On our last full day in Sao Miguel, we decided to explore the west end of the island. Lagoa das Sete Cidades is considered one of the seven wonders of Portugal. Up until now, there was little chance we could see the view through the cloud cover. The Azores has one type of weather—changeable. One side of the lake is supposedly blue and the other green. Maybe we still didn’t have enough sun, but we couldn’t see the difference. The view was postcard perfect!
Even farther west is Ponta da Ferraria. The Ferraria thermal pool is unlike any other because it is IN the ocean. To experience this you have to visit at low tide. You crawl down a precarious ledge of lava rock and slip into the ocean. Once you are in the cold Atlantic water swishes in and a nice warm wave of volcano-heated water washes out. To make sure you don’t wash out with the waves you have to hold on to the ropes they have strung across the water. I don’t think the video quite captures how wavy it is, but let’s just say I did swallow some seawater. I would do it every day if I could. You feel alive. We tour around Ponta Delgado in the morning and then fly back to Canada. See you soon. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
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It is easy to see that the biggest source of revenue in Sao Miguel is the tourism sector. But next to that the primary economic activities are the production of dairy products, cereals, tea, fruits, and wine. While we were here we visited tea and pineapple plantations.
Gorreana tea is the oldest and only tea plantation operating in Europe. The humid and rainy climate, the mild temperature, and the volcanic soil are perfect for production. Bonus, the usual pests don’t survive here so they can be grown organically. We have been to tea plantations in Asia. What we would usually see were many workers leaning over the shrubs handpicking the leaves. As we hiked through Gorreana we saw groups of four men harvesting the leaves with some sort of vacuum. It was fascinating to watch. Of course, we tried the tea-flavoured ice cream in the gift shop 😄 São Miguel is also home to over 6,000 pineapple plantations. The island is the only place in the world where pineapples are grown in greenhouses! We visited Arruda Greenhouses who have grown Abacaxi Pineapples for over 100 years. The crown is smaller and they take 18 months to harvest. They are said to have an intense taste. The only samples they were offering were their liqueurs, which were intense. Besides waving to the cattle along the side of the road, that is about all the agriculture we investigated. So different from our crops in North Perth. You are always in my Prayers. Love Mom. The Islet of Vila Franca resulted from an ancient sub-marine volcano. The volcano is now extinct and what is left is a perfectly round crater emerging from the Atlantic Ocean. At times, you can swim in the still waters of the crater. Currently, it is off limits to protect the nesting birds including Azores' Cory's Shearwater. We had to be ready to snorkel the choppy waters on the outside rim. The water temperature is seventeen degrees Celsius so we suited up in 7 mm wetsuits. This was my first time wearing both booties and a hood. Because of the waves, we had to make sure we didn’t get too close to the edge—you don’t want to get thrown into the rocks. The area was abundant with fish. We saw schools of sardines that are probably destined for someone's table. My favourite was the red, yellow and blue (grey) Mediterranean parrotfish. A great morning. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. The town of Furnas is located in a volcanic crater. Although the volcano hasn’t erupted since 1620, the earth is still alive. Throughout there are steam holes that smell like sulphuric rotten eggs and lighting 1000 wooden matches all at the same time. The restaurants in Furnas haven’t let this get them down. They cook a specialty, Cozido das Furnas, in these steam holes. Ingredients for their famous stew are placed in the ground. Then they put a lid on it until it is ready to sell in their restaurants. Some even have the name of their restaurant and phone number on little signs so you know where to reserve. I did NOT gobble it up. I did ask about the corn they sometimes boil in the holes, but apparently, it is not corn season.
We did take a dip in a giant thermal swimming pool. It is supposed to have healing properties. I’m not sure about that, but we did have to go to a laundromat to get the orange out of our bathing suits. Something from Furnas that I swear has healing properties are the Bolos Lêvedos. I’ve fallen in love with these yummy flatbreads. I’ve been having them every morning for breakfast 😄 You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Sometimes it is difficult to balance the ethics of travel, especially where animals are involved. It has been a dream of mine to swim with dolphins for a very long time. However, I wasn’t willing to pursue it until I found a way that was good for me as well as comfortable for the dolphins. Futurismo Azores provided us with that opportunity.
Accompanying us on our zodiac was a marine biologist. Her job was to observe the dolphins to ensure we weren’t stressing them. For example, if the dolphins were avoiding the boat we would not approach that pod of dolphins. Once an accepting pod was found only two people at a time were slipped into the water. Snorkel and mask, no fins. The boat would leave us there and circle back to get us once we had experienced dolphins in their natural environment. To be clear, there was no actual “swimming” with the dolphins. You stay on the surface of the water as still as you can. You only swam when it was time to get back onto the boat. Ray and I had three turns in the water. The first was six juvenile bottlenose dolphins. Ray was able to get videos of those. If you listen carefully you can hear them talking. The other groups were large pods of adult bottlenose dolphins which were much bigger. We do not have a video of those. They came very close to us so we kept exceptionally still. How was it? It exceeded my expectations. Someone that was watching my encounter from the boat said, “Where did you look? You were surrounded by dolphins”. At one point an adult dolphin came up from below and we were face to face. I swear it looked me right in the eyes. I will never forget that feeling. Happy days for me and I think the dolphins😄 You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. This is Ray with a diving update. I’ve got two dives in and neither of them was the Word War II shipwreck Dori. Unfortunately, they were only doing shallow dives the day I was out and the Dori is a deeper dive. Maybe Sunday, but even if it doesn’t happen the diving has been incredible.
I was so excited during the first dive that I overused my oxygen a bit. They were kind enough to provide me with a bigger tank for the second dive. I saw a manta ray in the distance. I also saw an octopus. Until now I had only seen octopus in an aquarium or on my plate. They are quite tasty😄 Every place you dive is a bit different. I didn’t see a lot of coral here, but the sea urchins were the most colourful I’ve ever seen. Enjoy the video. Ray Ray is off scuba diving so I thought I would take a moment to introduce you to the Azores. Açores (in Portuguese) is a Region of Portugal. It is composed of nine volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,400 km west of Lisbon, and about and about 1,930 km southeast of Newfoundland. For the next five days, we will be exploring the largest island of São Miguel. We are staying in the small town of São Roque population 5000. Our accommodations are right on the beach—which has black sand due to the erosion of the lava basalt! The area is popular with surfers. A guy was out on the waves with a Foilboard when we were walking the beach. It was even more interesting to watch live than in the videos I’ve seen. We are excited to share this island with you. Stay posted😄 You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. A Taxi, a plane, a shuttle bus, two trains and a lot of walking brought us from Santiago to Toledo. Years ago I accompanied an LDSS choir trip to Spain. We passed by this incredible walled city and I knew I had to return. Toledo is known as the "City of the Three Cultures" for the influences of Christians, Muslims, and Jews throughout its long history. I wish this meant they lived in peace and cooperation, but unfortunately, it was a continuous struggle for power. Ownership of churches, mosques and synagogue properties flipped back and forth among the faiths. This has created some unique architecture and some unlikely names for places of worship. The Toledo cathedral is built upon a Muslim mosque and you can see the influence in its design. And names? In Canada, we could hardly imagine a mosque called Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz (the light of Christ).
Toledo is very touristy. On every corner, you can purchase replica armour, chalices and swords. But, the city is about more than conflict. It is the epicentre of the art of Doménikos Theotokópoulos born in Greece in 1541. When he moved to Spain DT’s name was a mouthful for the average Spaniard. They nicknamed him El Greco (the Greek) and it stuck. His paintings are dark with faces and hands usually elongated and Ray and I both love them. El Greco’s best-known work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, was painted for the church of Santo Tomé in Toledo. We scurried over there before tourist buses arrived and had our viewing almost to ourselves. When seeing the Mona Lisa in Paris people are often disappointed with how small it is. This painting does not disappoint. It is a massive 4.8 m x 3.6 m. and very detailed. El Greco even inserted his son as the young boy pointing. What interesting details do you notice? Our hotel had a rooftop terrace overlooking the cathedral. We are going to miss the terrace and Toledo. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Day 15 Milladoiro To Santiago de Compostela 7.76 We made it—Porto to Santiago. A total of 268.5 km plus one bus ride (sorry Ray ☹️). In spite of the misty rain, it was all smiles and cheers in the square as pilgrims laid down their last kilometre. Finishing the Camino can be an emotionally difficult experience for some pilgrims. Volunteers at Pilgrim House are trained to help you unpack your journey. As always, taking care of your mental health is important. I don’t get the initial rush entering the square. I like to pick up my Compostela Certificate and then head back for a photo. Ray says I’m always happiest when the paperwork is complete. We arrived early so we had the rest of the day to do pilgrim/tourist stuff. After churros and hot chocolate in the square, we were off to Pilgrims’ Mass. It gives your heart a tug when the priest announces that pilgrims have arrived from Canada. Of course, the most spectacular part of the mass is the Botafumeiro. This giant swinging censer is almost 175 years old— it’s not even the original. Ray loves the smell of the incense. I love watching what is basically an 80 kg smoke bomb sailing through the air. We also did a roof tour of the Cathedral. It is quite steep. I’m surprised how far the guide lets you wander around up there. From the outside, we could look back into the cathedral and see the altar. Once we climbed the tower we could view the square and see tiny specs that were pilgrims gathering. Ray took a photo of a biking group. When we got back to the square he airdropped it to them. It looked like a drone shot! We finished off our day with free samples of Santiago cookies and cake. Does it get any better? You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Day 13 Caldas de Reis to Padrón 18.6 km In Portugal, it was windmill after windmill. In Galicia, it’s one hórreo after another. These traditional corncribs or granaries were used for centuries as storage. Like the windmills, I’m not sure how many are still used. We saw a particularly large one yesterday that looked like it might have been repurposed into an Airbnb. Today we got our Pedronia. Something we didn’t know we wanted/needed until our hostelier told us where to get it. We thought Padrón was most famous for peppers, but low and behold it has a rock of religious significance. The claim is that when the body of St. James arrived in Spain the boat he arrived on was tied up to this exact rock. Once you walk here and know this, the municipality gives you a certificate. This considerable piece of carved granite (167 centimetres high) sits under the altar in the church of Santiago in Padron. Originally it served as an altar in ceremonies dedicated to the god Neptune and those ancient inscriptions can still be seen. It was “Christianized” with the addition of an engraved cross. Again, repurposing of something no longer used. Just random, but today I met a pilgrim whose brother used to work at the Listowel Co-op. Small world. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Day 14 Padrón to Milladoiro 18.1 km The historic district we have been walking through in Spain is called Galicia. As we walk we see graffiti reminding us that many Galicians do not consider themselves part of Spain. They are right to believe that culturally they have many differences. This area has Celtic roots. So, it is no surprise that we encountered a bagpiper along the road welcoming pilgrims. We are now very close to Santiago. As “great” as it was to hear the bagpipes, that wasn’t today’s most memorable musical moment. We entered the Church of our Lady of Slavery in Cruces to get our pilgrim's stamp. As is our custom we sat for a moment of reflection. Another pilgrim, just across from us, pulled a wooden flute from his backpack. Quietly he began to play a haunting melody. There wasn’t another sound as his offering filled the cupola of the sanctuary. Blessed. Tonight we are in a hostel with dormitories. There are 12 bunks (24 beds) in our room. I think I will sleep with music softly playing on my headset because surely there will be at least one snorer. Tomorrow Santiago. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
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