Lagoa do Fogo
Lots of tourists, especially Gringo tourists, shopping centers, resorts, sky high prices and so on… That’s the kinda thing I was expecting from the Azores. What actually welcomed me were cows, flowers and sea gulls. As well as lovely people, and all of that surrounded by pristine nature. This will be a bold, yet completely true statement; Sao Miguel is the one most beautiful place I’ve ever traveled to. I am not wordy enough to describe it, but even non professional pictures will help. Hopefully. If you ever get a chance to visit the Azores, take it! Don’t take it, grab it and don’t let it squeeze out.
A little bit about the Azores (an extremely unprofessional report); it’s a group of several volcanic islands situated in the middle of nowhere, nowhere being Mr. Atlantic. No one knows for sure, but the rumor goes that there’s more cows than people. The milk and dairy you get in mainland Portugal come from the Azores, that’s how many cows there are.
The whole area is dotted with hortensia, a type of flower that was introduced to the Azores from Japan, yet it became such a strong symbol, they put it on all the souvenirs. Another fun fact about that plant is that it’s flowers change colour depending on the type of soil. Very pretty!
azores ❤
Anyhow, what the island was full of before the people came, which happened in the 15th century, is birds. Lots and lots of birds, some of them unique to the area. In fact, the name comes from some bird, which the initial settlers mistook for another bird. Meaning – the name is a mistake. For sure, the Azores would be a bird-watchers wet dream!
When it comes to history geeks, I’m sure they’d enjoy the fact that Pheonician coins were found on the islands. They were brought in by the later people for sure, but who knows! Also, at one point in history, one of the smaller islands was the only Portuguese territory still owned by Portugal, as all else was taken by some Spanish dude who married a Portuguese princess after her brother died or something like that.
Apparently it’s not so uncommon for travelers to accidentally buy tickets to the Azores, some local people told me. I myself met two other people who ended up there unexpectedly as well, though they came in not by air, but by our Mr. Atlantic. I’ll mention them again. But anyone can agree that getting stuck on Sao Miguel is a blessing.
I guess I was lucky enough to get to Ponta Delgada (the capital of the island Sao Miguel, and the biggest city of all the Azores) on the week of the Holy Spirit party. And the Portuguese sure know how to make a nice public party! They were giving away free soup, wine and pop, dairy desserts, bread, pastry, more wine and beer. All local donations. It was chaotic and random and wonderful, and made me feel like a gypsy in a sea of my own! No one misses the chance for a free soup, and the way to get served is to sit down at one of the tables set out on a big square. And there ain’t enough space for everyone at the same time, so you have to choose a person and stand behind them, like a vulture, preying over them, waiting for your spot on the bench. Even in all that chaos, there’s still order, so I picked it up quite fast and melted in with my smile and tan. Somehow I enjoyed it and didn’t want to show my foreignness, so when the people talked to me in Portuguese, I just smiled and nodded my head.
After several glasses of wine mixed with pop, in the line for the dessert, an equally drunk-ish person in a colourful shirt talked to me. Turned out he’s a Greek guy cycling the world. Great! I’m hitchhiking the world. He started across the US and now got stuck in the Azores with his friend, a sailboat captain from Montreal. Shortly I was offered a position as crew. Dude! So I could have had hitched a boat, eventually, to mainland!
friends, bikes and boats
But, to my ego’s disappointment, I didn’t go to the Azores without plans. Concerned about catching my friend’s wedding, I got a ticket to Madrid with the help of my lovely brother. Twas way cheaper then flying to mainland Portugal. Anyhow, I still had a great time and was very happy to have run into Dimitris (the cyclist) and Irwin (the boat captain). Having a Greek dude play us a Croatian Gypsy song on a Canadian boat on some Portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic – everyday normal life, eh?
My time on Sao Miguel was too short! I got hosted by an amazing girl over CS, hanged out with her cat and got to learn about the drug and poverty issues of the island, as she’s making a documentary about an institution that deals with young heroin addicts. There’s this outlaw problem because of a certain US policy. Over there, in the US, if you do a bad crime, they send you back to the country of your birth. Azores being in the middle of the Atlantic, many people migrate to US and Canada. So, there’s these hard core criminals who spent their entire lives across the sea that are now stuck on a small island where they don’t belong. You can get a small thing of heroin for 10E, it’s not even that expensive.
And there is a lot of poverty in the Azores. You can see lots of abandoned buildings, some bums, some “unfinished ruins” – as is the case with one huge expensive building that was meant to be a seafront hotel and a casino – but never even got finished because the crisis hit hard. According to the locals, the Azores would be pretty fucked up without the EU. Being an extremely isolated area, they get a lot of money. So they built highways and they get help to go to school. But let’s not get too deep into the EU!
After a couple of days of needed rest and swimming (I just love how fresh the Atlantic is!), I finally got up and stuck my thumb out, in company of Dimitris (his name is without the “s”, but if you talk about someone in third person in Greek, you put the “s” in the end. Weeehee, let’s be grammatically correct!) Hitchhiking was extremely easy, as the locals are very nice. This is how our first ride with two old local guys went (mind you, we didn’t communicate in English, but went by with some broken Spanish and they spoke a mix or Spanish and Portuguese):
thanks to hitchhiking
Them: Where to?
Us: Sete Cidades! (A lake within an old volcano. Popular for hiking.)
Them: Ooooh, we’re not going there.
Us: Can you take us a tiny bit?
Them: Hop in!
……3 min of chit chat later…….
Us: So where are you guys going?
Them: Sete Cidades!
It’s a small place and people go out of heir way to help you. Thanks to that, we got to hike in insanely beautiful areas, as well as do some longed for wild camping (at least I longed for it. Dimitris was just happy to get off the boat). Lagoa do Fogo (another lake within an old crater), definitely was the most beautiful place I slept at, even though it was the most uncomfortable one as well. By the time we got there, to the top of the hike, it was night so we went down a slippery trail in the dark and set camp at the lake shore, shun by stars above and their reflections on the water. We didn’t have proper equipment and the shore was so moist we thought it would be a good idea to sleep on the rocks. It wasn’t, as the rocks weren’t your lovely pebbles, but big fucking sharp things that poke you straight to the bone. Nonetheless, it was more than worth the pain!
the best
What else… I saw lots of bunnies, had some amazing food – perhaps even the best stake of my life! They call it “stake on the stone” and that’s what it is, a big piece of raw beef served on a heated block of granite. You’re supposed to cut it and fry it yourself, adding some nice sauce with lots of garlic. It was so good I cried. I love the Americas, but the food in southern Europe is Food with a capital F.
I am writing this from Lisbon, where I reunited with a good old friend from highschool. She left a couple of days ago and today my other good old friends is coming to Lisbon. The one who’s getting married one of these days. Before that I was in Madrid, where I spent a couple of days with Dimitris (who withing a day decided to buy a flight to Europe after it turned out that Irwin was gonna go back to Canada and postpone his crossing for a few months due to a couple of neglected broken ribs and family longings) and another two wonderful people, cyclists from Madrid that hosted us. But more on mainland Europe next time…
The heck, maybe I can allow myself just a small update on mainland. I met an amazingly generous guy named Pablo on CS, who offered to do a little road trip from Madrid to Lisbon with me. Meaning – I didn’t have to hitch in Spain! (Anyone with at least a little bit of hitchhiking education knows it’s the black hole of Europe). We also, quite randomly, got to visit Elvas (a beautiful fortified town near the border with Spain), a free world music festival in Porto Covo, near Sines (a totally relaxed coastal town) and camp out on a beach under the stars. Such a nice weekend.
But things got even crazier! Turns out he really likes when people live their dreams and he wants to help me out so he went as far as getting me a bike. So I can cycle. Cycle home! Portugal to Croatia! Fuck that is so amazing! Thank you, Pablo! 🙂
PS: seems I also got a grape picking spot in France! I’m such a lucky fuck. No set plans (anything might change at any point – such is life), but I’d love to cycle a bit with Dimitris, go pick grapes, see some friends in Europe and then cycle home. Only one concern… Winter is coming!
PPS: Ponta Delgada, and Portugal in general, have very nice sidewalks!
A girl wanted to see what the world was like... 
Hey, I loved your travelougue. I’m visiting Sao Miguel in the end of September for two weeks with a friend of mine. We don’t have much plans made yet, for now we just bought the airplane tickets and we’re hoping it will turn out okay. We are planning to hitchhike and hike around Sao Miguel, as we don’t want to spend a lot of money, and I think we have enough time (two weeks), to properly explore the island by foot. We aren’t sure on the accomodation yet, but we were planning to spend nights with better weather wildcamping or perhaps staying in a camp (of which I’m not sure if there are many on Sao Miguel) and spending rainy nights in hostels (again not sure how many there are and if it’s possible to book them on the spot or if we should rather book in advance). But nevertheless although we don’t have much plans made yet we’re really looking forward to the beautiful nature and hoping it would be a great experience. And thanks to your report now I really can’t wait to start our trip =)
Greetings from Slovenia
Glad to hear it. 🙂 It really is such a special beautiful place! Hitchhiking is really easy, the people super nice and wild camping seemed to not bother anyone. Also, there are many many abandoned houses, you could also find rain shelter that way (including a big hotel above one of the old craters which are now lakes, the one where Sete Cidades is). Honestly, I haven’t really seen a single hostel or a camping ground, but haven’t looked for them either, so maybe ask some locals over CS. Also, it’s really not touristy, so I guess you wouldn’t need to book in advance.
Have a wonderful time!
(PS: I’m totally jealous, can’t wait to go back to that island…)
Thanks for the reply it’s really useful.
And P.S. I’m really really jealous of you for having the courage of travelling around like you do, hitchhiking, minimum money and just meeting new people. I hope I’ll get myself together one day and do something like it. Well maybe the Azores will be a good start.
P.P.S. I have just found your blog today and immediatly fell in love with your adventures. I hope you’re still doing it.