São Bras Ruth: The hostels in the Azores are frequently repurposed monasteries or convents located in the old neighborhoods, often near the port. We have been noticing them on other islands and admiring the historic buildings in which they are located. For the first time in a number of years we are staying in a youth hostel, this one in the main town of Vila ...
Ruth: Returning to see the site of the 1957-58 eruption that both transformed and extended the north end of Faial island is still awesome on a second and third visit. What is less exciting for writers and readers is a second blog on the subject. I will include our original blog from 2019 at the end of this one. Shortly after our first visit, the Azores ...
Ruth: The tropical rains have put our outside dining and daily snorkelling on hold, hopefully only temporarily. Even when the forecast looks ominous, we are still able to capitalize on the sunny and dry periods that materialize when we need them. And this is tropical rain, not west coast hypothermic rain. You can get drenched in it and it’s still not really cold. Our daily ...
Porto Pim The view from our apartment balcony of Pico. Eating on the balcony. The lower floor of our little apartment at Verde Mar. Ruth: Although Gord and I travel a lot, we only return to a handful of places. The Azores are on that list and it is lovely knowing I will return again and again. We spent around two weeks on the island ...
Gord and Vicki sitting on lava. Ruth: They are not twins, but Gord and Vicki are only 13 1/2 months apart in age. This may be the first time they have travelled together since 1969, but some patterns are deeply entrenched. Together they form a sort of sibling syndicate. They walk at the same pace, pause to look at the same sort of things and ...
Life is good living on Pico underneath the volcano at São Roque. We are staying at Adelina’s wonderful house by the sea (Casa do mar). We stayed in her other two houses on our last trip here in February of 2019. There is a garden with ripe grapes, figs, and tomatoes, and we are just a short walk from beautiful swimming spots with clear water ...
The fellow working at the tourist office proudly told me that there had been no ferry cancellations this year. There was, however, one yesterday. The reason for cancellation became very apparent when we walked the waterfront of Santa Cruz. This is, after all, the middle of the Atlantic. We were delighted to have another day and this time left our bikes behind to hike up into ...
We are running out of roads on Graciosa. Our current challenge has been to criss cross around the island and cycle all of the paved roads at least once. We are now at about 97% with one more day left. Ok make that two, our Monday night ferry has just been postponed for a day because of winds. Yesterday’s ride took us down a little ...
Ruth: Today we spent the day cycling up, into and around the caldera on Graciosa. It was a stiff, steady climb up the flank of the volcano before we popped through a tunnel in the crater wall and onto the floor of the caldera. The Azores, unlike many places, is becoming more wild rather than less. In the information centre there is an old picture of ...
Santa Cruz da Graciosa A windmill near Santa Cruz Natural swimming pool at the North end of Graciosa Ponta da Barca September 17, 2021Ruth: We have now settled into our apartment in Santa Cruz da Grasiosa and had our first day of exploring on the Island of Graciosa in the Azores. After three flights and more than 20 hours in a face mask we arrived ...