On our yacht cruise along the Algarve coast, our co-captain was a woman named Isadora. She grew up on these waters, helping her father with his dive business, and she came to know this coastline by asking questions: of her father, and of the local fishermen who taught her as a girl. Her father passed away before he could know that she is now training for her captain’s license, so she can follow in his footsteps.
As we glided past the cliffs, she wove in stories of the region’s history and her years at her father’s side, pausing to quiz us along the way. She lit up every time we knew the answer. Before we parted, she told us she felt she had found minds as curious as her own.
We travel for the scenery, the food, and the history. But the moments I remember longest are the ones no itinerary can plan, like a woman who grew up along this coastline telling a boat full of strangers that we were her kind of people.
