30 - So long Azores! We’ll miss you!

As I type, we are sailing along the coast of beautiful Sao Miquel.  This will be our last Azorean island (this trip anyway).  I know I’m a broken record, but these islands are all so amazing and so varied yet so similar in their beauty and wonderful people.

We had an amazing sail from Terceira to Sao Miguel.  We left about noon and sailed through the almost full moon night to arrive just as the sun was rising and the moon setting.  We were within sight of land in time to watch the moon rising up out of the island.  An amazing sight to see this huge orange ball coming out of the volcanic looking island!  My pictures don’t do it any justice at all but trust me, it was gorgeous.

Our marina was located in Ponta Delgado -the capital city- so we spent the first few days exploring the city.  It’s a wonderful combination of old and new.  To quote some fellow sailors who’d visited before us, the city is “sophisticated”.  They have great shops and restaurants that take over the streets with tables after 7pm when all but the main roads are cut off from traffic.   We even happened upon a concert that was being held outside the library building.  While it was in Portuguese, the singers were amazing and we recognized a couple of the songs.

 In addition to checking out the city, we decided to walk about 3 miles each way (didn’t sound that bad when we took off) to a pineapple plantation.  It was more of a garden with greenhouses but it was very pretty and interesting.  We knew we were getting close when the sidewalk decorations changed from nautical (near the marina) and the various other designs throughout town to pineapples.  The place had been an orange plantation until a disease wiped out all of the orange trees on the island around the turn of the century (from what we could remember).  They also served up the best Pina Colada that I’ve ever had.  Chunks of pineapple!!  As we were leaving, we struck up a conversation with Nelson, the store clerk. Upon telling him that we were headed to mainland Portugal, he took the time to write down for us a list of some of his favorite places to visit.  He prefaced his list making with, "do you like to eat?"  - who us???!!!!

The next day, we stayed closer to home and walked around the gardens that surround the office of the President of the Azores (1970’s to present).  They were as you would expect, gorgeous!  From there we had to visit the local brewery.  They brew Especial beer.  It’s a nice light beer.

Next, we rented a car for a couple of days so we could explore the island.  The first day we decided to see the western most point of the island.  Just driving around was spectacular.  Flowers everywhere and the countryside was beautiful.   Our first stop was at the Gorreana tea plantation and factory.  We were given a tour of the factory which wasn’t in operation since we were there on a Sunday (although she said they do tours even when they are working).  The equipment and processes don’t seem to have changed much throughout the years but she did point out some of the new equipment (which is used alongside the old when they have large batches to process).  It’s still very much manual labor intensive.  The ladies still sit at the tables in the morning and separate the different leaves that go into each batch of tea (only the first 3 leaves from the plant – which are hand-picked- are used and each one is used differently).  In the afternoon, these same ladies get the dried tea ready for packaging. 

We then decided to look for lunch and ended up in Ribera Grande and headed for Santa Barbara Beach (Praia de Santa Barbara).  This is the surfing beach for the entire island (probably the entire Azores as we never saw surfing anywhere else) and they have a great restaurant right on the beach where we had steak and grilled tuna sandwiches (the Azores started concentrating on tuna fishing once the whaling industry died and they are very proud of their local beef).  The sandwiches were served on Bolos (a local bread - slightly sweet and looks like an English muffin- that we immediately fell in love with).

Sated from lunch, we drove along the coast to go see the twin lakes.  Pedro’s amazing navigation skills, took us up the back roads (seriously back roads) so that our first view of the lakes was on the top rim.  We then followed the lakes around until we came into the little town that borders them.  It's hard to see in this picture, but the lakes are famous because the larger lake, Lagoa Azul (as the name would translate) is blue and Lagoa Verde (again as the name would translate) is green.  Legend has it that Lagoa Azul was filled from the tears of a poor blue-eyed shepherd boy and Lagoa Verde was likewise filled from the tears of a green-eyed Princess when the two lovers were separated and denied permission to marry.  The engineer (AKA Captain Fun Sucker) agrees with another theory that states the depth and vegetation on the bottom of each lake gives them their perspective colors.   Whatever!!!

We continued along the coast and further west to Ponta da Ferraria.  This is reported to be an area where the hot springs from the volcano flow into the ocean reportedly warming up the ocean.  We found the spot and MaryAnn stuck a toe in the water but apparently, we had arrived at full high tide (too much cold ocean water and not enough hot spring water) because it was way too cold for our taste.

We then continued on westward to catch the sunset at a famous overlook.  While the view was breathtaking, the clouds prevented much of a sunset view.  Still great scenery and we found a nice little restaurant for dinner and a couple of beers.

The next morning, we left the boat at 5:30 am for the 45-minute drive to the eastern shore of the island to try to catch the sunrise.  Ponta du Arnel is an old but still active lighthouse.  To get to the lighthouse, the sign warned that the road had a 35% grade.  That didn’t sound too bad until we actually started down the road.  Yikes!  We make it down with no issues but then had to turn around on the incline.  Still not sure to this day how the car didn’t just flip over but it didn’t (thankfully the wind was blocked).  After all of this, there still wasn’t much of a sunrise but again the views were spectacular.  Convinced, one or both of us were going to have to walk back up, the little car surprised us and putted her way up without a single complaint (it later started sprinkling and we’re sure we would never have made it out if the road had been wet).

Next, we headed to the town of Furnas.  This is heart of the volcano area of the island and where the Bolos (the bread we loved) were invented.  We found a great little restaurant serving breakfast sandwiches on Bolos.  Yummy!

 We then found the hot springs!!!!  We went into the park where they’ve built various pools into and out of which the hot springs flow.  The pools are surrounded by gorgeous gardens and they have a changing room and hot shower to rinse off afterward.  MaryAnn was in complete heaven.  The water is a constant 39℃ (about 99℉).  The combination of cloudy morning, spitting rain and warm water convinced us to spend about 3 hours in the various pools until the rain stopped and the crowds showed up (plus we were getting pretty shriveled).

 In addition to the hot springs, Furnas is also famous for the Codizo das Furnas.  These are a local tradition where they fill pots with food and lower them into the ground so that they food is completely cooked using the volcano’s heat.  One can either bring their own food and pay someone to watch it for you – takes about 6 hours – or find a restaurant.  We chose the latter. Lunch was a variety of meats, sausages and vegetables.  All were delicious – yes, had a somewhat smoky flavor.  We took the long way back home again enjoying the scenery.

Finally, we’d explored both the town and the countryside, hit up the great farmers market and the local grocery store for provisions and officially cleared out of the county.  We are ready for our next adventure.  We’re heading to mainland Portugal and the town of Cascais (coastal town near Lisbon).  We’ll fill you in when we get there.

Until next post!

29 - We love the Azores!!!!!!

We simply cannot say enough nice things about the Azores and the Azorean people!  All of the islands that we’ve seen (4 out of 9 so far) are just amazing and each has its own personality.  

We left Flores for a 24-hour sail over to Faial and landed in the “big” city of Horta.  The marina is quite large and filled with boats from literally all over the world.  We even met up with one French boat that we’d docked next to in Guadalupe and another boat that we’d met in Bermuda.  There are at least 200 boats many flying flags from various countries.  It was really cool. We cleared into customs (Flores doesn’t have a customs office) and we were officially in Portugal!

Along with Equus, we found anchorage spots near Mindy and Reinhart on Rockhopper and went ashore for a welcoming drink at Peter’s Café Sport Bar!  This is a well-known bar among sailors who traverse the Atlantic (we were told that Horta is the 3^rd busiest port for pleasure boats and we believe it).  It was great to all be back to together again and we started making plans for our stay.

First activity on the list was getting a spot on the wall to paint our boat names.  Horta has even more boat names painted on the wall than Lajes in Flores so finding a spot was the hardest part.  We picked out a couple of spots where the old boat names had been so worn that they were no longer legible but we decided to use a newly painted wall near the marina office that gave us a great blank slate.  We were also just around the corner from Rockhopper and next to a fellow boat we’d met in Bermuda.  Alison, Dan and Pedro once again did an amazing job while MaryAnn supervised and kept the beer cold.

With the task done, we were free to visit the rest of the island.  Everyone else had bikes, so MaryAnn rented one (Pedro had to stay behind for work) and off we went.  We took the road that covered the southern coast and had a great bike ride through a couple little towns and stopped at various swimming sites (they have mostly rocky coasts so they make swimming pools with concrete platforms and ladders to get in and out of the ocean.  The water was way too cold so we just enjoyed it from the shore.  It’s some breathtaking scenery.

The next day, we all decided to get a few boat chores done.  MaryAnn went up the mast to retrieve our halyard (remember we told you that it came undone during our passage from Bermuda). We also decided to do some repair on our lazy jack lines (these are the lines that help keep the main from falling all over the boat when it’s down) and put a coat of wax on the mast.

Dan and Alison were busy repairing ripped sails from their and a couple of other boats.  MaryAnn got a great picture of them working too.

With boat chores checked off (well, there’s always something that needs to be done but we’d gotten the urgent ones taken care of), we started planning what to do next.  Friends had spoken very highly of a guided tour that they took of Pico (another of the islands with huge volcano (thankfully dormant for many years), so we decided to try it ourselves.  We took the ferry over since we were c comfortably settled in Horta and Pico doesn’t have an easily accessible marina.  

Our tour guide was a biologist named Pedro so we knew we were in the right hands.  He showed us all around the island starting with the vineyards that are grown in the volcanic “soil”.  These vines have grown for years in lava rocks with some bits of soil brought in on top.  It’s impossible to imagine that they can grow like that but they do and they make some great wine.  They don’t have any wineries that are open to the public -they supposedly open during the wine crush but that’s not for another few months so we went to an adorable bar that specializes in Pico wines.  Delicioso!

We also toured a whaling museum (it was interesting but I hated the idea of killing all of those whales), rode all around looking at the native and endemic plants (we didn’t know what this meant but it means plants that only grow in the Azores and nowhere else in the world) and just enjoying the scenery.  It’s another gorgeous island that was surprisingly quite different from the other two that we’d visited.  MaryAnn even found a donkey to love on since Pedro's too mean to let her have a dog.  He just thought it was funny that she was scratching someone else's ass!

Next, we decided to see more of the island of Faial so we rented a scooter for the day.  It was a gorgeous day and we were able to see most of the island.  We loved the swimming areas, the countryside and the architecture but our favorite part was the southernmost point of the island which was home to a volcanic eruption in 1957.  It’s amazing to see this area.  You are riding along on these beautiful flower covered streets and looking at churches that are 300 years old and all of the sudden you come upon this black sand area resembling a vast desert which happens to back up to the ocean.  It’s impossible to describe but it was just so vast and very interesting.

We decided that we’d explored Faial and partied with everyone we knew and few new friends so it was time to move on.  We (and Equus) decided to skip Sao Jorge (no other reason other than we were afraid we were running out of time and everyone told us that Angra do Heroisimo on Terceira was a not to be missed city so we headed in that direction with the sunrise.  Alison got some great pictures of us.

  

In about 14 hours, we were both dropping anchor in the area just outside of town and exploring the prettiest city we’d seen so far.  The city is right on the water and full of gorgeous very old but very well-maintained architecture.  As with all of the Azores, there are flowers everywhere and the people are so friendly and helpful.  

   

We met a couple from California (he was born in the Azores) who gave us some great information on where to eat and what we should see.  They even introduced us to the pigeons who are very unafraid of people. Yes, I know we’re not supposed to feed them but we just picked up some bread that was already on the ground! 

We spent two days in “Angra” before the winds changed direction and made the anchorage very uncomfortable.  The marina in "Angra" had no slips available for us so we decided to head over the city of Praia da Victoria.  Praia is the Portuguese word for beach and they have two large ones right on the edge of town.  It was very different from “Angra” but gorgeous in its own way.   It's amazing that a step or two out of town and you are in very rural areas.  MaryAnn was excited to find another donkey to love too!

We toured the city and then decided to rent a car to see the rest of the island (Alison wanted scooters but we couldn’t find any to rent).  Again, I can’t adequately describe how different each of these islands are.  As with the other islands, Terceira also has a volcano but this one allows you to go down into it.  It was absolutely amazing.  They have one site where you could tour the lava tubes that are estimated to be about 2000 years old.  Then another that allows you to go down for what seemed like a ¼ mile.  It was so beautiful.  The walls are, of course, covered with lava but you can clearly see the two types.  There are sections with the black lava like you see in BBQ grills and other sections that look like gorgeous marble.  We were told that the former was from an eruption 2000 years ago and the later 1000 year ago.  They are able to determine this by the age of the stalactites!  

  

Back in “Praia” we were able to secure a spot in the marina and spend a lot of time with both our buddy boats and several other boats that we’d met along the way. We had a gathering of several boats who are members of the Ocean Cruising Club.  We told you about the OCC flag in the last post.  We (along with Equus and another boat) were all presented with our full membership burgee – the one without the amateur “A”!!! 

Rockhopper arrived just in time to accompany us to the local “bull fight”.  We were all very apprehensive about going as none of us wanted to see the animals harmed but we were told that this is not the traditional fighting like in Spain and is more like the running of the bulls.  It turned out to be a delightful time and while I don’t think the bull enjoyed himself, none of them were harmed that we saw and we had a great time socializing with the locals and eating something from all of the various food vendors.

At the bull fight, we met up with the gentleman who runs the local Mercado (farmer’s market).  We’d stopped in his store earlier where he gave us samples of the best cantaloupe we’d ever eaten, amazing cheese from Sao Jorge and told us to then try the cheese with a banana (seriously it was delicious).   When we saw him again that night at the bull fight, we waved him over to say hello. He ended up hanging around with us (he spoke enough English that we could understand about ½ of what he said).  We bought each other beer, wine and donuts (seriously good donuts) and he showed us his favorite food vendors.  We had walked the 3km to the bullfight so he offered us a ride back.  Instead of taking us directly to the marina, he stopped at his store (this was close to midnight at this point) where he opened up some wine and proceeded to feed us more fruit and cheese.  Talk about Portuguese hospitality.

On our last evening in Terceira, we again got together with several other boats in our marina.  This time, Pedro and Alison decided to have a Gumbo cook-off (alcohol may have been involved).  We invited a couple (Joana and Adriaan) on a boat across from us in the marina who now live in Sao Jorge but are originally from The Netherlands.  We also invited Umberto (we finally got his name), the gentleman from the Mercado who brought us some great wine and more of that amazing cantaloupe.  While no one would admit to liking one of the gumbo’s better than the other, we all had a great time.   Joana is also an artist and presented both of the gumbo chefs with a hand painted silk pillow cover that she makes.  The painting is of the hydrangea that have become the national flower in the Azores.  Such a thoughtful and gorgeous gift from an amazing artist.

As I type this, we have said a tearful good-bye (for a few months only) to Equus and Rockhopper as they are heading to Northern Europe and we've decided that we wanted to stay south.  We left our other OCC boats as Sophia is heading back to England and invited us to visit,  we're hoping to meet up with Expedition in Portugal and Happy has bought a house in Faial so we'll have another friend to visit when we come back to the Azores.  We hugged and kissed Umberto as well and Joana and Adriaan and bid a very fond farewell to Terceira.  We've decided to head over Sao Miquel (our last Azorean island and their capital) before heading over to the mainland of Europe.

Until next post!