Up at 7:00 and ate breakfast at the hotel which is included. They had a nice variety of choices. Met our guide at 9:10 and went to another hotel to pick up some more travelers before starting our tour. It was a busy day but I'll try to give you some of the highlights. We learned lots of facts about the Azores and their history. They were very important in the 16th - 18th century because of their location and were in connection with the whole world due to this. Terceira Island has 57,000 people and in 1980 had an earthquake (7.2) which destroyed 75% of the houses.
Our first stop was Monte Brasil, the remnants of a volcano which overlook the city of Angra. It was used as a military base in the past because of its vantage point.
We drove past the bullfight arena which holds 5000 people and saw the bulls statue. Running of the bulls is popular here and occurs from May 1st to October 15th - we just missed it.
We drove by the American military base which used to house 6000 soliders but now is down to about 400. This downsizing occurred 3 years ago and that's when Terceira Island started to beef up their tourism industry to make up for the loss of the economic benefits of the base. Our guide Marina did say that American soliders were very helpful in the rebuilding process that happened after the earthquake.
We saw numerous different Chapels of the Holy Spirit - there are 73 on the island.
Praia de Vitoria was our next stop which is the 2nd largest city on the island and a port. They have sandy beaches in contrast with the volcanic rocks in many other areas. We were able to walk around the town a bit and explore. We were practically blown off of Serra do Facho a high lookout point over the city with a statue to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the patron saint and protector of the city. I didn't mention it earlier but today's weather was worse than when Ophelia went through a few weeks ago. They are used to wind but it was windy and raining in torrents at some points. I only add this to explain why some of our pictures may not be the clearest. It certainly didn't stop us from learning lots, seeing more and enjoying ourselves.
We stopped for lunch at Moinhos and had a traditional dish Alcatra. This is a beef stew which they cook for 8 hours and the meat just falls apart. We had vegetable soup first, the stew and potatoes, bread, olives, goat cheese and Don Amelia's a traditional dessert. And wine or beer of course.
Next stop was Serra de Cume where you looked out over the patchwork of farm fields. Again you got blown away there.
From there it was on to Algar Do Carvao Lava Cave, one of only 3 places in the world where you can go into a volcano.
Our last stop was the Wine Museum where we got to see how they grow some of their grapes, the different varieties and some of the equipment used. Then we did a wine tasting and were able to buy some wine.
Since we had such a big lunch we just grabbed pizza and kabobs from a food truck by the hotel.
As I said it was a busy day. We started just after 9:00 and got back to the hotel after 6:00. I think tomorrow we'll sleep in!
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