Surf's Up!

This morning we said goodbye to our great Airbnb  apartment, picked up the rental car, this and headed north out of Lisbon. First stop was Nazaré about 90 minutes northwest of Lisbon on the Atlantic coast. Thanks to a recommendation, we stopped here to see the spot where the world's biggest waves (biggest surfed so far was 86 f-ing feet) have been recorded and where the best professional surfers come to try to ride those giant waves. The reason this spot is so special is because of a unique 16,000 foot deep (that's not a typo) underwater canyon that ends just offshore. When the swells come in from the open Atlantic and run up through the canyon, the waves pile up when the canyon ends and the water is pushed up onto the shallow ocean floor and giant waves break just offshore. The only way to surf here is to get towed in by jet ski, and its no joke. A pro surfer died here on Thursday- it was a big news story in Portugal. Winter is when the waves are at their biggest, and the forecast for today just happened to be for huge waves. There were hundreds of people lined up hoping to get photos; news photographers from all over were there too.


If you zoom in you can see some of the jet skis to get the scale!

We were able to see a few surfers ride, but most of the hour we were there we watched the jet skis with surfers on the back zoom around looking for the right break. It's really tough to appreciate the size of the waves from a photo- I read that they were averaging 20-30 feet today- but it was jaw-dropping to see them and I have certainly never before seen waves that are even close to that big. Here's a link to someone's video today to give you a sense.  

The town and beachfront are so beautiful and after yesterday's rain and fog the sun felt wonderful!

Jen at the iconic lighthouse



From Nazaré we drove the two hours north to Porto where we'll stay for two nights. Just got a small taste of it tonight but I love it already! More on that tomorrow as well as a recap of all our eating experiences (hold tight, Kelly!)


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