In May, at the wedding of my cousin Paulo and Beta, some cousins and I decided that it would be fun to organize a trip together. Five months later, on October 26th, we met at Lisbon airport, and there were 14 of us in total. Destination? São Miguel, in the Azores.
We landed early in the morning in Ponta Delgada, went to pick up the three cars we had rented, and less than twenty seconds after setting off Diogo shouted “WATCH OUT FOR THE GATE!!” – I braked hard, and Isac, who was driving behind me, almost hit my car, although luckily the third car, driven by Alexander, was still far behind. With the windscreen completely fogged up I had not even seen the gate! What a glorious entrance!
The Lagoon of the Seven Cities was our first stop, and it was foggy up there although we were above it. Rain, shine, sweater on, sweater off, autumn and spring were the seasons of the day with a whiff of winter and summer for brief minutes. We went up, we went down, then further down before we went up again, green all around us, grey in the sky, green all around, blue sky, blue sea, Isac and I wanted to jump in but we were prevented from doing so because everything was back at home, our shorts, towels, etc. “Let’s go in our underwear”, we said. “No, because then the kids will want to go too and they’ll get sick” – We did not jump! Bummer!
The other 3 days were the same as the first, leaving home early, after breakfast, and returning late having spent the whole day exploring the island to the maximum, always with pit stops at the many hot water pools that the island has, to swim a bit. A lake here, another lake there, tea, pineapples, beaches and more and more and more. As on the first day autumn and spring were always present, as were the colors, the ascents and the descents.
A family like mine should not be allowed to take a vacation in the Azores, the tranquillity of the places we visited quickly disappeared upon our arrival, a lot of talk and lots of laughs.
The only drawback during these days was the excess of time inside the car and the lack of walks; it is a crime to go to the Azores and spend so much time in the car.
See you soon Azores, see you soon!!
*This as all the other articles on this site are translated by my good friend Devo Forbes!!
Cheers!