Azores: a peaceful shelter of the hectic world. Part 1
Part 1 is devoted to the village of Maia, located in the municipality of Ribeira Grande on the island of Sao Miguel, the Azores, Portugal.
A place, from where my discoveries of the Azores have started.
A place I have fallen head over hills in love with.
Everything here is assembled from what is broken:
cities of ash and fern mosaics, cobblestones,
rough cathedrals of black lava.Elodie Olson-Coons
Shall I make it happen or shall I rather not risk? This looks so appealing, but so far away, how am I going to get there? Going alone or shall I at least try to find a company? Better going alone, I’d be more mobile. But, helas, also no one to rely upon in case something happens.
These were the thoughts running through my head when I was on the edge of buying my tickets to one of the magical destinations on this planet.
Deep breath — exhale. I am so excited — I am so worried. Last step filling the forms and the tickets are mine. Can I even plan that much in advance? I click the last button, screwing up my eyes.
In 4 months sharp, I would be boarding a plane that would take me to Sao Miguel — the most populated and the biggest island of the Azorean archipelago. Little did I know that late January of 2018 that my voyage would literally mark the beginning of a new chapter of my life.
Azores, the autonomous region of Portugal, constitutes of nine islands of volcanic origin in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. They are almost equally distanced from the shores of Africa, Europe and the US, located accurately where the weather for Europe is formed.
Surfing, tea plantations, greenhouse pineapple pantations, wind surfing, paragliding, kitesurfing, blue whales and cachalotes, joyful dolphins, demanding hike sand mesmerizing views, irksome forests, dark and soggy caves, bombastic dormant volcanoes, blue and green lakes, hot springs, cold waterfalls, wild boundless nature balanced with fancy combed towns.
Azores have everything you can imagine and beyond. You name it — it’s there.
My original plan was to leap over the islands spending 3–4 days on each. Luckily, wise local people discouraged me from doing that. The more I was into discovering Sao Miguel, the first island I hit, the harder it was to plant in my mind the idea of leaving it.
I was very cautious about letting myself connect to this place (God knows, I didn’t want any drama), but the whole experience was so immersive that it basically left me no chance but to let all the control go its own way.
Images, sounds, tastes and smells kept changing so fast that I felt like I was riding the spinning caroussel, and there was no chance to stop it.
But let’s start from the beginning. The first thing that I noticed once I got outside the airport of Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel was the smell of mixture of various parfumes: that of a cattle and a cut grass, of a windy ocean breeze and a sticky fig juice.
That air tastes like a sweet kiss of a beloved person.
My home for the upcoming 2 weeks was Quinta da Canada, which is located in Maia, immediately became my personal paradise.
Quinta da Canada, Maia, Sao Miguel, Azores — my temporary home
Quinta da Canada once was a family nest, then for nearly 17 years it was left abandonned, and now — as the family rights got regained, the house is slowly returning to normal vivid life — all that due to enormous, tireless and full-hearted effort of its owner, Eduardo.
‘You’ll be getting out of your comfort zone’, — Fine, that’s what I am here for, I said, trying to preserve my bravery.
‘There are no beds, people sleep on the floor or in the camping located in the garden’, — That’s a bit tough, but well, I am not some sort of a princess, I can manage I think, but wait — I don’t have a tent.
‘Hot water? If you’re lucky. Bath? Forget this word’ — Oh Gosh! Let’s see what else you have prepared for me.
‘The roof is partially absent and there are holes in the wooden floorboards’ — That will be fun to see (I thought I couldn’t be surprised as I still remembered my first Canadian rented house where I lived along with fleas who occupied everything including even my mattress and the pillow, where faucets could only be shut with a wrench, where hail has fallen into my room through the non-working fireplace, yet I was indeed amazed).
‘The windows have no glasses, only wooden shutters. The gusts of ocean wind wander the house on their own’, etc etc etc…
From the outside it looked like a pure ruin, terrifying stories Eduardo told me on the way from Ponta Delgada to Maia only added to my anxiety and developed imagination. I expected the worst possible scenario.
But once I found myself in that house, all my fears got blown away. It had such a welcoming soul, such a warm atmosphere and vivid charm, that despite its obvious physical downsides, the wonderful embrace it offered had win my heart.
Wise people say “You vibe attracts your tribe”, this saying is certainly right when referring to Quinta da Canada.
There was no random outcast throughout 2 weeks I was there, people were perfectly fitting the place and vice versa.
It gave me a feeling of profound belongingness and a kind of magic predestination — we all are exactly where we have to be in a given moment of time surrounded by people who are meant to be next to us, even if we do not fully ever realize it.
Right place, right time with no exceptions.
No news, nothing happens. Yet the whole Universe with the sky full of poetry, ocean full of wonder and land full of mystery is concentrated in one spot. I am calm and agitated at the same time.
Exuberant blossoms of Maia
Maia, as well as very many other villages on the island of Sao Miguel, seems to be home to religious people — every house had a tile (or even a panel) depicting either Jesus Christ, or Virgin Mary, or Our Lady of Fatima (check this impressive story on six apparitions of the Virgin Mary to 3 shepherd kids in the town of Fatima, Portugal), or other saints.
It made me think of local people as of kind, God-fearing and caring.
On the first day Maia village community celebrated the Saint Trinity Day, on this occasion the villagers gathered together to share a meal and a drink, talk a little with neighbors and the mayor, kids went on to play music and cheer around.
It was lovely! I have observed the same tradition throughout my journey, in other villages and island of the Azorean archipelago as well.
Hikes
Azores provide a marvelous opportunity for nature exploration on foot.
Hikes!
I love hiking, I love walking and I know I can tirelessly walk (and talk) for days. A good hike is another reason to get lost in Azores.
These landscapes are just great for hikes — the edges of ‘sleeping’ volcanoes, trails throughout tea plantations, up the mountain peaks, through impassable jungle green bushes, via royal parks where you’d spot a rich variety of unimaginable species of birds, butterflies, flowers and trees, along divine black-sand, wide, almost-deserty beaches.
Trails are well arranged and managed (once every 3 month a group of specially trained people goes on every trail to check if the directions, marks and labels are still clearly visible, if the railings-handles are on place, clean and usable).
For most of the trails there are printed maps, you can get those from any Office of Tourism, where the staff is always happy to give you a hand (literally and figuratively ;).
On Azores you are one-on-one with the blissful, breath-taking creation of nature and God. The puffy skies seem so close — you can jump and touch them, and it fills you with this indescribable feeling of lightness as if you are riding on the cloud.
I had only 2 problems with hiking on Azores:
1) Getting to the starting point of the hike is an adventure in itself. I mean it.
Since I don’t have a driving license, I couldn’t rent a car.
Public buses schedule turned out to be very complicated and not really tourist-friendly (sort of, everything goes through the main city of Ponta Delgada, or, no bus after 19h).
Therefore, my options were quite limited: either taxi (expensive, as everywhere else, even though sometimes I went on to use it), or hitch-hiking, which for me sumps up to the pretty simple formula YOU-NEVER-KNOW.
You never know how long you will have to be waiting before someone stops, you never know whether the driver goes where you want/need to go, you never know of the driver’s intentions — and this can sometimes be quite creepy.
I was lucky though. I met only wonderful, joyful, caring, kind and helpful people along my journey. People are my best capital, my inspiration, my biggest asset. And I am happy as long I can connect with them, share with and learn from them.
Azores were not an exception — great people came my way, with some of them we still keep in touch and exchange news! This is the moment where Ross and Vasco should recognize themselves ;)
Despite all the positive moments, hitch-hiking brings along so many uncertainties that, I should acknowledge, the trip doesn’t always go as planned, irritates and frustrates the traveler.
Looking back, I somewhat regret I didn’t enjoy my Azorean adventure to the fullest because the majority of time I was severely dependent on chance, luck, someone else’s mood and plans, and most importantly — I controlled very little.
Bear this in mind if you are, like myself, not a driver.
2) Hiking makes you think a lot.
I am someone who easily falls into a trap of overthinking, and eats me from inside of my head. And hiking, as an activity that provides lots of lonesome time, can be terrible, if you are your worst enemy.
The day I came back to work I have put a resignation letter, and my life took a different course.
Tea plantations
3 km away from where I was located for most of my time, in Maia, there is the oldest, and currently the only tea plantation in Europe.
Planted in this island since the 19th century, the old procedure is still used for more than 2 centuries, that’s one of the reasons why it is an ecologically clean product, free from pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
Tea factory — Gorreana — is located right there and is actively operating. The excursions are free of charge, you can even participate in a tea-making process and taste both black and green sorts of tea unlimitedly.
The green tea of the Azores is the most popular, although 3 different kinds of black tea are also produced here.
I am a huge tea-lover and for the time I spent on Azores I became a frequent visitor, now missing my tiny paradise lots…
I brought a couple of packs of the Gorreana tea home, but it didn’t taste the same. Still it brings lovely memories back and makes me feel genuinely good.
***
This is the end of part 1 of the series on Azores. To help me celebrate my saudades, listen to the music that perfectly describes my feelings towards this place:
