Azores Shore Leave – Day 11

Angra do Heroisma, Terceira
Date: Tuesday 06/17/2008
Weather: Rain - drizzle

Tuesday dawned overcast and drizzly.




We had a decision to make. Our original plans were to leave Terceira on Wednesday to head to Sao Miguel. A quick morning tour of Angra left us wanting to spend more time here. Besides the obvious historical significance of the city, we could see it was a city preparing for a big festival.

The coming Friday was the start of a week long festival centered around the bulls. There were bullfights Saturday, Sunday, and throughout the week. There were also “running with the bulls” where the bulls were let loose in the streets and those who were so inclined could run with them.

You could tell what a big deal it was. People were putting a fresh coat of paint on buildings and hanging flags and lights and decorations. The festival included parades every night. Concession stands and huge bandstands were being constructed all over the city.

Even though Robyn and I would have to leave before the festival, it seemed like a shame for Scott and Eric to miss it. Factor in that this was a fascinating city. As much as we loved sailing, Sao Miguel was a 24 hour sail from here and with two days left we would rather spend the time exploring Angra. We decided to stay in Angra and fly to Sao Miguel on Friday to catch our flight.

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Scott sent Kelly an email telling him our change in plans.

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Since it was a wet day anyway, we decided it was a good day to explore the caves. We hired a cab to take us up to the volcano. On the way up to the caves we passed the bullfighting ring.

We also passed a farm that raised the “mean” bulls that were used for fighting. Bulls are not harmed in Azorean bull fights. The Portuguese man we met in Sao Jorges said that in Terceira they had too much respect for the bulls because the bulls had saved them from the Spanish.

Terceira has two well known caves. The first was a volcanic eruption that boiled around inside and finally found a weak spot to rupture the earth’s surface. This created huge vertical caverns.


The upper one was called the cathedral and was golden and beautiful. We took pictures but our flash was no match for the enormousness of the space. The acoustics were so good in the cathedral that they sometimes held symphony concerts in there. There were stairs leading down to a lake, 50 feet below.

The second cave was a lava flow. It was horizontal and a little more ordinary than the first.

We also stopped at a lookout to see fumas. Fumas are where heat from the volcano releases smoke through cracks in the earth’s crust. It was hard to distinguish the smoke from the clouds, but we could see them in spots.

We returned from the outing at dinner time and met up with Mike, Linda and Ray. Robyn showed her usual determination for perfection, checking out and rejecting one restaurant after another. After about half an hour walking up and down steep hills and as the time got later and the people got hungrier, most of us were willing to settle.

But we learned – never doubt Robyn! She came up with a wonderful restaurant called the (something) Steak House. It was on the second story overlooking a courtyard and Robyn asked a table by the window. There were not any tables by the window, but the staff accommodated us by moving two tables over there.

The steaks were cooked by the waiter at the table, and Scott had his favorite dish – Octopus. One of the waitress was very cute, she pronounced it (in English) Octopoof! It became Octopoof for us from that time on.