After the hike we headed back to our favorite cliff jumping spot for a dip in the water. Everyone hit their favorite spots for a quick adrenaline rush!
After a while a bunch of local boys arrived and put on an amazing show of crazy cliff diving (not jumping… they DIVE from all the spots we jump from and higher!). My heart was racing just watching them – and yet they make it look so easy! We all watched, cheered and I (of course) snapped a ton of photos.
Tyler got a round of applause from all the locals after scaling and jumping from his favorite cliff about 40 feet up. Then one of the boys asked Tyler if he wanted to jump with them (although he didn’t speak English so they pointed and nodded at each other). So Tyler jumped right back in and scaled the cliff again with them.
After all the high dives they started having fun with flips and hand stands from the shorter 10 foot cliff. Tyler was right back in with the group, throwing down a few flips (aka misty – believe that’s the term he uses) of his own. I know he wishes we would let him scale the crane (but NO WAY!).
It was quite the event down at the water today… just a typical Tuesday afternoon!
We motivated early (well… earlier than usual because we have yet to leave our house before 10am!) for a hike in the hillside behind our house. What started out as a quick one hour up and back tuned into a long 2 ½ hour loop! No surprise there and the kids did surprisingly well.
We hiked up an old wash I believe (not sure if it was actually a trail) – no chance of a flash flood on a day like today! The vegetation is extremely lush. We found some walking sticks and made the best of it. You just had to watch out for the “pokey bushes” as Andrew would say (big thorns!).
Lot's of wildlife - cows and goats are grazing everywhere on the island.
Flowers were beautiful. These are the typical flowers you see all over the island this time of year. The ginger smells amazing and someone showed us how to pick and suck the juice out of the flower. Tasty!
On the way down we found an old run-down house right along the ravine. It looked like a water shed of some sort. However we ventured inside and saw an old grinding stone, shelves and other living necessities that have long been forgotten.
Back home by the early afternoon, plenty of time to grab some lunch and hit our favorite cliff jumping spot!
A lazy start to the day after a busy weekend in Horta! We slept in and then motivated for lunch to a nearby park for several hours of tennis and badminton! Thankfully there was a market and café (read that to mean beer & sangria) around the corner.
Anyway... I seem to vaguely recall my folks having a badminton set when we were little (or did I dream that?!) – although it’s probably been at least 30 years! Outdoor badminton with a little wind – not so easy! Tennis was fun… a new game from Ginger (tug-of-war) which we'll have to play back in Colorado!
Meanwhile the little kids ran around at the nearby park - which kept them entertained for several hours!
Wrapped up our night with another great dinner at the Alkers – taking in their amazing view of Sao Jorge island.
