Cape Cod

Our B&B in Yarmouth Port is beautiful.  The owners spent three years on renovation before opening their accommodation this year.  The home was built in 1827 and required a rebuild from the foundation up. The neighborhood is full of similar homes, all historic, well-maintained, with ample landscaped grounds.  We cross the street, walk down a quiet lane, and within a few blocks are looking out across the extensive marshland to the ocean.

No one lives in this very old cottage, but it demonstrates the wood shingle siding which is so prevalent on Cape Cod.

Craftsmen from England have been imported to re-thatch the roof on this old barn.  The main home on this coastal property (and many nearby properties) is truly impressive but too well-screened from the road to get a good photo.

A church at Chatham; getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Did you know that the Pilgrims stopped at Cape Cod before continuing to Plymouth?  We saw wild turkeys everyday and everywhere on the Cape.  If you enlarge the photo, you can see that the church was founded in 1720.

Expensive homes on extensive landscaped grounds abound on the Cape; and many beautiful yachts moored nearby.  We loved just driving and looking at the amazing neighborhoods.

The entire Cape Cod peninsula seems to be a mix of residential areas on large lots, small towns, and areas set aside for parks and nature preserves. Very pretty!  We drove out to Provincetown on the tip of the "hook" on our first day.  Not overly impressed, as it seemed to be your classic tourist trap.  Beach, restaurants, snack stands, curio shops, and offers of boat tours.  We are almost at season's end, with some shops already with signs announcing "closed until May 20".  But there are still plenty of lookers; imagine how crowded it must be in summer!

 We also visited Chatham, where one of the oldest lighthouses in the US still functions.  Neighborhoods of the most beautiful homes along the shore. Part of the appeal are the large, unique and beautifully landscaped grounds that these homes sit on.

Commercial fishermen still work out of Chatham harbor.

We stopped in Hyannis for lunch at a Peruvian restaurant. (While traveling we often eat only two meals per day: late breakfast, then dinner at 2-3pm.). We viewed the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port; nice but not amazing. I envisioned it as being off by itself, but it is surrounded by other very nice homes.

Extensive marshlands along the north shore in places.  This view is at Gray's Beach.

Sunset at Corporate Beach.  We took a long walk along the beach while waiting for sunset.

Boston and north to Maine

Azores Airlines was late again. On our previous visit to Boston, the flight was 1 1/2 hours late; this time about 50 minutes late.  We arrived at our hotel at 10pm; that is 2am Azorean time.  We've had two nights near Boston to recover from our late night and to spend time in midtown Boston.  Didn't find Boston to be all that memorable.  When a historic site is surrounded by new buildings, it somehow loses its impact. The USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" was impressive. Had a nice lunch in a traditional tavern similar to the "Cheers" atmosphere.

We stayed in a hotel at Waltham which was located right on the Charles River.  There was a very nice walking path along the river for several miles. We took the very old subway into downtown Boston; the slowest subway I have ever ridden.

Dawn wanted new hiking shoes.  We found the best shoe store we had ever encountered; a huge selection of all the best brands.  Dawn bought a pair and I bought a pair, even though I have no need, never knowing when I might find such a good selection again.  Our shoe sales lady had been working at this store for FORTY years; a very established business.

We headed north in our nicely equipped Nissan Rogue to Bath, Maine.  Along the way we stopped at Kennebunkport and viewed the Bush compound, nice with equally nice homes in the surrounding neighborhood.  Bath is a shipbuilding town and has been for most of its existence.  One of the US Navy's newest vessels, a radar-evading destroyer, is being outfitted here currently.  The Maine Maritime Museum is located there. We stayed in a Victorian B&B in a neighborhood of similar large, slightly rundown, old homes.  Dawn says no more "Victorians"; it is code for "needs maintenance".  The home is 200 years old but has a great location to walk to the cute old downtown.  The door to our bedroom cannot be completely closed because the paint buildup has gotten so thick from many repaintings.

Church in Bath, Maine, across from the city library and a park.  Most of the homes in this neighborhood were built in the 1800's.

We visited locally-owned Wilson's drugstore and Reny's general store.  Really neat that such stores still exist; so we made purchases; nice wool socks fit in my suitcase. Want to keep them in business.  The night we arrived, a "northeaster" storm came through; we had a twelve-hour electrical power outage and lost a day of sightseeing to the stormy, wet weather.  A nice thing about B&Bs is the other people you meet: banker, horticulturalist, librarian, psychologist, restaurant manager, social worker, etc.  One morning we all sat at the breakfast table conversing until 11am.

Plenty of marshland along with extensive waterways along the coast.  Perfect weather to enjoy it.  After one cool, wet, and windy day, beautiful Fall weather returned.  Today we did a long hike through a coastal nature preserve to a nice beach.

 As we approached the coast on our hike, we enjoyed the view from a rocky outlook.

Looking down on the coast, bay and marshland.

Low tide at the beach and very few other hikers to share it with.



Waves breaking on the wide sand beach.

We had lunch overlooking the water at Wiscasset, then drove on to Rockland.  I had been to Rockland fifty years ago; seems much larger now.  Maine has a smaller population than Nebraska.  Lots of small towns and locally-owned businesses.  Waterways, big and small, everywhere.

 Pretty Fall colors, but not better than we have seen in other parts of the country.  Some tree leaves were still green, others had already fallen.  The forest is thick here; we asked our host about ticks.  He said that he had contracted Lyme Disease just last year; now he takes antibiotics as soon as he detects a tick bite. The area is beautiful enough that we may want to come back here and spend more time, but probably in the Fall season.

Flores Island

Wow!  Flores was a dramatic sight from first view as we landed at Santa Cruz das Flores on the east coast of the island.  A small island rising steeply from the ocean; about 8 by 11 miles rising to about 3000' centered around several volcanic caldera.  A small population of approximately 4000.  Santa Cruz is the largest population center, but still just a village.  Tourists mainly from Europe; mainly younger active types enjoying hiking and climbing. We rented a little Renault Twingo, a 5-speed manual, but we mainly use only the lower three gears due to the steep and twisting roads.  However, very little traffic.

 You can see how steep this island is, as we chug up the slopes in our little Twingo headed for the west coast of the island.  There are more cows, sheep, & goats than people.  Corvo island can be seen in the upper left hand corner.

A better view of the island of Corvo and the steep ruggedness of Flores.

A patchwork of fields on the available arable lands.  A large part of the island, especially to the north and west, is a designated natural park.

A severe wind storm (90mph winds) came through eight days before our arrival, blowing down many trees on the forested high plateau.  But cleanup has been quick.

The southern crest of Flores has less forest; more open windswept shrubbery.

Descending to the west coast, we passed the village of Fajazinna; later we had lunch there at the only restaurant.  Another visitor told us there are only eight restaurants (with limited hours) on the island, which I think is about right.

This cottage is our accommodation. One room plus a small bathroom in one corner.  The walls are two feet thick; a crude kitchen along one wall; no closets; very little hot water or room heat.  It felt like we were camping indoors.  But they had a nice central dining facility.  WiFi in the reception building. We are living in the "reborn" village of Cuada near Faja Grande.  The original inhabitants emigrated, leaving approx. twenty stone cottages which have been updated to where each is now an accommodation for a few tourists.

Absolutely beautiful!  About one mile from our cottage at Cuada up a rugged but well-marked trail.  This is Poco da Ribeira do Ferreiro.  You can see the dense clouds at higher altitude which bring rain to the volcanic basin and feed the multiple waterfalls.  If you enlarge this photo, you can see people rappelling down the left hand waterfall (look for a yellow dot about half way down the falls).

A telephoto shot makes the rappelling figures more obvious.  These falls are hundreds of feet tall.

To the west, we see the ocean, and to the east are cliffs hundreds of feet tall where multiple waterfalls cascade from the central volcanic remains of several caldera.  The island is near the gulf stream and has a mild year around climate; temperatures in the 60's to low 70's. The vegetation is lush; could be mistaken for tropical jungle.  We are struck by how clean and neat everything is.  Workers are out in the morning cleaning the road shoulders of leaves and mud after rains.

I tried climbing up the canyon to the base of Ribeira Grande but found it too dangerous; perhaps if I were equipped to wade at certain points I could have been more successful.

Poco da Ribeira do Ferreiro with better weather.  You can see about a dozen waterfalls in total along this cliff side.

With such a small population, and still somewhat undiscovered by mainstream tourists, there are relatively few hotels, restaurants, or even stores. Last night we had dinner at a local home in Faja Grande.  The owner put out a sign of what was being prepared for dinner (cod, potatoes, veggies) and we and one other couple signed up for dinner (plus wine & apple cake).  Tonight we bought dinner near the south end of the island at a "Super Mercato" a small grocery: bread, meat, cheese, and wine. What restaurants are available don't open until 7 or 8 pm; later than what we prefer.

Ponta Delgada on the north end of the island, close to Corvo.  We also had a meal at the only restaurant in this village.  The food was simple but delicious.

The northeast coast of Flores with Corvo on the horizon.

Gasoline is currently rationed here; no more than 15 liters can be purchased per day.  Thus, "filling the tank" can take a few days. I doubt we will drive that much.  Immediately after arriving, we hiked to the foot of a tall cliff where multiple waterfalls cascaded to form a small lake and stream.  A group of climbers were rappelling in sections down the face of one waterfall.  The small volcanic island of Corvo is nearby, readily visible just a few miles north.  A ferry is available for groups so six or more to visit Corvo, weather permitting.

What a beautiful and unspoiled destination this has been!

Washington, DC, to Terceira, Azores

Dawn with a statue of Vasco da Gama at the harbor front.  The Azores were already being settled years before Columbus discovered America.

Our son, daughter-in-law, and their two children make a cute family and are very integrated into life in DC.  However, it is not a city we enjoy, and our accommodations this trip were horrible.  The hotel we had stayed in last trip had doubled their prices, and this B&B had a great location, but we discovered it was lacking in every detail.  I sent a message to the booking agency to say that the favorable recommendations for this place must be fake.

After taking the Metro to Reagan National, we had sequential flights to Boston, San Miguel Island; across four time zones and finally arriving at Terceira Island in the Azores the next day.  We had such beautiful weather when we visited last November, but the forecast was for mainly clouds and light rain during this visit.  You can see from the photos that the weather was decent; only one day with rain.  Is this why the Azores aren't higher on tourism lists?

Looking down on Praia da Vitoria from Serra do Cume.  The airport is near here, and our hotel was on the beach at Praia da Vitoria.  Notice the small, lush, well-defined fields.

We picked up our rental car, Citroen C3, and headed for our hotel, dead tired, only to discover that we had no directions to the hotel: no GPS, no map detail, and no phone service.  Fortunately, we doubled back and got help from the nice lady at the tourism booth.  At times like this, it is easy to understand why so many people take organized tours or cruises.  But our hotel is wonderful; right on the oceanfront with a nice walking path along the shore.

While driving in the central part of the island, we had to stop for a goat herd crossing the road.  The goats all climbed over the pasture gate to get out on the road. As you can see, the area is a mixture of forest and fields.

Tonight, while having dinner at an intimate seafood restaurant at the harbor, Dawn remarked how amazing it is to be here at Praia da Vitoria on a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic when only a few days ago we were in Colorado.  I love it; being able to exert control over one's life and go from dream to plan to actual experience. Legend has it that the Azores are the mountain peaks of the lost continent of Atlantis.

Hiking through the thick forest after crossing open fields.  We also found places where sufuric steam was still belching out of cracks in the rock.

(next day) The weather is perfect!  And our island is perfect.  So clean, neat, self- sufficient, uncrowded, with helpful people.  Volcanic heights, forested slopes, and lush coastal fields where a wide variety of crops prosper.  Few tourists (mainly European); narrow but uncrowded roads.  We drove to the top of the highest peak, Serra Santa Barbara, today, and only two other couples were there enjoying the sights.  We could see the islands of Sao Jorge, Pico, and Graciosa on the horizon.  The volcanic peak on Pico is about 8000' high; the highest point in all of Portugal.  The entire group of nine islands is spread over almost 400 miles.

 Is that ocean blue enough for you?  As a volcanic island, there are few sandy beaches.  This is the NW shore.

The coast near Raminho; neat fields and a small village.

This flat area of fields (SE part of island) is the center of an ancient caldera about four miles across.  If you click to enlarge this picture, you can see the islands of Sao Jorge, and Pico on the horizon.

Since arriving in the Azores, we made a call to T-Mobile (my new cell phone provider) to activate an international plan.  T-Mobile is a subsidiary of DeutscheTelecom; being Europe-based, it has a reputation for good European service.  So far we are finding that this is true.  In our trips to Europe (this is trip #7), we have increasingly been expected to provide telephone connections to our hotel, airline, and shuttle services.  In the Azores, major roads are easy to follow, but in the towns and villages the roads are like spaghetti, wound together in a convoluted pattern, to where GPS is valuable.  Thus, that cell phone service is a great help.

We went to an excellent restaurant in San Martins last night which would have been hard to find without GPS aid.  Today,we explored Angra do Heroismo, the largest city on Terceira.  Finding our way to the peak of a volcanic cone located on a peninsula overlooking the city, Monte Brasil, was greatly aided by GPS.

Angra do Heroisma is located on the south coast.  The entire island population is about 56,000.  Plenty of narrow streets in the old city.  This photo was taken from the peninsula of Monte Brasil.  We had lunch at the yacht harbor.

Foreground is the city; background is Castelo de Sao Filipe at the foot of Monte Brasil.  The Castelo is still an active military installation.

 Tomorrow, we travel to Flores Island.  It is perhaps the most remote island, located an hour west of here by air.  I hope the weather cooperates while there.