Sunday ; Sunny and mild, with a cold wind.
On both of our daily walks we had to stay “inland” due to the cold wind blowing in off the Atlantic. BRRRRR ! Today we planned some outings ; a bus trip around Faial Island, probably tomorrow, and a ferry boat trip over to Pico Island, probably on Friday.
Monday ; around Faial Island by bus
Sunny and mild early in the day, becoming cloudy and windy in the afternoon.
We left our guesthouse this morning at 11:30 AM and walked a short distance to catch an inter-city bus to Cedros on the north coast of Faial Island. The bus travelled west along the south coast, then north along the west coast, then east along the north coast to the middle of the north coast, for an hour, passing through many villages. We got off the bus at the small village of Cedros.
We visited the large church that was staring us in the face as we got off the bus shortly before 1 PM. Then we briefly walked around the tiny village before going into Snack Bar Xavier for lunch. Joanne had picked this restaurant after reviewing the village’s restaurants online. Both of them ! HA HA HA ! Snack Bar Xavier had good reviews for their buffet at lunch time. Yes, yes, we agree, it was quite good.
After lunch we wandered around the village a bit more … that didn’t take long … then wandered down a dirt road running steeply downhill towards the ocean. At the end of the road there was … a beautifully maintained soccer field … (???) … cows … and the Atlantic Ocean ! We followed a mud trail that looped around some cow pastures then headed back uphill towards the village. When we reached the village again we walked a block to another downhill dirt road, and repeated the process, this time to the cemetery near the ocean. After looping back to the village for the second time we were tired, and sat down to wait for the last bus of the day back to Horta.
We caught the last bus of the day at 4:10 PM. There was only one passenger on the bus, and she got off one stop after we got on. We were the only passengers on the bus all the way back to Horta. We continued the loop around Faial Island, heading east from Cedros along the north coast, then south along the east coast back to Horta in the southeast corner of Faial Island. We had circumnavigated Faial Island.
We got off the bus in Horta at 5 PM and walked to Continente for some grocery replenishment. We arrived back home at 6 PM. Tired !
Tuesday ; Mix of sun and clouds, mild, windy.
On our late walk this afternoon we wandered north until we were downtown. A business that had previously caught my eye a few times, but was closed each time we walked by, was open this afternoon. We went in and browsed, I bought myself a uniquely Azorean product from the clothing designer / seamstress / owner. She’s a good designer, a good seamstress, provides excellent customer service, and has fairly reasonably priced articles. AND … altered my purchase to better suit me at no additional cost. Told me to continue our walk and give her half an hour to make the alteration. Returned in half an hour to find her at the front door shaking off the thread cuttings, ready for me. Nicely done !
Ever since I first visited Europe in the late 80’s I have maintained that North American small business owners could learn a lot from their European counterparts.
Joanne and I collaborated tonight to prepare Piri-Piri roasted chicken. Piri-Piri is a Portuguese seasoning, in both dry rub and liquid versions, used mostly on chicken. Kind of like the Portuguese milder version of Tabasco sauce. Our guesthouse suite’s kitchen had a shaker of the dry rub version. We used it sparingly. The result was good, although it had a bit of an “after bite”.
Wednesday ; Mostly cloudy, mild, windy.
We spent a lot of time today working on / brainstorming financial planning / investment ideas. I think we’ve worked out and fine tuned great short term and long term strategies.
We went for our afternoon walk a bit earlier than usual today when the landlady showed up to clean our room, a couple of days late, complaining about staffing issues. She wasn’t the one who cleaned our room after our first week here, so we assume her cleaning lady quit or … ? We walked to Continente and did some grocery shopping, returning to our room after an hour. She wasn’t finished yet. <sigh> She said she would be done in ten more minutes. We went for a walk around the neighbourhood for another half an hour, and when we returned … she was still there … for ANOTHER ten minutes. <sigh> Yes, yes … so hard to get good help !
Thursday ; Cloudy and mild around noon, cold, windy, and raining at 6 PM.
So … we did not go for our late afternoon walk. But … we had a long walk at noon, finding a new / different circuitous route than we have walked before. I spent much of the afternoon working on reconciling February investment matters. Joanne spent much of the afternoon working on new ideas for next winter’s travels.
Friday ; Horta, Faial Island to Madalena, Pico Island & return
Overcast and mild.
This morning we left our guesthouse suite at 9:45 AM and caught a blue route city bus to take us to the ferry terminal. At the ferry terminal we bought two tickets from Horta, Faial Island to Madalena, Pico Island. The ferry departed on time at 10:45 AM and we arrived in Madalena a half hour later.
OOOOO … the ride made me feel seasick. I was surprised, as I had been conditioned by flight training and many years of flying small aircraft to be immune to vertigo and motion sickness caused by the strange sensation of the body moving in “all three dimensions” simultaneously.
Upon arrival in Madalena we began wandering around, going nowhere in particular. We walked … and walked … and walked … and … ! Madalena seemed to be a newer city than Horta, with larger houses (still very small by North American standards) and wider streets (still very narrow by North American standards). Around 1 PM, using the i-Phone’s GPS we began to head towards the restaurant Joanne had selected for lunch.
On the way to the restaurant we passed by a large grocery store. We went inside to look for the pie/quiche dough that has been out of stock at Continente in Horta. The store in Madalena had some, so we bought a package in order to (finally) make quiche for dinner tonight.
The restaurant’s specialty is Portuguese foods buffet lunch. That’s always a great way to sample local recipes. And today was no exception. Interesting choices, well prepared, reasonably priced buffet meal. We arrived for lunch at 1:30 PM and were out of the restaurant at 2:30. We walked slowly back to the nearby ferry terminal and bought tickets to return to Horta / Faial Island on the 3 PM ferry.
OOOOO … another “rock and roll” ferry ride for half an hour. I felt quite ill on the long, slow walk back home from the ferry terminal. We arrived back home shortly after 4:30 PM.
Saturday ; Cloudy, cool, windy, raining in the evening.
We did our usual two long walks. Our late afternoon walk included a trip to Continente for grocery replenishment, hopefully for the last time here in Horta.
Joanne spent much of today working on next winter’s travel plans. Version two ! Version one, previously done, will probably be rejected. I started work on our income tax returns.
DSK
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