Pretty Woman

From day one as we walk down to the beach there has always been the same woman who sits on the stone wall, smoking her cigarette and barks something at us, which I clearly can't understand.  I even took a picture of her the second week as I found her Portuguese commentary to be entertaining and her to be very odd.  If I leave at 8:00 in the morning she is there or if I leave at 4:00, she is there.  She is always there!  And regardless if we are cruising by on the sidewalk next to her, or in the middle street sidewalk, she will try to talk to us.  My response is always, "Bom Dia or Boa Tarde" - good morning or good afternoon.

Weeks later I was talking to my BFF, Bob our security guard, and asked if he knew why that woman was always there.  Well...he came to inform me that she is a prostitute!  Has been working that corner for a long time.  She gets her men there and then takes them back down the alley into the park.  Sick, sick and sick.

So, of course me being me...I was determined to get a picture of her up close.  The next week I brought my camera out with me and was acting like I was taking pictures of the buildings and she looked down and said "No, no".  I then said, "Ohhh...I'm taking pictures of the buildings...not you."  She couldn't understand me, but don't think she likes me anymore.

Prostitution is in fact legal in Portugal.  It is illegal for any third party to profit from prostitution, but straight up prostitution is legit.  According to the internet, in the mid 2000s there was estimated to be 28,000 prostitutes in Portugal of whom at least 50% were foreigners.