The Coa Valley

Imagine if you will, a major dam project has been approved and the construction work is in full force when 20-30,000 year old rock carvings, dating back to the last ice age, are found. They dated the carvings by using a variety of techniques including one where they could measure the last time a soil layer has been exposed to sunlight. Work halted while archeologists explored the finds. Hundreds of carvings over the valley slated for flooding were found. Initially the dam construction continued but as word spread of the uniqueness of the carvings and their historical significance, the world responded. Local high school students protested the building of the dam and a new government stopped the project permanently in 1995. The valley was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1998. The valley is now a 50,000 acre archeological park where there are new finds discovered constantly. Our guide explained that the microclimate created by the valley geography made the area significantly warmer than the surrounding area during the last ice age, making it easier for upper palaeolithic people to live and survive.

There are two types of carving techniques seen on the rocks. Often the drawings are overlapping. The older carvings were created with fainter scratches done with flint. There are no flint sources for at least 400 km so it was clear that these nomadic people travelled and traded. The newer markings were done with quartz and are heavier, with the outlines of the animals easier to see. It wasn’t clear to our guide why the carvings were overlapping or why, with so much rock to choose from, the artists kept coming back to the same spots, sometimes over a 1000 year period. Some of the carvings were large enough (and originally likely painted) to be seen from afar, even from the other side of the river.

The river valley was steep and it was challenging walking on uneven ground to see these amazing artefacts of early human life, but well worth the effort. It is clear that art, and the representation of life has been, and continues to be, an important aspect of human existence. Our guide didn’t pretend to understand what message was being conveyed by the drawings. He noted that the same style of drawing has been found around the world. Typically, the drawings reflect the major animals of the area, in this case boar, goat, bovines and horses. We were sad that our tour made us choose between seeing the museum about the valley or the actual carvings. The whole site is fascinating.

The flora in Portugal has been interesting. In addition to olive and almond trees we came across both wild and cultivated pistachio trees next to each other.

We had a wonderful lunch back on the boat followed by a cocktail making workshop using port wine. I had never thought about mixing port but we have come to appreciate how refreshing they can be. For example, one cocktail included white port, passion fruit juice and Lime juice. another included pink port, lemon, ice and tonic water.

Our evening activity was a visit to a port wine cellar. We watched a group of men stomping grapes the old fashion way. They continue to stomp the grapes because attempts at mechanical methods tended to crush the grape seeds and this altered the taste of the wine. People from the community participate in the annual crushing process every year, primarily for extra money and the party. We had a delicious dinner in the wine cellar surrounded by huge barrels of aging wine. We bought one bottle of wine at the cellar but 2 bottles of olive oil. We checked and found that we can buy white, pink, ruby and tawny port in Alberta so we figured we’d avoid the overweight luggage charges and stock up in Edmonton.