The Algarve usually brings to mind golden beaches, golf clubs, and resort cocktails with tiny umbrellas. But this little piggy went south to see what’s hiding beyond the pool decks—and found stories of resilience, flavour, and pride bubbling quietly beneath the surface. At first, Culatra looks like time has slowed down to a near halt. […]

I’ve long had a fascination for border towns.  Places of transit.  People and wares on the move.  Constantly changing faces that melt together in memory, dingy train stations that scream “end-of-the-line”. Dimly lit border patrol checkpoints staffed by hard luck, disgruntled customs agents still trying to figure out how they screwed up on the job to […]

The end of dictatorship in Portugal in the 1970s, and the ushering in of new found freedoms and economic opportunities, brought with it a sad legacy: a serious drug addiction problem that coincided with an emerging AIDS epidemic. The combination devastated families across Portugal’s social classes. The Algarve, synonymous today with Portugal’s prime beach destination, […]