After our unglamorous entry to Horta, we cleared in with the authorities the next morning, and then met up with Mark (Trip’s cousin) and Minda (Mark’s wife). As they had aready been on the island for a few days, they were ready to show us the sites! We sped up the hill and around the coast to Praia do Almoxarife. Faial actually has a few beaches, unlike the others, and this one was covered in delicious black sand. It’s also home to a much nicer and quieter restaurant owned by the same folks that own Peters, the famous sailor’s pub in town. We had the restaurant to ourselves and I tucked into yet another fabulous order of octopus. After a glass of wine or two we wandered down to the beach. We had forgotten our suits that day, but it was still nice to wander into the water to feel how refreshing it is.
We decided to head back into town for the festival (Semana do Mar, Sea Week), but got stopped by a police blockade for the festival. Unfortunately we also needed gas, and it was just a few hundred feet out of reach. Trip and Minda got creative and walked to the station to buy a one gallon container and enough fuel to get them home that night. with that taken care of, we wandered into the festival.
It was wall to wall people eating from food trucks, drinking from 4 oz recycled cups that get re-used, and wandering from performance to performance on different stages. We had a bunch of appetizers – chicken wings, shrimp empanadas, chicharrones, farturas (fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon), and bifanas (pork sandwiches), all washed down by local red wine and beer. The main band was Portuguese, but covered a lot of American classics, so it was a fun listen.
That night and the next morning brought some crazy thunderstorms, the worst the islands have seen in a while. We did fine in the anchorage, but the cracks of thunder were intimidating. Nearby Pico island lost power.
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