Day 21: Sao Jorge Island

Today was our big excursion to Sao Jorge Island – the island we stare at all day long from our house. We were told of a great beach spot and possible surf on the north side of the island, so we decided to make the trip.

Headed down to the catch the 9:30am ferry across. There is only one morning ferry from Sao Roque (our town) to Velas (Sao Jorge Island). And the only ferry back is 7:35pm. So that left us with the entire day to explore!

A great ferry ride and plenty of dolphins swimming in our wake as we headed across the channel. The kids thought it was so cool! These land-locked Colorado kids have never seen a dolphin anywhere but Sea World. This ocean experience has been wonderful for them. We also saw a turtle floating in the water.

We landed in the small town of Velas, grabbed a quick breakfast and walked around the town for a short while as we made our plans for the day.

Ended up renting a van since that would fit all of us and the two surf boards we brought along and we headed north.

Lot’s of beautiful country side and ocean views as we headed north to Faja dos Cubres. Nice soccer field below right on the ocean!

Sao Jorge is known for their cheese so we passed a few ‘stinky’ cheese factories along the way. The cheese here in the Azores really is some of the best I’ve ever had.

Made it to our destination in about 45 minutes. From there we packed it up and started off on the 3 mile hike to our beach spot – Faja da Caldeira de Santo Cristo. The first bay in the pic below is of dos Cubres. The far bay is Santo Cristo.

(today’s pictures not great… because I forgot to switch off the moonlight setting from the previous night. Ugh!)

The path to Santo Cristo was pretty easy to walk (in most areas) with just a lot of ups and downs. All the walking we’ve done on this trip definitely helps. There were plenty of ATVs passing us along the way. That is the only way to get to Santo Cristo. An earthquake many years ago pretty much cut off any roads in or out, so the little town (which are mostly summer adegas) is only accessible via walking or ATVs. Everyone’s responsible for packing in their own supplies.

Jim has been our family Sherpa this trip – carrying the enormous swim bag everywhere we go. It’s loaded up with beach towels, Andrew’s life jacket and all of our snorkeling gear because you never know when you might need it here!

 

The beach spot was beautiful! There was surf for the big boys and a great fresh water bay for the little ones. The surf was a bit small today, but I expect this spot is quite popular when the waves are bigger!

Jim, Todd, Tyler surfed. Tyler successfully caught a wave on his own – he’s really liking the surfing! And, we already have plans to head to Newport Beach this fall for a few of us to take a surf lesson with Todd.

Ashley took the little boys for a swim across the bay hoping for an ice cream shop. No luck – just a lot of locals having a great time.

A lot of people were digging clams (freshwater clams) and the only place to find them in the Azores is here in Santo Cristo. Too bad we didn’t bring our clamming shovels!

We took a stroll through the little town and then hung at the beach the rest of the afternoon before it was time to reverse our path and head back to the ferry.

 
The hike back was a bit tougher, and we were running short of water by then. I carried Andrew up the hills for the first half mile. Jim did a great job not letting him wipe out on the down hills. Luke and other kids trotted along just fine.

Made it to the car and stopped at the first café we saw. Cold (“fresh”) water never tasted SO good!

Back to the ferry and across to Pico. The sun was just starting to set over Faial Island. The dolphins were out again and accompanied us back into Sao Roque.

 

Tricia was cooking dinner for all of us (so lucky are we!). We were looking forward to a quick shower, relaxing dinner and an early bedtime (because we knew we had an early wakeup call for fishing on Friday). Another great adventure in the books!
Did I say early bedtime? Not a chance. About half way through dinner we were told there was a birthday party nearby for one of our new friends here on the island. I immediately saw my chance of a good night sleep tossed out the window. So around 10:30pm we snuggled the kids into the couch with a movie, left Ashley in charge (w a phone) and we headed a few blocks away for the birthday party.

The party was at Mario’s summer adega – a great little beach cottage located about half way between the Alkers house and our summer rental. The party was in full swing when we arrived. On top of that we also have the Sao Roque festa taking place this weekend and they were just kicking things into gear with the live music when we arrived. Let’s just say 3 hours later, after many beers and strange green cocktails we made it home (or at least some of us… Todd/Ginger stayed out and experienced Sao Roque festa into the early morning)!

Wow! What a day!

Day 20: Cave Exploring

We loaded up in the van today for a trip around the island!

First stop was Gruta das Torres, an underground lava tube. The biggest one in Portugal is right here on Pico Island. It was an organized tour of about 20 people complete with shower cap (ha!), helmet and flashlight (“torch”).

 

The great thing about being on a tour in the Azores is there are very few Americans here, so you truly feel as if you are far away from home. Lucky for us our guide gave the tour in Portugese (first) and then repeated himself in English. Meanwhile, the family behind us was translating everything into French and the family ahead of us was German. Quite the mix!

 

The different lava formations in the cave were pretty impressive. Geology 101.

 

This lava formation is famous for resembling Mona Lisa.

 

At one point the guide had all of us turn off our flashlights for a few minutes and stand in complete silence. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a place that dark in my life. As much as you looked for even the tiniest bit of light – there was none (although I think I caught a faint glow of Jim’s watch). Pretty cool!

 

After the lava tube we continued on the one main road around the island. A short detour just outside Madalena to look at a cool fort. There are vineyards everywhere! Instead of stakes they use the lava rock and it's beautiful to see the green grape vine snaking through the black rock.

 

Stopped at one of our favorite beaches (Lajes) hoping for some surf. Todd (as usual) jumped into the water hoping for a little something. But there wasn’t much and there were actually too many jelly fish in the water to even get wet. Todd was stung a few times. So the kids spent the time trying to catch the jelly fish instead!

 

We continued around the island after Lajes. A quick stop in Santa Barbara for a picture. Tried to grab a bite at our favorite BBQ spot but they were packed. So we ended up at the great café in Calheta. Dinner by moonlight. No complaints!