Falling for the Azores

We found several commonalities between the Azores and South Carolina… they have honeysuckle and hydrangeas, as well as quickly changing weather. They also have local aphorisms telling people they “experience all four seasons each day” and that “if you don’t like the weather just wait an hour and it’ll change”. We say the same things back home, but I may never repeat them now because it seems that we may not have the right to them that I thought we had. We arrived in Praia da Vitoria and dressed for the forecasted weather- only to want to strip to our skivvies later in the day. The following day, in Ponta Delgado, we froze our tails off as we stood on a mountain top and viewed how the weather was vastly different in places around the island.

We missed out on Horta due to the storm but liked what we did get to see in the Azores. We spent our first day wandering on foot around the village of Praia da Vitoria. There was an option for a shuttle or renting a car, but I am glad we did neither of those, choosing instead to walk into town. The walk in was not exciting, but on the way back we walked along the beach of dark volcanic sand and bright blue water.

The village of Praia da Vitoria is like stepping back in time with narrow, patterned cobblestone streets and wrought iron fences. We wandered around a small park, grabbed a snack, and did a little shopping at a couple of stores that obviously cater to cruisers. Rob gave us a bit of a scare by missing a step and landing on his left knee… since he is already nursing an arthritic right knee, this was more than a bit worrisome. We were a mile and a half from the boat- and since we had refused the expensive shuttle bus, didn’t even know where it was picking up from for the return. Eli has also been pretty clumsy on this trip- he has fallen on both islands we visited, as well as on the boat!

The kids and I decided to climb the switch back stairs up the steep side of a large hill to a monument overlooking town. Rob had said he would wait at the bottom and I thought this would give him a little time to rest his knee(s) but, lo and behold, I turn around and the FOMO had gotten the better of him and he had followed us up! In the interest of fairness, however, I did not research appropriately and was in heeled booties, friends… it was insanely stupid and I’m lucky I didn’t fall and break something, but the view was spectacular.

Our second day in the Azores was spent in Ponta Delgada with Sergio of Green Azores Jeep Tours. He drove us all over the island and was a wealth of knowledge about the plants, history, and topography. I HIGHLY recommend doing this tour if you visit- it may be the only thing that we do that we ALL enjoyed! Sergio took us on the route that the rally cars drive around the caldera, so if you are interested, you can see parts of the route here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDN_EOvdmAs

One of the things I love to do in places we visit is go to a grocery store. Seeing, and sometimes, trying out, snack foods that seem so unusual to us is so much fun. From ketchup or prawn flavored potato chips in the UK to BBQ flavored Doritos here, there seems like there is always something strange! We have found things we adore through our travels- I will always prefer Orangina over any other soda and bacon flavored Bugles are BY FAR the best. Eli says he craves Whotsits every single day and Rob still talks about bizcochitos. Sergio was happy to help satisfy our curiosity and our junk food addiction and took us to the supermarket in his village to load us up with all the snack foods that he felt were “must tries” for the Azores. He loaded our arms with levedos, queijadas, and mulata cookies, as well as Azorean tea bags.

The sea today was gorgeous, and the weather was warm enough that many people were in the pools for our sea day. I was doing laundry and lounging for most of the day. I must be getting soft on my vacation because two days in port tired me out!

Tomorrow we will get to the Canary Islands and will see Santa Cruz de la Palma, Tenerife, and Las Palmas over the next three days. I am hoping we will be able to understand the language a little easier, as the Canaries are part of Spain. Many, maybe even most, Azoreans speak some English but I have very little ability to decipher written Portuguese and I am hoping that part will be slightly easier in a Spanish speaking country. I’ll keep you posted!