Wednesday marked the arrival of Penny and Christine to our humble abode in Lagos!

In the morning I drove the 35 minutes to pick up Penny in Sagres, the West-Southwestern-most city in mainland Portugal. A couple dozen roundabouts later I arrived at her hotel and picked her out from among the throngs of cyclists and hikers congregated there. We plan to visit there with more time soon!

Back to Lagos (round and round the roundabouts we go) and picked up Savitri to go grab lunch at.. Eattico! We loved them so much last time and Penny only has just over a day here so only the best!

Next we meandered in and out of shops, showing Penny the maze of beautiful pedestrian-only cobblestone streets.. and the little scooters, motorcycles, bicycles, and occasional cars that you find along them!

Unbelievably we ended up at our new favorite gelateria, Gelateria Pinocchio! They have 52 flavors, all made by hand by the owner upstairs, and all fresh and delicious.. it would be irresponsible not to support him.. regularly!

Refueling complete, we walked over and picked up Christine at the bus stop. It’s conveniently located across the street from the pedestrian bridge over the marina that we take to access everything. I was also thrilled to see a busy indoor farmer’s market right at the bus stop. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to visit that at a later date.

We had 8pm dinner reservations on the road to Ponta da Piedade, so we went early to show Penny and Christine the amazing view. It’s one of those locations where every step.. every time.. deserves a photo.

With a world of colors and depths and beauty in our heads, we headed into the restaurant – Camilo. It’s perched on the cliff top facing East over the Baia de Lagos toward Portimão. They have boardwalks just like those at the point surrounding the restaurant, and the building itself is essentially a glass box. Views for days!

Camilo accepts walk-ins, but unless you’re a party of one or two reservations are definitely recommended. It is popular and busy.. and for good reason! Their motto is “THE PERFECT FUSION OF LAND AND SEA”, and we went all-in on the latter. As with many good seafood restaurants in Portugal, they have a display of the actual fresh fish so that you can really understand what you’re buying. Our waiter patiently walked through every option, as well as the different ways they could be prepared.

We started with an impressive salad and the obligatory dish of olives. I may have waited to take the picture a little late to demonstrate the bowl compartment functionality. Both were the Iberian standard- super fresh and nicely, lightly dressed.

Savitri got tiger prawns, I got fried monkfish, and Christine and Penny split a big fried sole.

The monkfish had a single central spine which resulted in olive-sized chunks of what we deemed “death bone”.. but they were actually easy to pick out. The sole on the other hand has a lot going on so the waiter volunteered to prepare it.. and we enjoyed the show!

We all loved the entrees- exceptionally fresh, moist, and delicately flavorful. The monkfish is up there with the best fried fish I’ve had, and we just returned from a weekend in Wales! It was crispy on the outside, plump and juicy inside, and wasn’t greasy, oily, or soggy. Thanks to our waiter’s masterful deboning, the sole was tender, flaky, and.. accessible. Meanwhile Savitri’s tiger prawns had more distinct flavor than we usually find. I think restaurants often mistakenly refer to shrimp as prawns (shrimp are a different animal, generally smaller) and this was way bigger and more fleshy, and flavor-wise even better than lobster.

Dessert was.. “ok”, but not exciting. The cheesecake was more like whipped cream/marshmallow with a mild cream cheese flavor. It had a thin passionfruit gelatin layer on top that didn’t contribute much flavor, and we don’t care for the gelatin mouthfeel. The egg pudding, which was very similar to flan, was average. It was fairly firm, which is good in our book, and had a nice caramel sauce. Next to the faux cheesecake it was great, but on its own nothing special.

It got quite cool as we left, but I had to walk down to the clifftop to see the full moon without light pollution from the walkway lights. The iPhone 15 Pro Max does an amazing job if you hold still for a few seconds.