the north shore

A fajas with Terceira on the horizon.

You turn down the lane (a canada) to a faja. The road goes from paved to clay and gets progressively steeper. I worry if the car I borrowed from Felipe is really rugged enough to get down this. Or up it. At the bottom, I head back immediately, afraid of being trapped before I have to leave for the airport in a few hours.

Sao Jorge has steep slopes, with the bays of the island separated by a tall ridge, which was completely foggy when I drove through it.

 At the bottom are the towns: fajas. This one has a swimming pool too.

Or you can just dive in.

 It's pretty rugged. I'm glad I don't live somewhere so remote. But even the farther spot on the island is less than an hour's drive to the airport.

I had fish for lunch, and a half bottle of Casal Garcia. Refrescante vinho verde!

 In my last hours on Sao Jorge, I discover the coast north of Urzulina. This is a collapse crater.

While most of Sao Jorge is quite old, with many fajas and town established in the 19th century and earlier, Velas decided it needed a municipal auditorium with a modern look. That's the library to the left of the sailboat.

A soccer match was playing when the sun came out.

 As I flew back to San Miguel, I looked out the window and saw my cottage!

Even better, there was a rainbow.

So now I'm back in Ponta Delgada, the land of beautiful churches. There are so many more people here than on Faial or Pico or Sao Jorge. Though I went to dinner, and had my first piripiri, and ran smack into Antonio and Lino, who had recommended it to me.

The church was all lit up tonight. I headed out for a free concert (at 10 pm on a Sunday). For some reason I thought it would be organ music, but instead it was 70s and 80s rock and rock.

 Whoever she was, she has undenial charisma. She reminded me of Tina Turner.