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Walking around Velas
After spending the first night at anchor, (rocking and rolling, rain squalls, ferries coming in during the middle of the night), we parked the boat in the marina and headed to the ferry terminal to greet our traveling companions from Pico. We met up with the Rusk Ferreira family again and rented a van to drive around the island. The weather wasn’t great but the company was good and the scenery was amazing, as usual .
Our first stop was an abandoned lighthouse on the western section of the island where we checked out the ruins and hiked to a lookout that was used by whalers. Apparently they would sit up there in a small structure and watch for passing whales. When they spotted something they would signal (using lights or mirrors) to the whaling crew who would get out the boats, which were basically big canoes, and set out to round them up. It sounds impossible but it’s totally true.
Next we drove to Santa Cristo which is a faja, a flat section of land near the water where villages are often located. Santa Cristo is an isolated village without roads and up until last year they were using In order to get there you have to hike up and over a hill and then down the other side; it took us about 45 minutes. The path is a narrow trail too small to fit a car but perfect for ATVs and supplies are brought in this way. Adam has proclaimed it yet another great spot in the Azores to wait out the zombie apocalypse – unless the zombies start falling off the cliff into the Faja then all bets are off.
After this we made our way to the eastern tip of the island, Pontinha do Topo, where I was nearly blown off a rockwall trying to take a picture of Topo island. Luckily I was able to steady myself and we made it back to Velas in one piece.
Today Adam and I were back to exploring on foot, which is harder on the legs but much better for finding lizards. We saw a number of properties for sale but no ruins so it looks like Sao Jorges is out – far too urban with their windows, and roofs. We will likely stay here for at least another day and then start heading east to the last of the islands – weather permitting.
Our first stop was an abandoned lighthouse on the western section of the island where we checked out the ruins and hiked to a lookout that was used by whalers. Apparently they would sit up there in a small structure and watch for passing whales. When they spotted something they would signal (using lights or mirrors) to the whaling crew who would get out the boats, which were basically big canoes, and set out to round them up. It sounds impossible but it’s totally true.
Next we drove to Santa Cristo which is a faja, a flat section of land near the water where villages are often located. Santa Cristo is an isolated village without roads and up until last year they were using In order to get there you have to hike up and over a hill and then down the other side; it took us about 45 minutes. The path is a narrow trail too small to fit a car but perfect for ATVs and supplies are brought in this way. Adam has proclaimed it yet another great spot in the Azores to wait out the zombie apocalypse – unless the zombies start falling off the cliff into the Faja then all bets are off.
After this we made our way to the eastern tip of the island, Pontinha do Topo, where I was nearly blown off a rockwall trying to take a picture of Topo island. Luckily I was able to steady myself and we made it back to Velas in one piece.
Today Adam and I were back to exploring on foot, which is harder on the legs but much better for finding lizards. We saw a number of properties for sale but no ruins so it looks like Sao Jorges is out – far too urban with their windows, and roofs. We will likely stay here for at least another day and then start heading east to the last of the islands – weather permitting.