Central Azores

09/08/08 Now here we are on the first plane that will take us to Lisbon where we'll have a stopover because there are no direct flights to the islands. From Lisbon we take the second plane to the island of Faial. We arrive landing on a runway that runs alongside the ocean! What a scare!!! We get off and, to my great joy, we're finally on the ground. First thing we set the clocks, in fact here there's a time difference of a good two hours. After that we notice the very high level of humidity in the air!!! How muggy it is... help, where have we ended up??? But wasn't it supposed to be cold in the Azores??? We're in Horta, where these very days there's the sea festival, we take the opportunity to eat at the festival, there are loads of people around, and we'll later discover that many come for this festival even from the nearby island of Pico.

We take a walk along the main street and return to our lodgings. I forgot to tell you that we're a group of 19 people including our legendary coordinator who found the accommodation from Italy. We're spread across 3 different accommodations since we're a large group and we'll immediately discover that the Azores are not exactly a tourist destination. "The first island that one encounters looking at the sea is a expanse of green and in the middle fruits shine like gems, and sometimes strange birds with purple feathers blend in with them. The coasts are rugged, of black rock inhabited by sea hawks that cry when twilight falls and that flutter about restlessly.....

The rains are abundant and the sun merciless: and because of this climate and the black and rich earth the trees are very tall, the woods lush and the flowers abundant: large blue and pink flowers, fleshy like fruits, that I have never seen in any other place"

10/08/08 As agreed the evening before we all meet at the port to board the ferry to the island of Pico, where some of our mountaineers will attempt the ascent of the volcano. (1200 m of elevation gain). While 6 heroes climb Pico, given the fantastic day, we take the opportunity to hire taxis and do the whole tour of the island. Our taxi drivers, very good, take us to visit the wine museum and the famous vines cultivated sheltered by the walls of Pico, some coves of volcanic rock and then to our great surprise they take us to one of the typical festivals of the island: the festival of the Holy Spirit. Here we feel welcomed as if we were locals and they offer us everything and more: we taste the wine and their typical festival foods: rice and cinnamon, Holy Spirit soup, sweet bread.

We set off again from the festival to continue our tour, always with Pico immense and grandiose before us, we stop in a lagoon where we find other inhabitants of Pico who dedicate a song to us with the accordion and offer us wine again and more wine. By now we're practically all drunk. We then try the Azores figs, the grapes and the ginger flower. In the afternoon we go to visit the whaling museum, the effect is a bit strange, seeing the images of the whales massacred and how they were hunted but it undoubtedly represents the history of the Azores. We wait for our friends who came down from Pico, a bit destroyed but satisfied and we take the ferry back to Horta. The crossing is short, about half an hour, we stop to eat at the famous Peter's café (the sailors' bar) and we end the evening with the sea festival and the fireworks.

As a first Azorean day I'd say it wasn't bad at all, in fact truly intense! What will the next days have in store for us???

11/08/08 Today another day full of emotions awaits us, the highlight of the day is the whale hunt or rather what's better defined as "whales watching". So we head towards the port where after a bit of introductory information about whales, sperm whales and family we find ourselves strapped in with life jackets on a rubber dinghy. I've never been on a vessel of this type and the thing excites me a bit. After crossing the port here we are projected into the middle of the ocean at full speed. We bounce around a bit and get a few splashes, the day is fantastic. We sail for quite a while waiting for news to come in about where the whales are passing.

Finally we reach the fateful reported point and turn off the engines of the dinghy, we wait and behold within an instant we see two whale tails diving together: what an emotion! After a little while we see little puffs here and there and small sperm whales swimming on the surface. We sail a bit more to try to see other whales but the thing isn't as simple as we thought. We chase the whales in the hope of seeing something more and behold another sighting in the distance, after which, having been on the boat for hours by now, we head towards shore at a speed even more surprising than on the way out. I think the image that will stay imprinted on us was the first one, or rather the two whale tails that dove together.

Now it's afternoon, the sighting was beautiful but a bit tiring and swaying so here we are sprawled in the sun in the beautiful bay of Porto Pim, the scenery is beautiful, the beach is black and the water isn't cold, there's nothing left for us to do but take a nice swim in the ocean.

12/08/08 Today the programme calls for the tour of the island of Faial. We hire a coach at our disposal. As soon as we set off though we realise that the weather isn't the best, the more we climb towards the mountainous areas the more we're immersed completely in fog and rain. Proper wild weather. Unfortunately this awful weather makes us miss some of the beauties of the island including the caldeira and the beautiful fields of blue hydrangeas. But we don't despair and finally the sun comes out which allows us to admire Capelinhos, a spectacular volcanic formation, rocky and sandy, formed following the last volcanic eruption that occurred in 1957. A truly particular scenery. Returning to Horta we take a walk around the town stopping at the port to observe the beautiful murals of the sailors, this is art too. Dinner based on fish, truly exquisite.

13/08/08 Early wake-up and boarding at the port at 8 o'clock for Sao Jorge. The ferry is a very swaying catamaran, better to stay outside in the open and get some air. At 10 I arrive at the island of Sao Jorge and more precisely at Velas. In the afternoon we do the tour of the island, we see the church of Santa Barbara and a factory producing the famous cheese, unfortunately here too as soon as we go inland a bit the weather worsens. But are we really that unlucky??? In reality it's not exactly like that, or rather they explain to us that these strange atmospheric phenomena are typical of the Azores, you have to be patient and wait for the clouds to pass. Indeed then the weather shines again so in the late evening we take a swim in the beautiful natural pools of Velas where the water is beautiful and you can see starfish and fish of every kind.

14/08/08 Today was the day for trekking, in the end we don't do any trekking but we have a picnic on a beach of black stones and we go along a path in the middle of a forest rich in vegetation. The island of Sao Jorge is really beautiful, from the natural point of view, it's very green, full of flowers and pastures full of cows and horses. We end the day with a swim in the beautiful pools of Velas. In the evening we have dinner and spend the evening outside in one of the little bars of Velas, then taking a walk along the main street

15/08/08 Today is Ferragosto and a big change of island awaits us. In the afternoon we have the flight to Terceira and the morning is free. In the end, since the place isn't very big, we all find ourselves spending the morning together, some wandering around the small and characteristic village and some at the beach taking the last swim in Sao Jorge. At two we leave for the airport where we board a small plane. The crossing lasts practically 20 minutes, so having arrived in Terceira in the early afternoon we move to our really beautiful bed & breakfast "Casa José" in Angra do Heroismo. As soon as we arrive, Mrs. Fatima warns us that since today is Ferragosto it's a day of great celebration and the famous "Tourada a corda" that we had heard about could not be missing. So in a hurry we head towards the street of the Tourada.

Basically it's the re-enactment of the driving out of the Spaniards from the island, chased away by setting the bulls free through the streets of the village. For the Azoreans of Terceira it isn't a folkloristic show but a true patriotic event. In fact, watching the tourada there were no tourists but only locals. We therefore split up to be hosted in the houses on the balconies and barricaded terraces to witness the event. The tourada is very characteristic and thrilling, the bull is released and attacks the various stations, the dummies and the people who challenge it with an umbrella. At the end of the Tourada it's all one big party, people eat and drink beer.

16/08/08 Angra do Heroismo, visit to the UNESCO heritage city. We tour the whole city on foot, the beautiful streets with houses with all colored windows, the cathedral, the town hall, various churches (among which the one that impresses us most is the Iglesia della Divina Misericordia, called by us "periwinkle church" for its beautiful violet color which, besides having a very particular charm, is also a great reference point for meeting up and reaching the center of the city). We then visit the botanical park, very beautiful, without forgetting the ascent to Monte du Brazil with fortress and a spectacular panoramic view over Angra. The hot afternoon makes itself felt so we can't wait to dive into the water. The beaches have nothing to do with the beautiful natural pools of Velas, there's a lot of crowding and a big mess but the desire to be in the water overcomes everything.

17/08/08 Today instead the tour of the whole island of Terceira and its natural beauties awaits us. We rent 2 cars and a minibus and set off to discover the island. The first stop is "Biscoitos" and, for once, the not exactly great weather is almost perfect for the scenery before us: there are volcanic cliffs sheer over the ocean covered with succulents with red shades and the sea practically stormy has a stunning charm. Waves of every kind crash on the rocks with incredible force. We stand there in silence admiring this spectacle of nature that leaves the sensation of an enormous sense of freedom. The gigantic waves crash on the black rocks creating very white and blue sprays… a true spectacle so we lose ourselves in a thousand photographs to capture the right moment. These are the Azores… and some of our group have defined them as something between Ireland and the Canaries.

But the day doesn't end here, we go inland and dressed with helmets like true speleologists we venture in to explore underground caves dug by the advance of lava during an eruption. We remain fascinated by the walk through the tunnels but what awaits us afterward, in my opinion, was one of the most beautiful and thrilling things seen on this vacation. We go to Alvar do Carvao: a true spectacle of nature, an empty volcano. We descend through stairs into the cavity of the volcano. As we descend, looking up we see the hole from which the light filters becoming smaller and smaller. The light filters through the conical opening and one glimpses the vegetation outside and the colors of the light on the rock have a beautiful effect.

We descend more and more until the base of the volcano, on the descent there's also background music that increases the atmosphere of admiration for this spectacle of nature. To conclude our tour linked to volcanoes we also see the sulfur fumaroles. Indeed this is truly a real Azores day! We continue our tour of the island towards Praia della Vittoria but with a very precise goal: "imperios hunt". A race starts among the various cars over who photographs the most imperios, the typical little all-colored chapels dedicated to the Holy Spirit and managed by brotherhoods particularly widespread on the island of Terceira.

18/08/08 Today is the last island day, so a free day. We wander a bit around the city for the classic end-of-vacation shopping, but in reality there's really nothing to buy. I don't know if I've already told you but the Azores (fortunately) aren't touristy places, there are very few hotels and bed & breakfasts, the restaurants are few because in reality they're only for locals and most of the shops are closed both on Saturday and Sunday. Even tourists around are really few, we met just another group of Italians from Avventure del Mondo and a few Canadians returning to visit relatives. The typical things we ate on this trip, besides all types of very well cooked fish, the very good wine from Pico and the cheese from Sao Jorge.

The meat is good but most of the time they get the cooking wrong, however I recommend a typical meat dish called "Alcatra" and it's a kind of very good braised meat. They say pineapples are the typical fruit of the island but we only ate it once and besides they're also quite expensive. After this little culinary aside, I was saying that, since there are only hardware and haberdashery shops, after buying the classic t-shirt with "Azzorre" written on it we rushed to the beach to enjoy the last hours of relaxation by the ocean and take the last swims. We conclude the day with a walk in the moonlight by the harbor.

19/08/08 We're going home!!! Departure from Terceira to arrive in Lisbon and then leaving again towards Milan. In conclusion this vacation satisfied me: beautiful the ocean, beautiful the landscapes, very good our ANM coordinator but above all beautiful the group with which I shared these splendid vacation days.