Tomorrow we may sail to São Jorge, an island near Faial. I’ve been in Azores for more than two weeks, on the islands and Faial and Pico. Here’s a little photo journal of what I’ve seen on these two islands.
Flowers! The Azores are famous for having miles and miles of hydrangeas. They were introduced here centuries ago and have thrived. You can drive for miles with lace caps and mopheads lining the roads in all the shades of hydrangea–pinks, deep purples, a mix of pink/blue purples, and of course, blue. We were a little early for the full show, but you can see how many buds are on the verge of opening.
This is a wall of deep blue morning glories on Pico, with my friend Lynn standing in awe of the display. She lives here part of every year and told me that people are now encouraged not to plant morning glories. They do appear to be rather invasive, but what a breathtaking view.
And then there are fields and fields of lantana, nasturtium, and purple clover. These have been the source of our bouquets onboard.
June is a month of festivals throughout the islands. We got to participate in one on Faial and one in a small village on Pico near our friends’ house. The first festival we saw took place in Horta and was called “Maravilho,” which means “wonder.” The word is a combination of the word for sea (mar) and the word for island (ilhos); together they create the word “wonder.” It was a grass roots kind of festival with people selling handmade wares and food, and there were free rides on homemade creations like a bathtub swing, a stuffed chair swing, and best of all (!), a bamboo contraption that was a kind of rudimentary whirl-a-gig!
One of the vendors was screen printing tote bags from his small booth. I bought this one fresh off the press.
They spent a good deal of time balancing the size of the kids on this homemade whirl-a-gig, otherwise the ride would not twirl. Note the smallest child is in a bucket!
A week later we went to a festival on Pico. People brought food to share, and there was music planned but it was too windy to play Azorean guitars which are quite fragile instruments. They are shaped a bit like a mandolin and have 12 strings, although this one appears to have 8.
Instead they played recorded folk music and performed some of their folk dances, which include a caller to guide the dance. The wind was howling. Notice how lightly dressed the women are. I was wearing long sleeves, long pants, and a sweater. No was chilled except me!
While we were visiting Pico another festival took place on Faial, in Horta. It may have been Semana do Mar, Sea Week. The fish decorations were in the air, on the ground, and on walls. The day before we left for Pico I watched a crew of men drive a cherry picker down the road to get all these decorations up on the power lines.
Did you know that Portugal is paved in mosaic walkways? I learned this when we visited mainland Portugal about a decade ago. I did not know I’d find more of them in the Azores. It’s mesmerizing to walk the streets seeing so many different designs. Here are a few. Even the simplest designs are a delight to see.
My favorite!
Sometimes the designs are white on black, sometimes black on white.
There is so much to celebrate here: food, art, fine craft, museums, boats in the harbor, including whaling boats that are no longer used for whaling but get launched often for rowing and sailing practice. We will not be able to take advantage of everything here before we leave for the next island, São Jorge, probably tomorrow.
