Azores, the European Oasis – Part 1

We didn’t know a lot about the Azores besides where they’re located and that we’ve heard of Azores High. That’s why we needed some more time to organize the trip. We couldn’t really be picky about plane tickets so we, like most, also travelled from Venice to Lisbon and then to the Azores. And then we organized flights on the islands. We flew seven times altogether. There are two options to travel between the islands. You can fly, which will cost you from 70 to 100€ and you can travel by ferry, which is a lot cheaper but lasts longer.  Outside of summer season most ferries don’t even drive because the sea is too turbulent. I recommend sleeping in hostels, which lie on different islands. On Terceira, there is Angra Do Heroìsmo Hostel, on Santa Maria there is Vila do Porto, on Sao Miguel Ponta Delgada and Lagoa, on Sao Jorge Calheta and on Ilha do Pico there is São Roque do Pico. 

 

If you want to travel on the island, I suggest you rent a car, as public transport can be a bit unreliable. And public transport won’t take you to a lot of the natural sights. We rented cars on airports and were completely free while travelling. Travelling with parents and two small children was at the end simpler than it sounds. 

 

All nine Azores islands (Terceira, Sao Jorge, Ilha do Pico, Ilha do Faial, Sao Miguel, Corvo, Flores, Graciosa and Santa Maria) have volcanic origins, which you can see from the plane. Dark rocks and volcanic craters are showing their origins. They were uninhabited for a very long time and it’s still not clear, who discovered them first. Some say that Portuguese sailors found them about a century before Columbus and others say that king Afonso V. of Portugal found them and inhabited citizens from Portugal to the islands. This was supposed to happen around 1440, which was before Columbus sailed by the archipelago. The archipelago was an important stop for sailors, who sailed between the continents. The Spanish fought for the Azores many times in history, but in the end they stayed Portuguese and represent the Autonomous Region of the Azores. They became partially independent in 1976. Today the archipelago is becoming a popular tourist destination but still hasn’t developed the mass tourism. The locals even say that they don’t want it. They want to keep the original landscape, and they are successful on eight islands, but on the main island of Sao Miguel, they are failing. The development of tourism is close to the mass tourism they were afraid of. 

 

Most of us heard of the Azores High cyclone. If not, when we were at school. Little remote islands are very important to the weather in Europe, especially on west. Anticylone, which arises above the Azores, appears in Europe a few days later and scientists claim that no weather forecast is more accurate than this one. We can sum up that this little archipelago actually decides what kind of weather we, in Europe, will have. 

 

The weather in the Azores is more stable in the summer when temperature rise to around 25 degrees Celsius. And the humidity is around 90%. High humidity is something they can’t escape even in other seasons, only the temperatures are lower. They reach to about 20 degrees in winter. You feel like your clothes are always a little damp. It rains quite often and there are a lot of days when you have short downpour, then there’s sunshine, then strong fog and the whole story soon repeats itself. In the meantime, there are multiple rainbows. There’s more rain in the winter. That is why there are so many plants. Many plants, which we have in our room, grow in the wilderness here and are even sometimes treated as weed. They cut hydrangea bushes, which can obstruct visibility on the roads. The locals like to joke that they can grow anything that they put in the ground. 

 

 

Atlantic Ocean has big impact on the locals. It’s the main source of income for most, as fishing is a very developed branch. Beaches aren’t famous for their beauty and there aren’t a lot of them. You can swim only on designated swimming beaches and there are some sandy beaches, natural beaches, which are bays, surrounded with rocks so they protect you before the high waves. Waves can be higher than a lot of fences, protection and can even reach roads. There was a few times when they splashed our car.