Fatima & fado, tiles & tapas: Rediscovering Portugal
‘One of the things that a lot of people learned from the pandemic was how precious it is to be able to travel.’ — Ray Smith, Globus
Iwonder what Ferdinand Magellan would be thinking from beyond when I say that it is now the time for Filipinos to conquer the sights, the sounds, the natas and the bars of his birthplace?
Why Portugal? Imagine this: a city that is a work of art from the bottom up — from mosaic sidewalks with unique designs (no two sidewalks are alike), to the façade of 18th-century buildings, many seemingly giftwrapped with hand-painted glazed blue and white tiles called azulejos.
Imagine a city with undulating cobblestone roads with back-to-back bars in its Bairro Alto, where you can do a bar crawl for bacalhau a bras and other Portuguese tapas, capped by port wine or ginjinha (sweet cherry liquor) and pasteis de nata (custard tarts). A city with a red bridge similar to San Francisco’s Golden Gate, overlooking a cobalt blue river.
This is the “undiscovered” gem that is Lisbon in Portugal, the birthplace of Ferdinand Magellan, the explorer who “discovered” the Philippines for the Western world.
“Life here is good,” said one of the cab drivers who took us from our hotel overlooking Lisbon’s Aqueduct to Baixa, the downtown area described as “the magnificent heart of Lisbon.” He told us that while the average income in Lisbon is about 700 euros, or almost half that of the average in Spain, people enjoy a comfortable life, including free education and medical care.
While in Baixa, you can also try the Elevador de Sta. Justa, a wrought-iron wonder with mock Gothic arches, which actually looks more like a church than an elevator!
I dare say it is time for Filipinos to discover or rediscover Portugal — not just Lisbon, but the pilgrimage destination of Fatima, the seaside town of Caiscais, the fairytale town of Sintra. Next time, I promise to visit Porto, which is around four hours away by train from Lisbon. (Nope, this was not a Portuguese-sponsored trip, my endorsement is genuine!)
*** Lisbon was the last stop in our Globus Escape Tour of Spain and Portugal, timed for the winter months when there are less tourists and more sales. No brainer, ‘ di ba?
My husband Ed and I have been to both countries before, but discover new things about each destination every visit. As our Globus Tour director Luis Noguieras told us, each trip is an opportunity to “create stories.” Each trip opens a new chapter in your life that you can fill with wonder.
In Portugal, this time around, Ed and I visited the National Tile or Azulejo Museum, a 16th-century convent lined by the most breathtakingly beautiful tiles I’ve seen, plus additional tiles from various sources, like a tiled mural with Mickey Mouse.
***
Our Globus group of 41 consisted of several nationalities, with Filipinos from both coasts of North America comprising the majority. We ended up as one family. Our group included an 88-year-old energetic jetsetter Nilda Salvaleon and a grandma who is a TikTok sensation, Nora Sanggalang (she has 1.6 million followers).
We were part of a positive statistic — the overwhelming number of tourists worldwide that confirms what the UN’s World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) says: world tourism has hit 65 percent of its pre-pandemic levels this year. Online sources peg the number of international tourist arrivals in Europe in 2022 to nearly 585 million, after dropping sharply with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020.
According to Ray Smith, Globus Family of Brands (which includes Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways) head of specialty markets, “I think the only thing that stopped that from growing wasn’t actually a lack of demand, it was the lack of airline seats, and cost of airline seats.”
Marilen Sandejas-Yaptangco, president/CEO of Baron Travel Philippines, which represents GFOB in the country, says that the airfare prices are far from “normal” yet. But she affirms that the travel industry has bounced back “way better than expected.”
This is seconded by Joy Abrogar, Baron SVP/COO. “We’re starting to recover in a faster, faster pace than I thought.”
The amazing comeback of world travel is due to an important lesson taught by the two and half years the world was on lockdown. “People are now going out of their way to do things that they never did before — because they now know what it feels like to be told you can’t leave your house,” says Ray.
The resilience of companies like the Globus family of brands, which spins on the axis of global travel, was the way its owners “navigated” the company in the last two and a half years. They never let go of its leadership team, for one.
“I think that comes down very much to the family, and the family values, and the way that they approach everything. They’re very conservative, they’re very cautious on the way they move forward. And when it came to the pandemic, it was very much about them making some very hard decisions, but also making some very clever strategic decisions for longevity.”
For Globus, the three most popular destinations out of the Philippines are the United Kingdom, France and Italy.
“But what we’re seeing now is a huge uptake in Spain, Portugal, Morocco,” Ray notes. Personally, I believe it’s because Spain and Portugal have the same festive, yet laidback life that Filipinos are familiar with. The Spaniards, I was once told by a Spaniard, “work to live and not live to work.”
So what’s the next adventure for Globus, having safely hurdled and triumphed over the pandemic, as world tourism bounces not just back, but higher?
“We’re launching a new ship in March 2024, which is called Allegra, which means ‘happiness’ in Portuguese, and it’s actually on the Douro river. So it’s a first foray into Portugal on river ships. So that ship is being built as we speak, so it’ll be launching in March 2024,” Ray reveals.
Portugal, one of the safest places in the world, is indeed the next big adventure, if you ask me. Globus knows it already.
Obrigada!