Olhão

This tiny port town is located on the Ria Formosa and has a historical reputation for feisty local fisherman who earned an extra income from the smuggling trade. While Napoleonic wars were being waged, they traded with the British despite the French blockade. The town was built on their profits.

When the French left Portugal in 1808, the feisty fisherman made the perilous journey by sea to Brazil, where Dom Joao was in exile, to report the news. He rewarded them with a charter for their hometown.