 by Dom Gualdim Pais, from the famous templar order. This monuments was really affected and transformed with the begginig of the portuguese empire and can be seen now has a simbol of the openning of Portugal to new cultures.


Mosteiro da Batalha- This monastery is located only a few hours from Lisbon 20 km from Leiria. This most important simbol of the second dinasty.In 1385 there was an very important batle in Aljubarrota against the spanish that wanted to control portugal, the king was so confiant that he was going to win that he prayed to the virgin mary and promised an monstery if he won.He won so he ordered to build this great monument. During the follwing years there were plans of expansion of the church and some alterations but they were never completed. Now we have unfinished monastery of batalha.


Mosteiro dos Hieronimitas and Torre de Belém in Lisbon- This two fantastic monunements are the most famous monuments in all Portugal and they are in the majority of postcards of my Country. This monuments are located in Belém in the west part of Lisbon city where people say that the first caravels left to the portuguese expansion.
The mosteiro dos Heironimitas or "Mosteiro dos Jerónimos"was started to being built in 1501 and finished very fast a century after. One of the duties of the monks in there was to pray for the ones that left near by to the new world. The guys that left really needed a lot of praying, so you have to understand why they where so religious( going to the rought sea without knowing where going and with a boat so fagril, you really have to pray).




Torre de Belém-The main objective of this tower, toguether with other that existed in the other side of the river Tagus and in Cascais was to protect the entrace of Lisbon. It was order to be built by the king D.João II in the XV century.

Central Zone of the Town of Angra do Heroismo in the Azores
In the midle of the atlantic ocean, there are the beautifull islands of Azores. Angra do Heroismo in Terceira Island was a very important military port in XV and it was used has a recharge point to the ships going to India and other important comercial stops.







For more details:
http://www.terceira.com/
http://www.ippar.pt/pls/dippar/ippar_home
http://whc.unesco.org/
www.travel-images.com/ azores4.html

I leave in 13 days

I leave in 17 days

I leave in 17 days!
I have already taken the necessary shots(hepatitus A) bought the malarian medicin, the complex b pills, the diarreia pills and the mosquito repelent.Today i will buy the lonely planet guide. I have almost everything but still i don't have a camera.

Instead of only reading the portuguese news i read the bengally news and see the weather forecast. The forecast is very simple, rain, rain and more rain, humidity 89%, 26 degrees, wind 10 km/h, not bad.
I confess i need the monsoons, i am really tired of seeing fire news in Portugal, for sure there won't be much there. Well, a few weeks ago there was a big gas explosion there, but nothing is perfect.

"Cheaper Chinese, Indian fabrics flood local market"
Country's local fabric markets have become flooded with cheaper and low quality imported foreign fabric, specially from China and India through under-invoicing and false declaration. ".
I think i heard this new somewhere in Portugal, the only difference is that this happens in Bangladesh.

Hey young man/lady do you want to know for any reason the weather in Daka, this site is for you-http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bd_weather.html

Like i said

i leave in 17 days

Pedrogão Grande

Normaly when people think about Portugal they associate imediatly to sun and beaches, but Portugal is much more. Like i said before, i was in Castanheira de Pêra last weekend and even it's only 80 km from the ocean, is a totaly diferent world. In the park i talked about in the last post, i met a nice belgian lady. The lady started comming to Portugal 20 years ago and had visited almost every part of Portugal, from north to south, east to west, she was even shocked when i said that i was never in Piodão(a histocal village, all made of stone that is in the midle of the mountains, that you can see in the photo) and in the end she decided to stay two years in Castanheira.
Near Castanheira there is Pedrogão Grande. Pedrogão of 4398 habitants is a litle bigger than Castanheira, it has even a disco called INOX. We were there during the night in the town, it was good turing around in that hot summer night, without seeing anyone, discovering a new place. This small place has two small gardens, the same amount of some bigger cities.There i discovered that kids are more and more radical.
Pedrogão is also known because of it's river dam. Near the town there is the river dam of Cabril, a very nice place to swimm and do water sports( everytime you go to a dam, you have to be very carefull, dam are very dangerous). The cabril dam is a dam of Zezere river, the biggest secundary river in Portugal that flows to Tagus river( the river that passes near Lisbon, and the biggest one that crosses Portugal).

Zezere river starts in Covão da Metade in Serra da Estrela Mountain, where there is the point with more altitude in Continental Portugal(1993 m), and one of the few places where you can find snow all the year around. The photo is from covão, a very nice place to stay and camp, i camped there two times, but that is other story.

The river is also crossed by one the highest bridges in europe, i think the highest one is in France.

The village where we took lunch is also a bit famous, is in the midle of nowhere, it's not preatty or even has a lot of things there, is only famous because of it's name "Picha", translating to english it's Dick. Nice name and people from there are very proud to be from Picha.



All the photos are not mine, and i hope the owner don't get mad with me for using them. I really have to buy a camera.
Here goes the sources of the photos:
www.rt-serradaestrela.pt/
www.rtt.ipt.pt/
fumacas.weblog.com.pt
home.planet.nl/~koeke065/ images/PIODAO.JPG
imagemdodia.no.sapo.pt/ picha.jpg

if i forgot some source i am very sorry and i hope not to have any problem with the owner


I leave in 18 days