Ruth: We took our last ride today before packing our bikes for the flight home tomorrow. The wind was calm, an unusual occurrence in the Azores, so we headed up to the caldera. Once we were up into the cloud and fog at 500 meters I decided to coast back down to a bakery in Horta, while Gord pressed on to the 900 meter rim. ...
Ruth: Gord has never really understood the purpose of a beach. Perhaps he is just prejudiced against anything that falls below an alpine elevation. Although I would be bored silly with a beach vacation, I do love a beach day. There are only a handful of beaches in the Azores but two are near Horta. Today we were both feeling less ambitious and did a ...
Ruth: We are back on Faial for three days before we go home on Monday. Reunited with our bikes, we headed out with them this morning, climbing halfway to the caldera before we took a forestry road that traverses the flank of the mountain at 500 meters. We choose our road of descent carefully to place us at the bakery in Cedros on the north ...
Gordon: Our host José’s face lit up when we told him we were planning to do the Norte Pequeno hike. “I wrote a book and I promised to deliver a copy to a friend who lives at the fajã on that walk. Could you deliver it to him? He likes to serve coffee to tourists.” Armed only with the additional knowledge that his friend’s name ...
Ruth: José, our host at the The Tropical Fruit Garden, says that he does go to the store for a few things like sugar, salt and paper napkins, but otherwise he is almost self sufficient. We have been enjoying eating all he has been provided us from his small farm. We cook goose eggs for breakfast because, we have learned, they have the best flavour ...
Ruth: “I could live here” Gord proclaimed as we headed over the top of the island to the trailhead where Gord would start today’s hike. In all the places we have traveled to and loved, we have never really considered moving anywhere permanently. São Jorge has certainly come closest to wrenching me from home. Today I felt up for a hike but not for the steep ...
Gordon: As our ferry approached the harbour at Velas, on the island of São Jorge, I was struck by how charming it appeared, nestled on a slope between a couple of volcanic cones. This impression remained as we wandered through the historic area near the harbour. The main square includes a fountain with a basalt sculpture of a dragon (the island is named after St. ...
Ruth: The sun returned yesterday, bringing back with it my optimism. My moods have been as volatile as the weather this trip. This morning I woke up after a rough night in which I couldn’t get comfortable. I needed an extra dose of coffee and Buddhism to get me back to something resembling human. In my darkest moments I was considering canceling my trip to ...
Gordon: Our visit to the Azores has coincided with an extended period of unseasonably poor weather. When we arrived at the beginning of February the locals were talking about the great winter they were enjoying. That changed almost immediately, and since then it has rained almost every day. There have also been periods of near record low temperatures, though from a Canadian perspective they were ...
Ruth: Today was the day we had an “opening” between storms to cycle around the south side of Pico to the port town of Madalena, about 54kms away. With winds blowing at 40kms per hour we set off just as the skies opened up. The rain felt like hail hitting my face. “I can get on a plane and fly to Lisbon or just fly ...