Newsletter October 2019

About Us

The summer comes to an end, but the work on Monte Maravilhas continues. Meanwhile, we have two new volunteers. Meet Line and Ekanto.

Ekanto is an old friend of Prem en they haven’t seen each other for 30 years. Ekanto lives now in Denmark en wanted to winter in Portugal. Maravilhas was looking for a handyman, so one and one makes two. He’ll be staying with us for a couple of months and will do some DIY-work for us on Maravilhas.

Some of you might remember Line, she has stayed a couple of times on Maravilhas already and she cooked for our hiking week in December. She originated from Belgium en lost her heart to the country. She loved the peace and silence that is present at our property, which made her decide to stay with us for a while.

Wintering in Portugal

There is an abundance of sun present in Portugal. If you’ve decided to leave the home front behind for a couple of weeks or months, then Maravilhas might be the ideal place for you to stay. At this moment, although the weather has been amazing, preparing the wood stoves for the coming winter. We already had a delivery of wood to keep you warm.

Portugal has a lot to offer during the winter months. Of course, we can’t predict the weather, but normally there’s always a temperate climate. This makes that during the day you can enjoy nice temperatures to walk in, go bird watching, enjoy a coffee at the terrace of the bar, and more. And in the evening when it cools down you can enjoy the coziness of watching the fire going in your house.

Another advantage of this moderate climate is that there’s always something flourishing. Not only the flowers will show their colorful petals, but also the oranges will be bearing their fruits. This gives that now and then you’ll be able to enjoy a freshly squeezed orange juice.

Does this sound like it’s something for you? Check our availability calendar to check the occupancy of the houses. Maybe there’s a date still fitting for you! We hope to welcome you soon.

Christmas Hiking Week

The holiday season is approaching again, and you’ll notice this soon in the stores as well, decorations will be put up, all kinds of treats will be available again, etc. And at Maravilhas we also have something special for you, we have our version of Christmas.

For a whole week, you’ll be hiking with the guidance of our guide Monica. When you come back from your trip, the fire will be waiting for you to heat you. And while you are reading a book, socializing with other participants or having a sip of wine, we will be doing the cooking for you. At Christmas itself, we will even provide some homemade gluhwein for you.In the morning when you wake up, breakfast will be ready for you, whereafter you will leave to go on your hike. And in the evenings our chef will prepare lovely vegetarian dinners. On Christmas Day, we’ll provide our version of a Christmas dinner.

This is an enjoyable moment for yourself to escape the winter days and the hassle of the holidays. There will be no fuzz about who’ll be making Christmas dinner this year because we’ll be doing this for you. That’s why you can just take some time for yourself to enjoy the beautiful nature that the Alentejo has to offer.
For more information, you can have a look at our website. Here are a couple of images of our previous Christmas Hiking Weeks:

Photo Reports Guest

In our last newsletter, we’ve requested you to send us some pictures of your view on Monte Maravilhas. We’re happy to see that some people have done this! On our Facebook page, you’ll find many pictures taken by others, have a look if you’d like.

Not only do we post pictures of our guests on our Facebook page, but no wand then we also let you know something about the daily life of Maravilhas. For example, last summer we’ve received watermelons from one of our neighbors. We made some fresh juice out of it which our guests could enjoy with the warm weather we had.

Another new thing that you’ll notice on our website soon is our blog. We figured that twice a year a newsletter wasn’t enough. Therefore we wanted to write some more information down in our blog about activities going on in the areas, things you have to see, some more tips, and more.

Tip: Fish Restaurant O Peixeiro

For a little while now we have a new fish restaurant in our neighboring village. This restaurant is called O Peixeiro. Here you’ll be able to eat the catch of the day. You can pick out your fish, this will be grilled on the barbecue and after that, you can feast on it.

We, the team of Maravilhas, often go out for dinner here and we’ve never had any complaints. A lot of local Portuguese people come here as well, which makes it even more authentic.

When you enter the front door, you’ll see the fish already displayed in the showcase. If you don’t know that much about fish, one of the friendly waiters will help you with your choice. They know a lot about fish and they can give you the best recommendation for you. When you’ve picked the right one out for you, they will weigh the fish to calculate how much you have to pay in the end. This means that you can also decide whether or not you’d like to have small bites to share, or if you’d like to have one big piece just for yourself.

The restaurant is in Amoreiras-Gare, which is about a 15-minute drive from Monte Maravilhas.
For more information, talk to one of our team members during your stay on our property.

Impressionists At Work

Last September William was here again to organize the painting week. A whole week our lovely group of painters worked on their artwork. Our Picassos had a lot of ideas which they wanted to execute, by the guided hand of William they were able to manage to get more insights and to create some nice pieces to display.

It was an intense week, positively, as our painters were very focused on creating their work.
At the end of the week, their artwork was exhibited at the property. As you can see in the pictures, William and the painters gave us some explanation about their work. This way we found out more on their inner journey and how the paintings were established, and what they thought of their creations.

Here are some pictures to give you an impression about how the week went:

The winter is the ideal time to do some repair works. Our new volunteer Line is already busy with some paint jobs, as you can see in the picture. And a whole lot is coming ahead! We need to pickle wood, varnish, and prepare the whole property for next summer.

A lot of things to do at our little paradise. As you might’ve read in our last newsletter, we’ve also done some gardening in the past year, this is already paying off as well. This year we have stockpiled wood from our trees. This we can already start to use for our wood burners, as the summer was warm and dry enough.

This summer, one of our volunteers has put together a new recycling system for Maravilhas. He has made waste bins and covered them with bamboo, this to make sure that it’s got a nice coating. At Maravilhas we already do some things to contribute to waste management. What some people don’t know is that we separate the waste, like paper, glass, and plastic. This we take to the village where we put them in the right dumpster. The fruit and vegetable waste, we put in our compost bins. When this is ready, we spread this on the land again. This is how we give back to nature.

Besides that we’ve also got new fencing at the caravans. They all have now a bamboo fence, first of all to create some shade for the sun. And secondly, to create some extra privacy for our guests.

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