The repair of the Pego do Inferno waterfall and pool in the countryside near Tavira has not happened, despite talk, more talk and years of promises to restore this much loved tourist destination.

A new video on YouTube concludes that 'the site is not worth viisiting, holidaymakers would be better off heading to a beach.'

Such has been the sloth of the authorities which claim to have tourism as a priority, until they have to spend any money, that a petition has been set up stop the site falling into to further disrepair.

Portugal once was a poor country with a hardworking people who carefully took care of their resources. Families grew vegetables, harvested fruits and nuts. They were happy, had plenty of gold, but there was no freedom of speech.

We have in Portugal one of the best environments for tourism in nature, with 3,000 hours of sunshine every year,  a good balance between sun and rain, a huge variety of flora and fauna, and beautiful lagoons and lakes where migratory birds land.

CLICK HERE to read Part 1.

Second Homes - Portugal was a poor country with a hardworking people who carefully took care of their resources. Families grew vegetables, harvested fruits and nuts, rode bikes. They were happy, we had plenty of gold in the central bank, many had it in jewelry, but there was no freedom of speech.

We now have around 380,000 homes for sale/rent that are locked up. An investment of €40 billion. If this money went to SMEs to increase their competitiveness, we would be exporting twice as much and have almost no unemployment.

As we are all aware, 2015 is scheduled to be THE YEAR that oil and gas exploration in the Algarve South and West coasts really kicks off - and according to latest information, this will happen without any Environmental Impact Studies (EIA’s) taking place.

Firstly, thank you to all those of you who are continuing to sign and share the petition - we are now up to almost 6300 signatures on the online petition - which is a wonderful achievement - but let's keep going! The more people we can persuade to join the campaign the better.

CLICK HERE to read more....

Another cycle has ended, new ones yet to come... 2014 was an intensive and productive year at the Quinta do Vale da Lama farm. We are all very grateful to those who supported us in so many ways. As the African proverb says "It takes a village to raise a child", and Vale da Lama is being raised by all those active supporters, volunteers, partners, visitors, friends and neighbours that contribute to its healthy development.

Portugal was a poor country with a hardworking people who carefully took care of their resources.

Families grew vegetables, harvested fruits and nuts, rode bicycles. They were happy, there was plenty of gold in the central bank, many kept savings as jewellery, but there was no freedom of speech.

Climate change is arguably the biggest threat that humanity has ever faced and so perhaps it should have repeatedly dominated the headlines this past year, if not the past decade. It didn’t because discussion on the subject is so confusing and implicitly terrifying that many people don’t even want to think about it.

Academic debate rages about whether or not the globe really is warming – or if so, why, by how much, and what should be done about it.

Our Spanish cousins are at it again. In addition to harrying the UK over Gibraltar, Madrid now has presented a proposal to the United Nations to extend the Spanish continental shelf, at Portugal’s expense, in its aim to secure gas and oil exploration rights.

Spain claims sovereignty over the natural resources in a maritime area of nearly 300 square kilometres west of the Canaries which covers Portugal’s ‘Islas Selvagens.’