Afurada is a small fishing village at Gaia, opposite of Porto in Portugal. I posted about it a while ago when I went for a seafood lunch. Apart from the lunch, I also did a little walk around the village.
Village houses
I arrived here on a weekday morning, and it was still fairly quiet. Afurada isn't a tourist location and I don't know how much busier it will get over the weekends and holidays. I'm sure the locals won't mind, I know I'd hate for my village to be flooded with strangers if I lived here... says the person visited. Ironic I know. Moving on quickly....
Let's take a walk around since we're already here. These houses reminded me of my ancestral village in Hong Kong. Terraces houses lined on both sides of the road, with many of the exterior decorated with the pretty tiles, very popular in Portugal.
One thing that I found quite odd was this house. They had a photo outside. I don't know if this is some local famous couple (I guess not) or if it's themselves or their ancestor, which makes it really weird... I thought it looked a bit like a photo on a headstone.
Community
One thing that struck me was how much of a community vibe there is here. In my previous post I mentioned I went to the local market to buy some fresh seafood. Outside the market was an exhibition of some drawings by children, and I love the whole setup of the display. There were two semi circles built up of sinks. The sinks all looked the same but you can tell they have been used, and to different degrees. I've never seen these type of sinks before, and wonder how they managed to get so many of the same style.
There was another art display on the other side of the market in front of the river. A lot of sticks were erected randomly on the ground, steadied by rocks and held up together by strings. They balanced perfectly well that way even though they weren't drilled into the ground. One needs to be very imaginative here to work out what this is representing. Do you have any ideas?
Ok, I won't keep you in suspense anymore. This is not a work of art, they are washing lines!!!!
This is definitely an eye opener for me, and again proves why travel is so educational. The building in the photo above is the communal washing room, I've never seen this before. This is where the ladies from the village used to, and still come to do their washing. And once that is done, they can hang their washing to dry outside by the river. Unfortunately, there was no washing outside during my visit, otherwise, I reckon it would be a very interesting view.
There are various tanks inside with flowing water from one to another. From what I saw, there's a sequence in where you wash and rinse your washing so you don't end up dirting every tank, and everyone ends up with nice clean laundry.
Based on this plaque outside and my non existent Portugese, it seems this building may have been built in 2003(?) though the actual washing tanks has been around for much longer. They look quite old and there were some old photos outside the building about the history of this place.
A lady was doing her washing inside when we arrived, and then another came with a massive basin full of laundry and a rolled up carpet resting on her head.
She has her work cut out for the day with so much washing to do, by hand!!! Luckily, the design of the tanks is very ergonomic with the wide ledges for scrubbing. Imagine if you had to kneel on the floor to scrub the carpet, you'd get a bad back in no time.
Museum
My last stop of the day at Afurada is the Interpretive Heritage Cenre of Afurada. This displays the collective memory of the community through artefacts donated by the villagers, and provides visitors with an insight of Portugese fishermen's life from the past.
Fishing boats are an important part of fishermen's livelihood. They had life size one on display and many models in the gallery upstairs. The details on those models are so intricate and I spent a long time admiring them.
I also saw some very interesting objects used by the fisherman, such as this fish trap below. It's to catch eel. There's a net at the front with an opening, and once the eel swims in, it can't get back out again.
And this is another type of fish trap, it looks much older than the other one. If you saw my HPUD Guessing Contest this month, you may recognise this.
Hope you enjoyed the walk around Afurada in Portugal, and learnt something new like I did during my visit.
Answer to April HPUD Guessing Contest
As you figured out already, the answer to the April HPUD Guessing Contest is an object used by the fishermen to catch fish. There was some very interesting and fun answers this month fueled by the additional contest hosted by @mipiano. But for the HPUD Guessing Contest, if you guessed anything to do with catching any type of seafood, then you've won.
There are 9 people who guessed correctly, congratulations to you all. 8 of you have powered up and you will get the bonus prize. My new rules from a couple of months ago states that if you have powered down in the previous month you won't be eligible for any prize even if you win. My apologies @ablaze. Your's was truly an amazing answer and demonstrates one of the reason why I run this contest every month - quality engagement. I really appreciate that.
On a side note, since I added the new no power down rule, I noticed a couple of accounts that have taken part every month in the past have stopped now. I guess my decision was correct.
| Name | HPUD Answer | Power up/down ? |
|---|---|---|
| @voidd | a string bag | - |
| @edje | Golfball catcher/goal | - |
| @dewabrata | crochet bag | - |
| @hoosie | spider web spun by a spider made out of wool | - |
| @alonicus | it's a gift from Granny Funnel Web Spider knitted by her for her latest set of grand-spiders; she calls it 'My First Web' | - |
| @lizelle | a lady's parasol | - |
| @leaky20 | tea cozy to keep a tea pot warm / the open mouth of a fish | - |
| @ctrpch | a basket of some sort | - |
| @amigoponc | a piece of art or decoration made of woven material, | - |
| @natz04 | a hat | - |
| @nanixxx | a typical Madeira Island hat | - |
| @amayphin | a 👑 crown like hat | - |
| @jane1289 | a cover | - |
| @grindle | half a bra | - |
| @ahmedhayat | some kind of hand carry for carrying fish or other food items / is it an open cave leading to the sweet world of Portugal | - |
| @incublus | like a fishing net. Some kind of trap/ it's the web that Portugal's most dangerous spider weaves to hunt snakes | yes/no |
| @miljo76 | trap for crabs | yes/no |
| @jhymi | a basket used to put in fish or other harvested crustaceans from the river. Or to catch them perhaps? | yes/no |
| @b0s | a fish trap | yes/no |
| @littlebee4 | a lobster / crab trap | yes/no |
| @crypticat | fish trap | yes/no |
| @duskobgd | a lampshade / a sunshade / a trap to catch larger fish | yes/no |
| @xrayman | a fishing net, or a trap | yes/no |
| @ablaze | Portuguese Murejona / a Woven portal to an inter dimensional wormhole of time travel where we are all made out of crochet | no/yes |
Thanks everyone for taking part in my HPUD Guessing Contest this month, you rock!!!
You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below
Afurada seems like a funky little village a little off the usual beaten track of tourists. I like those kind of places and they are often more authentic.
No problem on your new Power down rule that's quite OK, and I totally understand. I'm powering down a few thousand currently, as I need access to some emergency funds unfortunately. It's my first ever series of power downs, but was necessary.
Your contests are always great fun and I love taking part, so thank you.
Thanks for your understanding @ablaze. I got very annoyed when a couple of 'regulars' who were barely active on Hive and were powering down dropped in every month with a quick answer. They were lucky with the contest a couple of times but it went against what I wanted to achieve with this contest.
I appreciate people need access to funds sometimes, and even if they do, they can still contribute to Hive in other ways. I'm just not a big fan of supporting those who are just all take and no give here.
Clearly you are not one of them as your TTT is very popular, thanks for hosting that every week!!!
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
it took me a while to even realise that they were sinks in that display. I've also seen many incarnations of fishing traps like those in Jamaica, and Zanzibar. Me no likey likey 😞
Not your usual display units but very creative and sustainable.
Just out of interest, why do you not like those fishing traps?
the fishermen tend to drop them on reefs damaging the corals and also the traps catch and often kill fish too young to reproduce and also fish not going to be consumed so therefore wasted marine life.
I think you are right, it is a bit of a double edged sword. A lot of places that are very touristy rely on that income to keep them going through the year when things are slower, but they likely get annoyed by all the people invading their space! This looks like it was a really cool little village!
I get a feeling they don't seem too bothered with tourism here.
They're next to a marina which runs river cruises, and a bit further on they are a lot of new flashy apartments by the river. I wonder how much longer Afurada can retain its current form
I have been thinking about doing one of those river cruises for a while now. I'm not sure where, but they just seem like fun. I kind of like the fact that the boats are smaller and there are less people.
How crazy that in an affluent country folks are still doing laundry in some ancient looking communal washing room. (Not even a coin operated laundry mat.) That is the best part of travel. Seeing how people live day to day doing normal stuff. You get used to living in a place where everyone can do laundry in their own machines at their own houses… it is easy to forget that isn’t what happens in most of the world.
I think maybe they enjoy the community experience, from what I read on the displays outside that certainly seem like case. Imagine the gossip you'd pick up there!!
In addition, it's great to wash big items like that rug if you don't have a carpet cleaner
It seems like a really interesting village. I love the sink display and the communal wash-house. Quite interesting stuff. I also love the tiles on the walls of the houses.
I actually saw Jamie Oliver go there when I was researching for my trip😄
Glad it's still retain it's character
Well, that communal wash house isn't that surprising for me as I see many of the people in our area doing so (mostly women). Not only the wash houses but the tube wells too, they are just surrounded with people having clothes to wash in the afternoon (in summer season).
Interesting location you visited...
Ah, my hat trick chance gone... Now I have to be consistent with correct answers for the next three months. (Not gonna power down ever. Lol)
I imagine they are popular in more rural or the older days where people don't have so much facilities at home? It must have a nice community feel when people get together to do chores.
Great to hear you're here for the long run ⭐️
Yep. That's why I love the village life. So much love and peace everywhere.
Hive is addictive. Lol
I’ve never seen such a washing house before! I used to see people in my country do it in the rivers, but not like this. That’s just amazing! I don’t understand though how it works, I mean how..? I wonder what’s the sequence to make it work there. Want to try for myself! 😅 But handwashing is so tiring 🥲
I think everyone washes in a certain tank, and the dirty water flows out of the system, then they rinse the clothes in another tank and the wate here flows into the washing tank, and then fresh clean water comes in from the central tank flowing into the rinsing tank. That way you don't waste too much water.
I can't remember when I last hand washed something, we're well spoilt 😃
Afurada has some beautiful sights to see. Thanks a lot for hosting these. Feels good to win
you're welcome
I really like the life size boat, wooden boats are very cool. The boat models are amazing as well, my sister would be gazing at them as she collects them. It's neat to see traps and such of fisherman of the past. I think I would have enjoyed myself here just don't know if I would have done the actual fishing before or after the museum, haha.
The models were really good, I'm sure any model lover or boat lover would be quite fascinated with them as the details were really awesome
A Fishing trap, soooo nawt the inside of a fishes mouth... gotcha
😂
If a fish managed to stick its head back out after it got caught then it'll probably look like that. Oh dear, does that sound really cruel 😖
😂
Oh wow 🤣 so its a fish trap or fish net I didn't realize it just buy looking. Congratulations to the all who guess it right. Amazing.
It takes a bit of imaginiation. But you never know, maybe in the old days, maybe that's what a king might wear as his crown
That is a cool display of sinks used for the children's drawings exposition. This type of sink was used a lot in Spain also - for washing clothes.
So the real answer arrived!! 💃 Congratulations to the winners! 😎
That explains it, how fitting to use those sinks for the exhibition, it near to the washing house.
2003 was the official inauguration by the city mayor ;) Loved the answers to your contest, so many original gems!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Cheers! !BEER
at least I got the 2003 part right, something happened that year 😄
Portuguese is a tricky language! ;)
View or trade
BEER.Hey @livinguktaiwan, here is a little bit of
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Nivce little wander, good to see bits that are away from the usual tourist route, all is calm all is peaceful.
Yeah, I like going a little off beat away from the touristy locations. The best thing was that it wasn't that far away, and a Bolt for us only cost about 7Euros, well worth it
that's a good price to pay, for a great adventure
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 37/57) Liquid rewards.
What a beautiful community in that great town, the culture, the climate, everything. Great publication
Thanks for dropping by
Your welcome
Those "sinks" look like they are used for washing clothes. There's a washboard type part and a bin for the water.
I was a bit surprised how light weight the sinks are, especially the legs they look rather weak to hold the heavy load of water and the scrubbing movements. Maybe they're a lot durable than they look
Congratulations to all the contestants for their creativity and to the winners for their correct answers.
Hey, this public laundry thing is very interesting. The residents of Afurada like to stay attached to their traditions.
👌
It's nice to hold onto to some of the traditions, especially when hand washing things is much harder work compared to throwing everything in the washing machine.
An interesting visit. The start feels like a deserted space, the calm and quiet without distractions was a plus I guess.
It's actually not too far away from downtown, but it's tucked towards the end of the river by the Atlantic so retains it's calm
Nice.
I have been very surprised when halfway through your post I find out that it is a community bathroom 😱 I would have never imagined it, and those clotheslines really look like some art from afar, it is the same thing I would have thought. For a non-touristy place it's very interesting what they do in that little area. Good thing you went inside and shared with us some pictures of the building inside, I needed to know more hahaha.... The museum is also very nice, good that you went out to know a little bit. A hug for you! 😘
It's definitely a very nice little find, so glad I went there, not to mention I had a lovely seafood lunch, and bought some fresh seafood back to the airbnb for dinner that evening. I really do love my seafood 😄
Let me sink that in :) Any good food in this village?
nice one!!!!
There were couple of seafood restaurants open and we had a lovely meal there
https://peakd.com/hive-120586/@livinguktaiwan/seafood-meals-with-priceless-ingredients
Oh no, and I saw a Portuguese lady walking with a parasol, and the answer is the total opposite!
We had loads of fun with this guessing game and the additional contest by @mipiano ;)
I hope you're having a great Sunday @livinguktaiwan <3
Not at all! The elegant lady with the parasol stays as one of the correct answers haha!!! 😜
😉
That's what I saw in my mind's eye so it can't be wrong, right?🤩😛