Obrigado, Portugal

 The moment my family and I were whisked away from Lisbon's airport in a cramped Bolt (like a European Uber or Lyft), I knew this was going to be a different kind of trip.  Once past the snarled up traffic circles near the airport, we entered a chaotic maze of ups and downs, tight fits, and honking horns.  Our destination - my cousin's apartment tucked away down a deep metropolitan corridor. 

Roughly ten days were spent in Portugal.  Enough to earn my admiration of its Mediterranean climate, stunning natural areas, and rich cultural heritage.  But, the trip was another reminder why I tend to gravitate toward the road less traveled.  Lisbon is a beautiful city marred by inadequate waste management, resulting in overflowing trash receptacles, litter, and pet waste.  Within a few days of our arrival, I rented a car to drive south to Porches, and upon returning to Lisbon, took a crash course in city driving.  It is the most insane city I've ever driven in, a sort of organized chaos to the locals but for me it was anxiety inducing. I was quite happy to hand over the key fob to the gentleman at the airport car rental hub upon our departure.

Each day was an absolute adventure, both in Lisbon and beyond.  We saw countless historical places, ranging from the Roman era to the present, but for the sake of this blog and its theme I thought I'd stick more or less with the natural historical highlights.  

My cousin Eden is a French expatriate living in Lisbon, and we were fortunate to stay with her for the duration of our time in Lisbon.  After a stint in Amsterdam, she sought a warmer, sunnier place to live and Lisbon fit the bill.

South of Lisbon, a bit of beach dune habitat in Vila Nova de Milfontes

Along the southern coast near Porches, we were privileged to stay three nights at a location complete with a manmade stream and intermittent pools.  Here, the ubiquitous Iberian water frog, also known as Perez' frog (Pelophylax perezi) was easily spotted but not easily caught.  More wary that most other frogs I've observed, they were difficult to approach during the day and only slightly easier to catch as the temperatures cooled off after sunset.  The variation in colors and patterns within a single population was surprising; initially I thought that I may have been observing more than a single species.  These frogs create quite a racket at dusk, quacking and snoring from within the emergent vegetation and water hyacinths.  Each night, Lumen and I were out there with our headlamp/flashlight, frog-spotting and sometimes catching.

The first of several Psammodronus algirus seen.

A private speedboat tour of the Algarve coast allowed access to the region's most famous and arguably most beautiful features, the Benagil Cave.  Loads of geologic history here.

Another common sight in southern Portugal are the nesting storks, known locally as cegonha branca (Ciconia ciconia).

A spur of the moment decision to find an arbitrary trailhead led us to this amazing forest near Monchique.

This stunning reptile took me by surprise.  A beautiful Lacerta schreiberi, or Schreiber's green lizard.

I began to notice a number of trees with large portions of their bark missing.  Some had numbers spray painted on them.  The condition of these trees appeared grim.  Why would someone do this in what by all indications was a protected area?  Turns out these are cork oaks (Quercus suber).  This is where cork comes from - the bark of these trees.  Apparently, the removal of large portions of the cork bark from the trees is harmless and bark can be harvested multiple times throughout the life of a tree.  Portugal is the top supplier of cork in the world.

Another P. algirus.

Another view of the Algarve coast.

Lumen and I hunting for crabs along the ancient, fossil-encrusted cliffs.

We explored the castle and grounds of Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra.  While walking the grounds, I'd see little concrete pools, almost like ancient drinking basins, filled with water.  A few larger ponds graced the area as well.  In one of the larger ponds, I could see newts of all sizes - small larvae wiggling about and larger aquatic adults walking along the detritus-covered bottom.  All I knew of Old World newts is that there are lots of them.  Which species these were, I'd have to find out later based on my location.  

I wanted to get my hand on one of the newts for a better look, but catching them by hand out of the pond seemed impossible.  Luckily, I was able to spot and easily scoop out a couple of larger animals from one of the small concrete basins.  Based on the newts' appearance, I was a little stumped on the ID.  That evening, I reached out to Jeroen Speybroeck, Belgian herpetologist and coauthor of my regional herp guidebook, Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Britain and Europe (2016).  Jeroen told me that my newts were Triturus rudolfi - newly described earlier this year!  Of course, this wasn't a raw discovery.  As I understand it, T. rudolfi were split from T. pygmaeus and are restricted to a small area of west-central Portugal (the paper is here).  It's kind of cool to think that I may have been the first American to catch and photograph one of these newts under its new nomenclature.

One of many newts seen in a pond

A newt I caught from a tiny rainwater-filled basin

Newt habitat

Nearby, on the grounds of Monserrate, even more impressive sights.

This is a very large Metrosideros excelsa, aka Pohutukawa, known as "New Zealand Two".  While it looks like a tree, it's actually an enormous shrub.  It is estimated to have been planted about the year 1800.

This cool Australian rubber tree (Ficus elastica) grows in and around the ruins of a structure built on the orders of Gerard de Visme in 1790.  The informational sign near the ruin states "The apparent fusion between the building and the tree depicts the supremacy of Nature over Man".

Green Iberian wall lizard (Podarcis virescens)

After our memorable stay in Portugal, it was time to embark on the next leg of the journey - Denmark.