Luso, Bucaco and the Middle of Nowhere

The lure of thermal hot springs took us away from the Portugal coastline to the small interior town of Luso. I should clarify, the lure of thermal hot springs brought me to Luso. I think it was the nearby Bucaco forest that appealed to Mark. Fortunately, I like forests too because the hot spring thermal baths were closed.
But Luso offered a good dose of tranquility even without the warm water to soak in. Luso is nestled into the hillside just below the Bucaco forest where a group of monks set up camp a few hundred years back.
The monks had money. They built this sucker which is now a snooty 4 star hotel. Snooty because when we poked our heads into the lobby we were immediately "greeted" by a hostess who informed us the hotel was private property and we were not even allowed to enter the lobby unless we were guests.
Thankfully the grounds of the Bucaco forest are not owned by the hotel but the government. So we roamed freely and happily through the sometimes manicured, sometimes thick woods, that really would be more aptly called a park than a forest. And while the thermal baths were closed up... the water still flowed freely.
The springs are funneled into this watering hole in downtown Luso. You can see Mark filling up one of our water bottles. Locals were constantly gathered around filling up several gallons full of water and carting them off.
We headed for Lisbon after Luso but turned off the main road about halfway there.
Mark saw a sign for caves and had a hunch that they would be cool. So we went off in search of them.
After a drive of about 30 minutes we arrived to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. At which point the paved road to nowhere turned to a gravel, pot-hole filled road.... which of course Mark took as a good sign.
His hunch paid off.



We even enjoyed our own private tour of the underground caves! I guess there aren't a lot of tourists on the road to the middle of nowhere. And even if they were they'd probably turn back when the pavement ended.