meths in Portugal and Spain

[Nigel Laverick]

How easy is it to buy meths in Spain and Portugal ? I have been reading a blog site which says that it is difficult. Has anyone had experience of this ? What sort of stoves have you used and was it easy to get fuel ?
Thanks Nigel Laverick

[hufty]

No knowledge of Portugal, but I seem to remember having slight difficulties in Spain, mainly because we hadn't researched the Spanish vocab, which is "alcohol metilico" according to http://fuel.papo-art.com/, or "alcohol desnaturalazido". Then all you need is an out-of-town DIY shed or an in-town hardware shop (ferreteria).

Much as I love my Trangia, it can be a pain to find meths sometimes, even in the UK, so I now use the trangia of petrol stoves, the Optimus Svea, for cycle touring. Other stoves boil stuff quicker and can burn helicopter fuel or diesel, but the Svea is robust and simple, and it's worth the slight weight penalty for the reliability imho.

[Nigel Laverick]

Thanks for the info - I've been doing some research and hope I'll be able to take my trangia.

[epa611]

From the Trangia website - a list of what Trangia's can burn in local language:

http://trangia.se/core/files/names_of_fuel_130128.pdf