Day 5: Tech & Laundry Day

I was up early, catching up on work projects. I’ve been using my Verizon international modem which works great and has allowed me to stay connected with work on a daily basis. Phew! Although I’m not exactly clear on the charges and have already received a few messages regarding my data usage (uh oh!). Plus, Verizon thinks I am in the Netherlands and every website I go to comes up in Dutch.

But as of today, we are switching to Vodafone, the local carrier. Jim took off early to run errands and hit the Vodafone store. So now we are setup with a local network via Vodafone and for a small monthly charge we have wifi. Yay!

We also tackled laundry today – a real chore! We have a small washer and no dryer. It is very humid inside the house so the best chance of truly drying your clothes is outside on the clothes line. Gone are the days of getting 8 loads of laundry done in one shot! There isn’t enough clothes line in this house to hang all the wet clothes for our family! And gone is the idea of getting laundry done on a cold, rainy day when we have nothing to do. So I’ve had to rethink the laundry plan… and I believe one load a day (on the sunny days!) will suffice. And I’ve already told the kids they will be helping me hang and take down the clothes. Something that’s probably not that unusual to them… but definitely not something I have done in my 40 years!

In between laundry and work we did also manage a trip to the local swimming hole (only a 5 min walk from our house). Much of the same - chasing lizards, looking for fish, watching the waves crash against the rock and jumping off the lava rock into the ocean. I think this will be a favorite spot for the kids this month.

It was so nice to finally have a day to get settled. I am really enjoying the slow pace, amazing views and the quiet surroundings. Another great ending to our day – an amazing dinner at the Alkers’ house! If only we had a garden even a quarter of this size! Good friends, food and wine… what more could we need?

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4: Beach Day - Prainha

Happy Monday and a nice long day at the beach! Our friends picked us up at 12pm and we headed west to a little swimming hole near Prainha.

We spent the entire day at the swimming hole with direct access to the ocean. It’s amazing how many different swimming holes there are scattered around our little town. We were packed up with snacks, paddleboards, snorkeling gear and volleyballs. It was yet another beautiful day on the water. I can’t seem to take enough pictures – as if I’m afraid I will forget this amazing view.

The kids snorkeled, hunted for fish and chased lizards on the lava rock. We all took turns with the paddle board, and I actually ventured out into the big ocean. Not an easy trek to get around the rocks! Paddle boarding always looks so peaceful… well, it’s a lot harder than it looks! I had a few good wipe outs in the swell (and the bruises to prove it)! Tyler on the other hand, couldn’t get enough. He spent a long time out on the board – not quite venturing into the big ocean but riding the surf right at the rocks. He’ll sleep well tonight.

 

 

Ashley was also itching for a little volleyball and there was a sand court (black sand) near the swimming hole. So, we (Ashley, Jim, Griff and I) played a long match against 4 Portugese guys (about half our age!). Yes – the Americans v. the Portugese. We held our own (barely)… and yet still lost… but had a lot of fun! Jim’s tricep seemed to hold up, but we’ll see if any of us can walk tomorrow!

I don’t think we wrapped up at the beach until almost 7pm, and then we headed into town for a quick dinner and home. Finally a night with no Festa and we could get to bed before midnight!

 

Day 3: More Festa!

Yet another day spent sleeping in… with the midnight bedtime hour, it’s tough to wake up before noon. Jim and I both checked in with work, changed back into our swim suits (which we didn’t realize we’d still be wearing at midnight!) and we headed into town to meet up with our friends at the zip line.

Zip line was a blast! The line was tied from the street (which sits way above the water) down into the ocean. We strapped in and pushed off! All the way down to the little canoe in the ocean where we unhooked and then swam back into shore. All the kids tried it – even Andrew gave it a shot with Jim and then myself strapped in with him. And he had some help back in – carried on the back of one of the Portugese men, over the rocks to the ladder so he could climb back up to the street.

Luke - getting ready for zip line

LUKE

 

TYLER

After the zip line it was off to the bull fight. I wasn’t sure how appropriate this was going to be for the kids but we figured it was part of the Azorean culture and we might as well check it out. Men were chasing and jumping the bulls, trying to hook rings on the horns, etc. and the crowd absolutely loved it! It was a bit nerve wracking to watch but at the same time you couldn’t get yourself to look away. Our show did end with a casualty - one man getting speared in the inner thigh and running out of the ring to grab a waiting taxi for a trip to the hospital! Ouch!! And yet he did the whole thing with a smile on his face, so I don’t believe the kids really understood what happened. We heard later that all was ok with him.

 

 

From the bull fight we headed back onto the main street for dinner, music and to watch the parade. Happy to say we made it home before midnight (although barely!). Ashley and I were the last to turn in and caught the closing fireworks show from our house at 2 a.m!

 

Day 2: On Our Own

Getting used to the time difference, and the fact the sun sets around 10 p.m. sure does make it difficult to get to bed before midnight. We had a very late start to our day and woke to an attack of ants in our family room! A flashback to growing up in Long Beach – these beach communities must be a magnet for the ants (and it doesn’t help when the kids drop crumbs all over the floor).

We finally motivated out of the house around 2 p.m. for the Regata de Botes. We could actually see the sailing race from our porch but ventured down the street to an old windmill site and watched from the overlook.

It was a beautiful calm day on the water. About 50 old whaling boats were towed out to the starting line, then sails were lifted and the race began. The boats did a few loops through the channel right in front of our house. Later in the day we saw a rowing race (same boats) – sails were down, oars in place. Now that looked tough!

Our friends were on another island today for a wedding, so we were on our own as we toured through the city. We found the zip line which goes from the street down into the ocean – we’ll definitely be back to check that out tomorrow. We grabbed some lunch, walked around and came back for a little r&r (because we haven’t been sleeping in late enough… ha, ha).

Lot’s of whining by the kids today (ugh!) – I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I want to swim, why so much walking, why can’t I have this… why can’t we do this… and so on! I think they forget we are here for 4 weeks and we don’t have to do everything in one day! We are also trying to get them to eat when it’s mealtime (and not graze all day). So, it’s definitely a bit of an adjustment for them.

We did make it down to one of the swimming holes in the late afternoon. There is no sand here, and sunbathing with the locals on lava rock will take some getting used to (too bad I can’t bring a mattress down with me!). No body issues over here which is also refreshing – the bikinis are tiny and worn by every size, shape and age of women.

The kids seemed to really enjoy the swimming. They all brought snorkeling gear and said there are some pretty big fish at the bottom of the swimming holes. They also discovered the surrounding lava rocks are a blast to jump from. So I expect we’ll see a lot of swimming in the days ahead. Perfect.

Dinner was back at Festa – which didn’t happen until close to 9pm. Hot dogs (cachorro) and beef sandwiches (bifana). Pretty good. There was a parade, music and definitely a lot more people than Fri eve. We tried to stay late enough to hear the U2 cover band that had arrived from the UK to play, but they were just setting up when we left at 12:30 a.m! So it was (again) another late night with the locals!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1: Getting Settled

We stopped at the local bakery on the way to the house for breakfast items. Thankfully Tricia speaks Portugese and quickly loaded us up on the local bread and bakery items.

Portugese is definitely a language I wish we would have spent more time learning! The locals here all speak Portugese and based on one day of touring the island, I would guess 90% of the people here are local. Not everyone lives here permanently – many spend the year in Canada or America and travel to the Azores for summer vacations to visit their friends and family still living on the island. Many people do speak English, but it would be a lot easier to communicate with a more basic knowledge of Portugese. We’ll have to see how quickly we can learn some key words. So far today I have learned 2 important ones – Mojito. Obrigada.

Our wonderful friends have stocked our house with necessities – cheese/crackers (we have already discovered the cheese is AMAZING here), milk (out of a box!), juice (apple juice that actually tastes like an apple) and other items. As we unpacked, Ashley quickly disappeared into her room for a short 7 hour nap! I followed the 3 boys outside for a walk along the water. The shoreline is stunning with the black lava rock contrasted against the blue water!

With four kids in tow, it’s never long before someone needs first aid treatment. And Luke was our first casualty. We have these great double hung windows in this house (no screens). And if you keep them open you can hear the ocean waves crashing against the shore. The downside to this… Luke had the misfortune to be looking out the window, unknowingly pushed it out of its locked position and it smashed down on his hands. OUCH! For a short moment we thought we were going to be making a trip to the local hospital (which on this island is limited to just an urgent care facility), but thankfully nothing appears broken. After a lot of tears and ice, he’s just bruised and cut up pretty well!

Dinner hour began at 7pm at the local Festa which is only a short walk from our house (although we chose to catch a ride with our friends this evening). The music was loud… the folk dancers were on the stage. We had a quick dinner at one of the restaurant tents – chicken, albacore, meat with French fries, salad and rice. Sangria is the drink of choice (although the mojitos I discovered later are definitely my preference!).

Andrew has been in his element the entire day. Not a shy bone in this kid's body since we landed (much to our surprise). He has quickly bonded with Guerin and Teah and they have spent the evening running around, eating, drinking and having a wonderful time!

Tyler definitely started to fade a bit after dinner, having run around with Jim all day while the rest of us were napping. He was also kid casualty #2 – the uneven cobble stone streets have tripped us all up and this time it led to a nice big stubbed toe. OUCH! Although that was momentarily forgotten when Ashley realized she left her purse (with phone and camera) at the park. Thankfully 2 hours later we returned to find it sitting right where she left it! Tricia tells us there’s not much crime on the island. What a treat!

 

After a long night of Festa… we are finally back in our house. 12:45am! I can still hear the music from Festa thumping down the street. We’ve been told this can go on until 5am! So, I am finally off to bed so we can rest up for another busy day at Festa tomorrow!

Day 0: Getting to the Azores

Our trip started with a red-eye from Boston – not the easiest schedule for a family of six! But SATA air was a wonderful airline to fly. Their attention to detail was simply amazing and far exceeded anything we’ve experienced on flights in America in many years. The kids were amazed at how big the airplane was. Ashley was convinced we were sitting in first class (not even close!) and Luke thought the bread served with dinner was ‘the best he’d ever had’. Comical. We obviously need to travel more.

We landed in Sao Miguel (the big island) at 7:30am. A quick run through customs and checked in for our short flight to Pico Island. It was pouring rain when we landed in Pico, and we were picked up by our friends in their ‘surf mobile’ (a small passenger van with two longboards tied to the roof).

A short drive to Sao Roque and we caught a first glimpse of our home for the next 4 weeks. Located on the northeast side of the island, the house is made of lava rock/stucco, with a view of the volcano (Pico Mountain) behind us. The main deck looks out over the Atlantic Ocean at the nearby island Sao Jorge (11 miles away).

 

 

 

This ocean pic is the view from our front porch – which I took the other day during the sailing regatta. Everything is lush and green and lava rock is everywhere – the colors are spectacular!

 

I wonder what the kids will think of the Azores in 4 weeks?