We're back! And the 2005 trip is bigger (12 family
members in total from both the Olson and Borges sides) and,
being July, hotter than last time. I thought we'd jot
down a few notes from each day to give potential visitors an
idea of what there is to do here. Of course, our
priority was to sit around and drink and eat as much as
possible, but that is usually on the 'must-do' list of most
people looking to have a relaxing vacation so I would say it
is most valid.
Before I get started, let me give you the cast of characters -
first there is Kris' dad Peter and stepmom Loretta, next is
Ana's folks John and Maria, then we've got Maria's sister and
her family - Joe, Conceicao, Nelson, Sonya and Sabrina and
finally there's myself (Kris), Ana and our little baby Magnus.
Yes, the vacation is taking on epic proportions.
Wednesday,
July 6 - Arrival
Arrived off the red eye from Toronto at 9:30 a.m. local time.
Luckily, Magnus didn't puke on this flight, that would have
been bad. On the flight from Saskatoon to Toronto the
young sprite dumped his guts as he was sitting on my lap and
we both ended up covered in foul smelling slime. I must
admit, I had it coming as I had laughed at Ana the night
before when the same young gentleman yakked all over her at
dad's place. Obviously he picked up a bug somewhere
along the way and was doing his disgusting best to rid himself
of the varmint.
We were met by a bunch of Ana's family which was very
welcoming. We picked up our rental cars and blasted off
for Tia Ana's place ("Tia" in Portuguese means "Aunt"), where
she graciously offered us rooms for the duration of our trip.
Fighting off the urge to sleep, we instead spent some time
visiting then went for a long walk to look at the pools in
Rosario, which is the village next to the one in which we were
staying, called Santa Cruz. The facility consists of two
man-made pools, a series of beautiful natural ocean pools,
including a strange blowhole called the "Mouth of the Whale"
that ejects a huge spray of mist every few minutes, and a
lovely little bar serving food and beer. It was a
pleasure to return to a country with reasonably priced
provisions. Huge mugs of local beer cost just over one
euro and you can pick up a bottle of wine for about the same.
Makes you wonder exactly how much money the Canadian
government squeezes out of the common folk when we're charged
five bucks for a bottle of cheap lager.
By 7 in the evening, I was a walking zombie barely able to
hold my eyes open. I had an hour nap that revitalized me
enough to handle Magnus, who decided he was going to wake up
at 9 pm and stay up for three and a half hours. Damn the
time change!
Natural pools in Rosario
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Beers by the pool |
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Thursday,
July 7 - Ponta Delgada
Woke up late feeling better than expected looking forward to
my first Azores breakfast. Though quite modern, there are aspects of
life here that are very old fashioned....and wonderful. Each morning
there is a fish man, a bread man, a vegetable/fruit man and a milk man who
pass by the house each honking their distinctive patterns on a horn (2
quick honks for bread) offering fresh products. Most are in motor
vehicles but some still come by donkey and cart. In addition to this
Tia Ana has two acres of bananas and other fruit trees in her backyard so
breakfasts are something special.
We decided to drive into the main
city, Ponta Delgada to have a look around. The
population of the entire island is approximately 150,000 with
fewer than half of these living in Ponta Delgada. There
has been a great deal of construction and development in the
past few years so there are half finished buildings and cranes
everywhere. Since we last visited three years ago, there
is now a big modern shopping mall, a brand new highway that
cuts across nearly half the island and plans for a new marina
and even a casino. The economy seems to be thriving
here, though with the growth will come the inevitable chain
stores and other stomach turning modern shite (please, please
no McDonalds, can't we at least have one city in the world
without a bloody McDonalds). All this development leads
me to one conclusion; if you are a person who likes to visit
lesser known, quaint places, then get here quick. In
five years, Ponta Delgada will again look completely different
than it does today.
Back to the days events. Since
we didn't get rolling until late morning we thought it would
be best to start the days activities out with a beer. We
found a nice cafe in the centre and had lunch and a couple
Especial beers, which is the local brew. The food and
alcohol is very cheap in the Azores. A basic lunch will
cost you about five to six euros and a bottle of beer is about
85 cents. Unbelievably, you can get full bottles of
decent, very drinkable wine in the grocery stores for one
euro. If you really wan to splash out, spend seven euros
for a fine wine. The port is also very cheap.
After the lunch we wandered around town for a few hours then
returned home to a great supper (Tia Ana is an amazing cook!)
and an early night to bed.
Ponta Delgada centre
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The marina |
Tia Ana and the jug of vino |
Enjoying a drink |
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Friday,
July 8 - West San Miguel
Our first big day trip was to the western half of San Miguel,
which is the largest of the nine islands of the Azores. There's more
description of the other islands on the main
Azores page.
We started out quite early and drove up to Sete Cidades which is a cute
little town on the banks of two lakes; one green and the other blue which
makes for some nice photographs. On the way there we stopped and say
a couple of high altitude lagoons. After taking a quick beer break
in the town we continued on to the village of Moisteros, which is located
on the extreme north-west coast of San Miguel. We had a drive
through town and found a couple of nice ocean front lots which, after
talking with one of the neighbours, were quite a bit more than we were
budgeting for. One of the goals we had for this trip was to find a
piece of land to purchase, as long as we could get something on the ocean
that wasn't too much money. I know, lofty goals, but always need to
set one's sights high!
After a yummy lunch of fish and wine
(this would end up being our standard meal 90% of the time) we
continued heading eastward across the north coast of the
island. There were many viewpoints over the gorgeous
coast along the way and we stopped at several of these to
enjoy the scenery and take photographs. One of the most
striking themes of the Azores are the abundance of hydrange
flowers along the roads.
Uncle Joe and Magnus
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Lagoa do Empanada
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Sete Cidades
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Flower
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One of the many viewpoints along the way
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Skinny road
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Don't go down too far |
Viewpoint |
Sete Cidades |
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Saturday,
July 9 - Wedding and Visit to Grandma's House
This was the big event of the trip - Ana's cousin Natarcia and
her fiancee Paul's wedding. Since we had the morning free we headed
back to Ponta Delgada to check out the market. The biggest farmers
market of the week is on Saturdays and we saw an incredible amount of
fresh vegetables, meat and fish, all extremely cheap. In addition to
many bags of vegetables, we picked up two kilos of fresh tuna for nine
euros. Yep, nine euros. I'm sure the same thing at home, if
you could even find it, would cost more than fifty bucks so we were quite
happy with that buy.
Natercia and Paul |
Baby wars |
The only day we didn't wear shorts |
Family |
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Sunday,
July 10 - Horse Ranch/Lost Glasses
I awoke at 6 am with an excruciating hangover - the kind of
headache that hurts so bad you are unable to sleep. But
it also hurts so much to move that you can't get out of bed to
have some aspirins. So instead you just lay there
groaning and feeling sorry for yourself. At one point I
was even considering having an AFD (Alcohol Free Day) - silly
me.
The rest of the gang opted for a
trip to cousin Rui's horse ranch. I instead stayed home
with Magnus and nursed my hangover with water, grease and,
eventually, a couple beers which was sufficient to get me back
on track. I'll have to get Ana to write about the horse
ranch, but she was sufficiently impressed to say that our
horse-lover friends Alana and Andrew would probably sell
everything they own and move there in a second.
Horse ranch |
Horse ranch |
Entrance to horse ranch |
Light lunch |
Searching for glasses |
Monday,
July 11 - Villa Franca/Ilha da Villa
We woke up to another beautiful day, seemed to be the norm for
this time of year. We decided to do a trip to Villa Franca and there
we walked up to the "church on the hill" which offered spectacular views
over the town and the ocean. Just off the coast of this pretty town
is a small island called "Ihla" which used to be used as a vineyard but is
now mainly a tourist trip. After having a nice grilled fish lunch we
took the trip out to the island and did some snorkeling, sun tanning and
walking. We also met a local fisherman, with whom we booked a
fishing trip which was to happen on Thursday (see below..).
Agua do Pau |
Hot scooter |
Grilled Boca egra |
Borges family |
Overlooking Villa Franca |
Pillar on the hill |
Inside Ihla near Villa Franca |
Ferry to Ihla |
Male side of island |
Drop-off |
Tuesday,
July 12 - Lagoa de Fogo and Furnas/Property Hunting
On this day and the following one Ana and I went out property
hunting. Since our last trip to the Azores we'd decided that we
wanted to buy some property on the island. Mainly because of the
beauty of the place but also because of Ana's heritage and the fact that
she has plenty of family there who we've gotten to know much better.
The idea was to look for some land that we could eventually develop
something on. We weren't really looking for a finished house,
because then we'd be looking at maintenance costs, taxes and other
administrative tasks we're not quite ready to take on yet. We met up
with a great real estate agent (Carlos Pimental- (011-351) 296-650-240 or
by email at
pontadelgada@era.pt)
who showed us a few properties which, while we liked one of them in
particular, weren't exactly what we were looking for. If you are
looking for property there get in touch with Carlos as he did a great job
for us, especially since he speaks perfect English. We did a lot of
driving around looking for Property for Sale signs and eventually found
what looked like a great spot in Feteiras. After speaking with and
meeting the owner we decided that was the place we wanted! Over the
next week we would navigate our way through property showings, the
Portuguese banking system, rules on property transfers, currency exchange
rates, building regulations, etc and though it seemed intimidating at
times, we eventually got through it. Thankfully Ana speaks
Portuguese otherwise it would have been extremely difficult. We also
had a lot of help from Ana's family who were familiar with the system.
We've put in a few pictures of the lot, though it's obviously hard to
really get an appreciation of the views from the photos. Trust me
that the view is spectacular and the town Feteiras is very old fashioned
and charming, though it does appear a little "beaten up" and ready for
development. Our goal was to find a place in a location just like
this - close to the city and airport (12 minute drive) and good long term
potential. We found out that the municipality is building a brand
new swimming pool complex on the ocean just below our land which will be
great to send the kiddies down to.
Dad and Loretta did a day trip to
Furnas, which is a cute but smelly town that spews hot earth
exhaust out of mudholes, blowholes and steamholes. We
decided to skip that trip because we had gone there two years
before and it took a year to get the smell out of my nose.
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Our lot |
Our lot
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Ribeira Grande |
Overlooking Feteiras |
Cliff behind our lot |
Shoreline eastward |
Shoreline westward |
Beach near Villa Franca |
In Furnas |
Furnas |
Wednesday,
July 13 - Property Hunting/Free Day
Property hunting day two, see above. When we weren't
property hunting we sat on the deck and drank beer!
This kind of day |
Beer overload |
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Thursday,
July 14 - Fishing Trip/Shopping
How can you have a complete vacation without a bit of fishing?
In my opinion, you cannot. Therefore we arranged for a half day
fishing expedition with Captain Antonio, the mustachioed and tattooed
ocean legend from Villa Franca.
We showed up at the docks at the
agreed upon time and to our surprise, Captain Antonio and his
mate were actually on time and ready for the trip. Our
first surprise was the size of the vessel, little more than a
rowboat with a 10 hp outboard engine clinging to the back.
Our second surprise was that conspicuous absence of any type
of fishing gear. No rods, no lures, no bait.
Hmmmmm. All we did notice was a wooden box and a large
red cranking wheel. It's always to keep your
expectations low when embarking on a trip such as this.
And we did. We were
instructed to get in the boat and grab a bailing can, which we
enthusiastically did for matters of survival. The boat had been up
on a dry rack and was therefore very dry. And a dry wooden boat on a
wet ocean is not normally a good combination. As soon as we sat down
the water started flowing in. At first, we thought it was designed
as one of those tourist glass bottom boats, where you can see the ocean
floor and fishing swimming around beneath you. In this case through,
we were actually looking at the ocean floor between the cracks in the
floorboards, same view as the glass bottom boats, but completely different
psychological effect (ie. panic). With white knuckles and dark
thoughts we plowed through the ocean towards the deep.
The wooden floor of the boat slowly
began bloating with water and the leaking subsided somewhat.
With sighs of relief we were able to relax long enough to note
that the gasoline tank for the outboard motor was propped up
on one side to allow the measly few ounces of gasoline to coax
its way into the fuel line. Tourist eyes flashed to the
nearly empty gas tank. Tourist eyes shifted slowly to
the gunnels of the boat, noticing the absence of oars.
Tourist eyes, wider now, shifted to the shoreline, noting we
were several miles out to sea. Tourist eyes, wide and
white, shifted and settled on Captain Antonio, who was
grinning like a maniac. How bad could it be, these guys
are professionals. That's when we also noticed that
Captain Antonio had his name tattooed onto his upper arm,
perhaps used for moments of forgetfulness? Hmmmmm.
We finally got to where we were
going, roughly the middle of the ocean with no noticeable
landmarks. We were then treated to a wonderful display
of traditional Azorean fishing practice. Our guides
pulled out a long line that had 70-80 simple j-hooks attached
with small bits of fish on each for bait. This line was
then attached to the large cranking wheel and lowered down
into the ocean, no less than 450 feet deep! After 20
minutes, the wheel was cranked up and we pulled in 30 fish,
ranging in size from a few ounces to a couple pounds. It
was exciting to see all those fish coming, especially since
there were probably 6 or 7 different species of fish.
The fish were hauled in, taken off the hooks and put in the
bucket, then the line was rebaited and lowered again.
Now this was the ultimate in lazy fishing; we didn't actually
have to do anything besides bail the boat once in a while.
The process was repeated once or
twice, giving us time to enjoy watching the many schools of
dolphins that were playing around our boat. We even saw
little baby dolphins jumping out of the water, quite a treat.
The captain told us they often saw whales, but that was not to
be this trip. We were more than satisfied with the
dolphins, the fish, the thrills, the comradeship and
especially the beers at the local pub which we found at the
end of the trip.
Our vessel |
Baited fishing lines |
Cutting bait |
Captain Antonio Dos Santos |
Fishing 500 feet down |
Fishing net makers |
"When I used to get drunk I'd forget my name so...." |
Orange shark |
"Let me go!" |
Pulling up the first catch |
Friday,
July 15 - Trip to Nordeste/Festival
Today we did our second big road trip and explored the eastern
side of San Miguel. The highlight of the trip was the town of
Povocao, what a treasure! It's probably fair to say that we found it
to be the nicest town on the island, mainly for it's oceanside presence
and wonderfully preserved and maintained town centre. I wish we had
more time to linger but we'll have to make another trip there sometime,
preferably in our own sailboat next time.
Finished up the day with a boy's
trip down to the festival happening in Rosario at the
fisherman's port. To our surprise, there must have been
two to three thousand people there, lots of families and kids,
lots of food and beer vendors and a huge stage with rock bands
playing.
Lookout point |
I'm the ice cream man |
Povocao river |
Povacao street |
3 wheeled noisemaker |
Lookout point |
Povoacao town centre |
Carving |
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Saturday,
July 16 - Beach Day
Had our first beach day today, not a moment too soon.
There are two beaches between where we are staying, in Lagoa, and the
capital Ponta Delgada, both of which are black sand beaches and very nice.
The waves were particularly good and dad and I did some fancy body
surfing. We were hoping to rent boogie boards but there didn't seem
to be anywhere on the beach to rent them out. Magnus is never so
content as when he is on a beach and able to play in the sand. The
only hard part was trying to keep him out of the sun, though by this time
he's developed a bit of a tan which making him look a little more
Portuguese.
Base camp
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Body surf
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The beach
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Beer glass in the sand |
Beach baby
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Sunday,
July 17 - Hot Springs
Once again, we parted ways with Dad and Loretta. While
they had an eventful day trip to some nifty hot springs and the .most
windy and steepest road they've ever seen, we spent a relaxing day with
Tia Ana chatting, going for walks, and sorting through a bit more of our
property administration. Oh yes, I also spent some time updating
this webpage, you'd be surprised how long it takes to put these tales
together!
Fountain in Lagoa |
Typical street |
Caldeira Vieja |
Soother sucker |
Milkman |
Monday, July 18
- Sailing with Shuba
We took a ride downtown in the morning to sign the official
contract for our new piece of property then drove back out there to take a
last look and snap a few more photos. We had Ana's uncle Manuel act
as our power-of-attorney so that he can sign a few documents that we'll
need to have processed over the coming weeks. We're so happy to have
found this property, it's quite a thrill knowing that you have your own
slice of ocean front land.
In the afternoon we returned to
Villa Franca to go on a half day sailing trip with a German
fellow named Shuba. It took Ana a number of phone calls
to finally track down somebody who had a boat and did these
sorts of trips (another opportunity!). We arrived at the
boat, met Shuba and he invited us aboard his boat named
"Jo-Hanna". Once inside the galley my dad noticed a
framed photograph on the wall of an old lady and ask Shuba who
she was. "Oh, that's a
picture of my grandmother who passed away - the boat is named after her,"
he explained, then gave a sly grin and added in some less than perfect
English, "Yah, she gives some money!". That explained the origin of
the lovely 37 foot yacht.
We sailed directly south away from
San Miguel and cruised at 5 knots for about 11 miles, having a
few cold beers along the way. Unfortunately, we didn't
see any whales or dolphins, even though both are regularly
spotted in the area. Can't get lucky every time.
We did end up with nice wind and a bit of hot sun here and
there which made for a great sail. Throughout the trip I
could see my lovely wife's brain gears turning, trying to
figure out the earliest possible time we'd be able to buy a
sailboat again and do some cruising on our own boat. I
hope it won't be long!
After the sailing we headed back to Lagoa and went for tasty
dinner at a local seafood restaurant. The service was pretty bad
though the food was fantastic. I spent part of the meal dodging
knives, as my young hostile son Magnus was trying to knife me, perhaps
because I kept letting his mother put pink Princess Mermaid diapers on him
at the swimming pool. I can't think of any other reason he'd be
trying to plug me?
Big lunch |
Shuba the sailing German |
Dad's cafe |
Sun and sails |
Out to sea |
Helmswoman Ana |
Last big day trip |
Give me your wallet! |
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Tuesday,
July 19 - Crypts and Kiddie Rides
We decided not to plan too much for our last day on the island
to allow us to leave on a very relaxed note. In the morning we went
to the shopping mall to stock up on port and cheese to bring back to
Canada with us. After that we visited the cemetery in Lagoa to see where
many of Ana's ancestors are buried, including her grandmother. They
have a much different system for graves on the island; since there is
limited space they exhume the bodies after a few years and put the remains
into much smaller boxes which then go into the family crypt. Some
families build miniature houses which, besides the remains, contain
photographs, treasured items, religious icons, flowers, etc.
We finished off the day with another
trip to the local pools for a splash in the ocean. In
the evening we made the rounds to say good-bye to everybody.
Sniff, sniff.
Pimp my ride |
Family crypt |
Tile work |
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Wednesday,
July 20 - Go Home
That's it. Off to the airport in the morning and on the
flight back home. Nothing to report here except two adventure movies
on the airplane that had practically identical plots and characters;
National Treasure and Sahara which, in turn were also identical to
practically every other adventure/treasure hunting movie ever made (The
Mummy, Mummy Returns, Indiana Jones (hardly in the same category...), Tomb
Raider, etc, etc.). There's the arrogant, extroverted lead man with
the cotton candy love interest, a comical sidekick and, of course, the
techno-nerdie superdweep who holds it all together with his amazing
computer skills. I'm amazed at how it's still possible for the film
companies to be fantastically successful by following the same old formula
- we are definitely a brain-dead public. Well, after two weeks of
adventuring ourselves, maybe a mindless action film is exactly what we
needed!
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