Buarcos - a small fishermen village I'm fond of!

To those who are already bored with my postages about Oporto here's something new with a taste of Summer. Buarcos is a fishing village, or, at least it was. When I moved to Figueira da Foz in the '80s there were lots of boats like this you can see in the photo below and maybe bigger, the dory boats, in the beach sand in front of this ancient XVIII century fortress wall. I remember fishermen sewing fishnets too. That's all gone. I believe some still live in the village and some live there and have bigger boats, like traineiras, that are used to fish sardines. Many were dedicated to codfish fishing and sailed away for the high sea for months. 

Buarcos has some good fish restaurants, narrow streets, and small houses, some covered in tiles. There's a nice public garden there and some cultural infrastructure too. I have to mention a curious theatre room called Trindade that was built in 1910. Inside it looks like a regular theatre with a stage and galleries. But it's very small as if it was made for children. Next time I'll try to photograph it. There's also a curious folklore group here called Rancho das Cantarinhas. Women dance with heavy paper flowers decorated clay water pitchers on their heads! I'll see if I can get some good photos of it too. Women that sell fish still wear rich embroidered aprons that I would like to show you too.

Buarcos is near Serra da Boa Viagem - a small mountain. It's kind of a suburb of Figueira da Foz. I usually go to the beach there. It's just a small walk away from my house. 

Yesterday we had 26º. Sometimes we don't get that temperature on Summer days! Schools are shut for Easter break so many boys and girls were at the beach enjoying this hot Spring day. I wasn't prepared for it or I might have brought my beach towel along!

The ancient wall. We can make a nice walk along with it and watch the sea from it. We get some restaurants and bars along the way if we get hungry or thirsty!

A house covered with blue tiles.

Watch closely the difference between my second photo and this old postcard. There was no street in front of the ancient wall. The beach sands started just below it back in the 50s. This I never saw but my parents still remember it. The sea moved away from the land pretty fast.

And this black and white image is a screenshot from a movie filmed in 1929! 

Clearly, Buarcos was a fishermen's place!