Activities
This area is great for walking (particularly in the mountains), fishing for the famous and delicious river Coura trout, surfing off the Atlantic beaches of the Costa Verde or Green Coast, golf, horse-riding, mountain biking or just relaxing on the beach or in the garden. If you fancy cooling off in fresh mountain water the nearby Arga range has many sheltered rock-pools.
Culture
Covas is part of the Alto Minho region of Portugal. This region is renowned as one of the most traditonal in the country. Old folk traditions are vigorously maintained and such skills are handed down the generations. This is particularly noticable in the number and diversity of folkcloric dance and music troupes active in the area - each small town or village troupe hand producing its own distinctive and colourful costumes and specialising in variations of ancient dance and song. During the summer months - the period of the popular saints - each village has its own festival in honour of the local patron saint. Celebrations range from small religious services to full blown three to four day festivals with religious processions (including beating the bounds), “sardinhadas” or sardine barbeques, bands playing popular music, firework displays and church services. These tend to be boisterous and colourful events (especially when the chapels and village lanes are strewn with flowers and banners) which are well worth taking part in and evoke the long lost atmosphere of “Merrye England”. In the parish of Covas - a decentralized village which is better described as a collection of tiny population centres (as well as the parish church there are 10 chapels distributed throughout Covas) - such annual festas occur on several weekends as the various “lugares” or hamlets (32 in all) strife to maintain their unique traditions and give thanks to their specific patrons. Real - the hamlet in which Casa Anno 1869 is situated - has its own festa which falls on the weekend of on or near the 17/18 th of July. Other festas in the village of Covas include those in the hamlets of Lêdo and Serra. Although still surviving, funding for these festas comes from the residents of the individual hamlets so their future is not guaranteed. Other villages and towns in the minho area have their own popular saints festas and it is rare in the summer months not to have the opportunity to take part in one or to witness one by chance as you travel around.
