Monday morning, or shall I say afternoon (we needed a sleep in after all the excitement the night before), we wandered back around Velas, this time in broad daylight. We made our way up the waterfront promenade, and enjoyed the daytime view of what had been packed with festival goers the night before. We got ourselves oriented, stocked up on groceries, and settled in.
Linda had offered to take us for an island tour on Tuesday. Aside from her local knowledge of the island, it was a pleasure to have someone else behind the wheel with the steep switchbacks down to the fajas!
First off was the tower remnants of a church caught in the eruption of 1808. You can see where the rest of the building was ripped away and it’s remarkable that anything was left standing.
Then it was on to the 1707 church of Santa Barbara. The exquisite detail of the interior (every square inch from the floors to the ceiling was covered in carvings, decorative tile work and paintings) had mostly been untouched despite earthquakes.
Then we stopped at Casa Lane Thornton, on the hills above Calheta, with the most breathtaking views of Pico island, including Mt Pico itself. Andy gave us a tour of the gardens, including substantial grape vines and figs, amongst a plethora of other fruit. And when you wind up with a small vineyard at your new house, of course you take up making wine and liqueur! We got to sample some of Andy’s grappa, rum, and aguardente, which he was kind enough to pass along a bottle our way.
After lunch, the four of us headed over to Faja dos Vimes, home of the only coffee plantation in Europe. Everything is done by hand here, which makes for a very small production capacity. I paid more for a bag of coffee than I ever will again in my life, but how fun to support a small, local, island business.
The tour of the island was absolutely amazing, and we even made our way to the northern side of the island to peer down at the different fajas. I think my favorite view, though, was of a field filled with cows, bordered by hundreds and hundreds of hydrangeas. Not native to the islands, hydrangeas were brought over to create fast growing hedges to the pastures and fields on all of the Azorean islands. Those same hydrangeas are now absolutely breathtaking in their abundance…
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