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

Beers by the pool

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

The marina

Tia Ana and the jug of vino

Enjoying a drink

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	Lagoa do Empanada	Sete Cidades	Flower	One of the many viewpoints along the way
Skinny road	Don't go down too far	Viewpoint	Sete Cidades

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

Ring of Magnus

Groom and friend

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 1	Our lot 2	Our lot 3	Overlooking Feteiras	Cliff behind our lot
Shoreline eastward	Shoreline westward	Old pool	In Furnas	Furnas
Beach near Villa Franca	Ribeira Grande

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

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...."	Team Sardinha	"Let me go!"	Pulling up the first catch
Orange shark

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

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	Body surf	The beach	Boys 'n the surf	Beach baby
Beer glass in the sand	Towards the city	Rock concert at the festival

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!

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

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!