Maria Antónia is the spouse of the late Chico Salazar, my friend and mentor in a critical phase of my life (19 to 21 years old). I spent almost a year with Chico Salazar roaming the savanas of Cuango Cubango just before I was conscripted into the Portugueses army.
Chico Salazar was an amazing person with a strong personality large than life. He thought me some important lessons in self confidence. Several times during life threatning events, he risked his life showing that he believed in my untested habilities. Such tests made me learn a lot about myself and these lessons I carried through my life and had a big impact on what I am today.
I spent a day with Maria Antónia at Couço where they built their home after Angola and I was sorry that time limitations did not allowed a longer visit.
We could not go to Portugal and not visit our friends Odete and Jana or Jota as the friends called him in Angola. We grew up in Angola and although Jana was older than me, we grew up doing the same things.
We studied engineering in the same institution (IINL), served the Portuguese army during the colonial war and ended up working in the same company (HEAC).
Odete and Jana live now in Costa da Caparica and we spent a day with them, reminiscing about the "good old time".
One of our day trips while we were in Oeiras with our compadres Manuela and Adelino was to Cape Espichel and Sezimbra. Cape Espichels is a very rugged area in the south of Portugal and the acess to the coast has to be by boat and during good weather.
Diving seems to be good by looking at the clear water from above.
From there we went to Sezimbra, in the past a small fishing vilage. We had lunch at a sea side restaurant and met one of my old high school teachers Dr. Eduarda Delgado. Unfortunately she was not well and could not recognize me.
Oeiras and Lisbon were the last stop of our holidays. We had quick trips to Couço to see our friend Maria Antónia and to Costa da Caparica to see the Flora's and spend the rest of the time visiting Lisbon and the neighbouring areas.
Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of half a million. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon metropolitan area. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the oldest in Western Europe, pre dating other modern European capitals such as London, Paris and Rome by centuries.
According to legend, the place was named by Ulysses, who founded the settlement after he left Troy to escape the Greeks. Julius Caesar called it Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, it was captured by the Moors in the 8th century. The Muslim influence is still visible in the Alfama district, an old quarter of Lisbon that survived the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
In 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal.
Most of the Portuguese expeditions during the Discoveries during the 15th to 17th centuries left from Lisbon, including Vasco da Gama's expedition to India in 1497.
Portugal lost its independence to Spain in 1580, initiating a sixty-year period of dual monarchy in Portugal and Spain under the Spanish Habsburgs. The Portuguese restored their independence on 1 December 1640.
There has been many earthquakes in Lisbon but nothing like the one on 1 November 1755 which destroyed 85 percent of the city's structures. Over 30.000 people of a total of approximately 200.000 died in the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. The Marquis of Pombal rebuilt the city in accordance with principles of modern urban design.
In the first years of the 19th century, Portugal was invaded by the troops of Napoléon Bonaparte, forcing Queen Maria I and Prince-Regent John (future John VI) to flee temporarily to Brazil.
During World War II, Lisbon was one of the very few neutral ports, a major gateway for refugees to the U.S. and a haven for spies. More than 100,000 refugees were able to flee Nazi Germany via Lisbon.
The Carnation Revolution, started in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, end the right-wing Estado Novo and dismantled the Portuguese Empire.
