I'm so packing up and moving...
Aug. 19th, 2006 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellefliesHave just turned down a flight to Aruba seeing as how I need time to recover from the two weeks of non-stop flying. Plus, Nigeria looms in my future (Sunday) and I really don't want to do that with little sleep.
And just a warning folks, this is a long one. Lots of pics this time around *g*
Can you tell I had a good time?
The Azores, for those of you not familiar with it (probably most everyone) is 800 miles from the coast of Portugal near the middle of the Atlantic. They're a volcanic (or mostly volcanic and the majority of the volcanoes are extinct) island chain. The island I visited was the Island of Terceira, which is one of the largest in the chain.
We commercialed to Terceira from New York, with a stop in Lisbon on the way. The entire crew got bumped up to business class (which was amazing) giving us better comfort to sleep in - not that anybody can really sleep on planes to the point that they actually feel rested. We were all pretty wiped out when we got there, but there was no way I was going to let lack of sleep get in my way when confronted with scenery this island is riddled with.
Yet again, out of a group of 12 people, half of whom talked about showing up for a tour of the island, only one other person did besides me. I'd just like to add that I find it pretty pathetic that pilots, who are typically twice the age of the flight attendants at this company, have more stamina and more willingness to go see stuff.
Our first stop was an extinct volcano by the name of Carvao. It is only one of two hollow volcanoes in the world. Apparently, when a volcano goes dormant or extinct, it fills up with rocks and rubble (For example, if you looked into Mount St Helens, you wouldn't see a gaping cavern or a pool of lava. You'd see rubble). That wasn't the case with this volcano - it was left completely empty and hollowed out, leaving a gorgeous system of caves for people to crawl through. It was originally found when a cow fell into the chimney (a drop I'm sure the animal didn't survive) and its worried owner came looking for it. 100-something years later and its a tourist attraction. The caves are magnificent, pictures really don't do them justice since you really can't fathom the size of it unless you walk into it. The main vault area they call the cathedral, and for good reason, since that's exactly what it looks like.
Looking up. Way up.
In the Cathedral, you could see how the lava had once molded the form of these caves. In two places, it looked like the lava had smashed against the ceiling, looking for an exit, but the stone was too strong. It wasn't until it found the chimney and smashed through the rock that was once there, that it got out and added to the creation of these spectacular islands.
After the cathedral you keep walking down down down until you reach a small cave at the bottom full of cold water - 5 degrees Celsius is what the guide told us. Apparently in winter, the small pool becomes a large pool and rises to encompass the stairs - one of the reasons Carvao is closed in winter. The interior of the volcano is wet and dark, water constantly dripping. In fact, it takes 100 years to create one centimeters worth of growth on the stalagmites that adorn the cave.
The Mountains, as seen from the entrance to the volcano. These islands really have no clue as to what "subtle" means. Everything is spectacular there.
The next cave system we went to was the Christmas Caves. So named for the altar inside and the mass that is always performed at Christmas. The Christmas Caves didn't have the grandiose air that Carvao had, they were less of an eruption site and more of a transportation system for lava once upon a time (about 3000 years ago). They are small, twisty and narrow. Thankfully they require all visitors to wear a hair net and hard hat when walking through the caves, and for good reason, since I smashed my head against the low ceiling on more then one occasion.
Where Carvao was massive, the Christmas Caves were small and tight, with tiny little tunnels just begging to be explored (but not by me!)
Our next stop on the tour (we had a local taxi driver bringing us everywhere and waiting for us until we were done being all touristy) was a tiny little vineyard that also housed a wine museum. I'm not big on drinking, but wine is one of the few things I do enjoy and this vineyard was beautiful. So tiny, you'd hardly know it was there from the road.
Terceira being a volcanic island it was no surprise that they grew all their grapes in round holes cut out of the volcanic stone and filled with earth. In fact, very little wood was used in the construction of anything here, it was mostly all volcanic rock. The island is criss-crossed with fences and not a one of them is made of wood.
In the musuem. This rope was made of Whale Nerves. WHALE NERVES.
See, these islands don't do subtle. It's all about being vibrant and gorgeous.
The Storage facilities. This place makes fantastic wine.
Being islands created by Volcanoes, it's no suprise that a part of their coast consists of volcanic upthrusts.
It's like having the ultimate swimming pool. The upthrusts prevent the heavy breakers from making it inshore, but it also creates pools of water that are perfect to swim in.
Why am I in New York City when places like this exist?
Off to the village...
for a BULLFIGHT!! On the beach of all places.
The participants stayed on the beach and the audience stayed by the steps the lead onto the beach. And the bull had center stage. There were no fences separating the bull from the audience, only a rope and 5 guys holding on. Whenever the bull would charge at the participants they'd dive into the ocean to get away - the bull actually followed them into the surf a few times.
Did I mention there were no fences?
Run Away! Run Away! I'd say this was less of a Bull Fight and more of a Bull Antagonization. No bulls were harmed during this whole thing, just... annoyed.
I stayed and watched the fight longer then the rest, pilots being pilots had to go and discover all the bars selling 1 euro beers. Another reason to visit Terceira is the food. They have incredible food there - I had grilled octopus with roasted potatoes in olive oil with a cabbage and cauliflower mash. It was incredible. Although, for a place surrounded by ocean, they are bigger beef fans then they are seafood fans. Cattle is king here.
We left the festival a little early due to exhaustion and needing to function the next day, but the impression I got was that these parties go well into the night and are full of good food and good music.
And finally, on my way to the corner store to pick up food, the concrete beach at our hotel. The hotel was situated on cliffs with a lagoon at the bottom, since there was no beach, they made one.
The trip didn't exactly end when we left Terceira. The flight was to Oakland, California and when we got to Cali, one of the pilots offered to take some of us to San Francisco for dinner. Which we did, but we were all so dead tired when we got to Fisherman's Wharf that we didn't stop to look around at all. We just headed into Joe's Crab Shack, had some seafood and then drove up and down the hills of San Fran for a bit on our way back to the hotel. Someday I'll have to go to San Fran and actually see it instead of blundering through it half asleep.
Blundering around half asleep seems to be turning into a theme with me... Hmmm.
Holy Crap, I need to stop watching What Not to Wear. I already went on a shopping spree yesterday and I don't need more clothes. I don't think my closet could handle it...
And just a warning folks, this is a long one. Lots of pics this time around *g*
Can you tell I had a good time?
The Azores, for those of you not familiar with it (probably most everyone) is 800 miles from the coast of Portugal near the middle of the Atlantic. They're a volcanic (or mostly volcanic and the majority of the volcanoes are extinct) island chain. The island I visited was the Island of Terceira, which is one of the largest in the chain.
We commercialed to Terceira from New York, with a stop in Lisbon on the way. The entire crew got bumped up to business class (which was amazing) giving us better comfort to sleep in - not that anybody can really sleep on planes to the point that they actually feel rested. We were all pretty wiped out when we got there, but there was no way I was going to let lack of sleep get in my way when confronted with scenery this island is riddled with.
Yet again, out of a group of 12 people, half of whom talked about showing up for a tour of the island, only one other person did besides me. I'd just like to add that I find it pretty pathetic that pilots, who are typically twice the age of the flight attendants at this company, have more stamina and more willingness to go see stuff.
Our first stop was an extinct volcano by the name of Carvao. It is only one of two hollow volcanoes in the world. Apparently, when a volcano goes dormant or extinct, it fills up with rocks and rubble (For example, if you looked into Mount St Helens, you wouldn't see a gaping cavern or a pool of lava. You'd see rubble). That wasn't the case with this volcano - it was left completely empty and hollowed out, leaving a gorgeous system of caves for people to crawl through. It was originally found when a cow fell into the chimney (a drop I'm sure the animal didn't survive) and its worried owner came looking for it. 100-something years later and its a tourist attraction. The caves are magnificent, pictures really don't do them justice since you really can't fathom the size of it unless you walk into it. The main vault area they call the cathedral, and for good reason, since that's exactly what it looks like.
Looking up. Way up.
In the Cathedral, you could see how the lava had once molded the form of these caves. In two places, it looked like the lava had smashed against the ceiling, looking for an exit, but the stone was too strong. It wasn't until it found the chimney and smashed through the rock that was once there, that it got out and added to the creation of these spectacular islands.
After the cathedral you keep walking down down down until you reach a small cave at the bottom full of cold water - 5 degrees Celsius is what the guide told us. Apparently in winter, the small pool becomes a large pool and rises to encompass the stairs - one of the reasons Carvao is closed in winter. The interior of the volcano is wet and dark, water constantly dripping. In fact, it takes 100 years to create one centimeters worth of growth on the stalagmites that adorn the cave.
The Mountains, as seen from the entrance to the volcano. These islands really have no clue as to what "subtle" means. Everything is spectacular there.
The next cave system we went to was the Christmas Caves. So named for the altar inside and the mass that is always performed at Christmas. The Christmas Caves didn't have the grandiose air that Carvao had, they were less of an eruption site and more of a transportation system for lava once upon a time (about 3000 years ago). They are small, twisty and narrow. Thankfully they require all visitors to wear a hair net and hard hat when walking through the caves, and for good reason, since I smashed my head against the low ceiling on more then one occasion.
Where Carvao was massive, the Christmas Caves were small and tight, with tiny little tunnels just begging to be explored (but not by me!)
Our next stop on the tour (we had a local taxi driver bringing us everywhere and waiting for us until we were done being all touristy) was a tiny little vineyard that also housed a wine museum. I'm not big on drinking, but wine is one of the few things I do enjoy and this vineyard was beautiful. So tiny, you'd hardly know it was there from the road.
Terceira being a volcanic island it was no surprise that they grew all their grapes in round holes cut out of the volcanic stone and filled with earth. In fact, very little wood was used in the construction of anything here, it was mostly all volcanic rock. The island is criss-crossed with fences and not a one of them is made of wood.
In the musuem. This rope was made of Whale Nerves. WHALE NERVES.
See, these islands don't do subtle. It's all about being vibrant and gorgeous.
The Storage facilities. This place makes fantastic wine.
Being islands created by Volcanoes, it's no suprise that a part of their coast consists of volcanic upthrusts.
It's like having the ultimate swimming pool. The upthrusts prevent the heavy breakers from making it inshore, but it also creates pools of water that are perfect to swim in.
Why am I in New York City when places like this exist?
Off to the village...
for a BULLFIGHT!! On the beach of all places.
The participants stayed on the beach and the audience stayed by the steps the lead onto the beach. And the bull had center stage. There were no fences separating the bull from the audience, only a rope and 5 guys holding on. Whenever the bull would charge at the participants they'd dive into the ocean to get away - the bull actually followed them into the surf a few times.
Did I mention there were no fences?
Run Away! Run Away! I'd say this was less of a Bull Fight and more of a Bull Antagonization. No bulls were harmed during this whole thing, just... annoyed.
I stayed and watched the fight longer then the rest, pilots being pilots had to go and discover all the bars selling 1 euro beers. Another reason to visit Terceira is the food. They have incredible food there - I had grilled octopus with roasted potatoes in olive oil with a cabbage and cauliflower mash. It was incredible. Although, for a place surrounded by ocean, they are bigger beef fans then they are seafood fans. Cattle is king here.
We left the festival a little early due to exhaustion and needing to function the next day, but the impression I got was that these parties go well into the night and are full of good food and good music.
And finally, on my way to the corner store to pick up food, the concrete beach at our hotel. The hotel was situated on cliffs with a lagoon at the bottom, since there was no beach, they made one.
The trip didn't exactly end when we left Terceira. The flight was to Oakland, California and when we got to Cali, one of the pilots offered to take some of us to San Francisco for dinner. Which we did, but we were all so dead tired when we got to Fisherman's Wharf that we didn't stop to look around at all. We just headed into Joe's Crab Shack, had some seafood and then drove up and down the hills of San Fran for a bit on our way back to the hotel. Someday I'll have to go to San Fran and actually see it instead of blundering through it half asleep.
Blundering around half asleep seems to be turning into a theme with me... Hmmm.
Holy Crap, I need to stop watching What Not to Wear. I already went on a shopping spree yesterday and I don't need more clothes. I don't think my closet could handle it...
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 01:53 pm (UTC)Man. I am really envious of your ocean photos. Those are just brilliant.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-21 03:38 pm (UTC)It was a good location to photograph for someone just learning the ropes of a digital camera. You have to work hard to take a bad picture! It's like the island is begging to be photographed.
And I didn't know anything about The Azores until I got there. I'd seen them on a few ocean documentaries and heard co-workers gushing about them, but I really didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there :)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 12:08 pm (UTC)It's one thing to have a beautiful location, it's another to be able to frame and compose the photo properly. You've got a great eye.