In celebration of Pure Portugal turning 14 years old we asked the Pure Portugal team to share how they first came into contact with Pure Portugal. You can also click here to find out more about the team!
Clare Monson – I first heard of Pure Portugal many moons ago, when moving to Portugal was still a daydream and way back in the hazy days when ‘forums’ were used more than Facebook. I met Sophie
through a forum which was frequented by people who were living off grid or dreaming of living off grid (like me). We bonded instantly over our mutual love of horses, permaculture, and our passion for home-ed and alternative living and have never stopped talking since (literally!) When we first came over to Portugal look for property some years later we stayed with Sophie and found the Quinta she lived in back then utterly inspiring, it was all we ever dreamed of having! I later was one of the members of the question time panel for Pure Portugal Live in 2016 which I loved! I have always been so passionate about the message that Pure Portugal carries, it was an honour to be a part of it! I remember always seeing Pure Portugal as an inspiring, knowledgeable place to look, the website was somewhere I could search for hours at a time for our dream land, and the blogs and updates I always looked forward to as a constant source of encouragement and ideas… Pure Portugal was my proof that we really could make our dreams come true!
Joana Soares – I found Pure Portugal through my father who I worked with at the time, he advertised properties with Pure Portugal. I think Sophie and Andy originally worked with my father 10 years ago, so I have known them since almost the very beginning I guess. I continued following Pure Portugal, mainly through the blog about Quinta da Abelhas where Sophie and Andy used to live, they, along with volunteers who were staying with them would update it with the things they had been doing on the farm and recipes for things they had made – I found it really inspiring!
Shahnaz Radjy – Pure Portugal inspired me as myself and my husband (Francois) were looking for properties in Spain and Portugal (when we were still debating between the two). Between wrapping up our jobs & lives in NYC and prepping our world tour, Pure Portugal kept us excited about our end goal throughout the ups and downs. We joked about how great it would be to work with the organisation… 2 years later, quite a few of our wishes have come true!
Francois Cramer – Pure Portugal was my first contact with Portugal, even before we decided to settle here. We were thinking about Spain or Portugal and I found Pure Portugal’s website, it was so well designed, easy to use, great research option, beautiful pictures that I’ve started visiting the website on a daily base… from work. It was my last 3 months, they had just fired my whole department (seriously – long story) and I was literally alone on my floor, wrapping up. Wrapping up meant selling the furniture, tools and equipment online and make a full inventory of the stock. It had never been made and remember, I’m a watchmaker. I counted hundreds of references of parts, some references counting hundreds of parts, tiny parts, like you need a loupe to see them. It was quite depressing : visiting Pure Portugal’s website and day dreaming, sending lists of properties to Shahnaz as inspiration and what if’s was maybe not a life saver but definitely helping me a lot to go through the day.
Deborah Richmond – heard about Pure Portugal so many times before coming to Portugal, I thought who the hell is this Pure Portugal everyone is going on about?!!?! Then I went on their Facebook page (Living The Good Life) and never had seen such an active group in my life. On my first day of being in Portugal after buying our land I met Sophie and her cute little pigs. The rest is history!
