Açores – Arriving in Terceira (Angra)

We spend our last morning in Ponta Delgada (pop 67,229 in 2021), on the island of São Miguel, tidying our rooms, packing, and enjoying the hospitality of the town, a final tour through the streets and a leisurely Saturday brunch. The area is familiar now, and we feel right at home.

Our flight to the neighboring island of Terceira is in the afternoon, so we have plenty of time load and return the rental. Ponta Delgada's little airport is so easy, so calm – a reminder that air travel can be pleasant and relaxing.

The airport in Terceira is called Lajes; the commercial flights share the tarmac with a US military base. We see evidence of this when we land: groups of large grey airplanes lined in perfect rows. Our short SATA flight taxis past this 'parade' to the back of the 'civilian' terminal (later, we learn that the US bombed Iran, and these planes are refueling those planes).

We collect our rental car from the touch-screen kiosk. Unfortunately, the kiosk is far more 'modern' than the car (no CarPlay), but it gets us from Lajes, in the island's northeast, to Angra do Heroísmo (pop 33,771 in 2021) on the island's south coast. That takes twenty minutes; this island is even smaller than São Miguel (155 vs 287 sq mi).

We have a room at the Pousada in the Forte de São Sebastião (16th century). Our previous Pousada stays include Vila Viçosa, Guimarães, Tavira, and Sagres – they are always comfortable and interesting. Our terrace has an incredible view of the Ilhéus das Cabras (islets of goats). Once settled in our room, we head out to get to know the town. From the Forte, we walk down to the curving seawall along the Marina. The Portas do Mar (Portas da Cidade, 18th century) stand in the middle of the Marina, on a raised platform above the pier. The Forte is on our left and the Pico das Cruzinhas is on our right.

 

 

 

 

Turning around, we see the baby blue facade of the Igreja Misericórdia (18th century) and the Estátua Vasco da Gama crossing the Pátio da Alfândega from the Marina:

A Vasco da Gama

que aqui desembarcou em 1499

Oferecido à cidade de Angra do Heroísmo

por

Victor S. Baptista 

Adroaldo S. Baptista

Obra de Duker Bower

inaugurada a 10 de junho de 2016

Inscriptions are set in the pavers in a northward 'voyage' toward town: "Lendas da India" by Gaspar Correa, "Fenix Angrense" by Manuel Luís Maldonado, "Mensagem" by Fernando Pessoa, and a passage from Canto IX in "Os Lusíadas" by Luís de Camões. Just after the dedication, Correa starts by explaining how Vasco lost his brother Paulo here in Angra:

Entan correrão direitos ao norte ate hauetem

vista das ilhas com que o prazer foi sem

conto, e se chegárão a ellas, e forão

correndo per ellas ate a Terceira em que

sorgirão em fim d'Agosto no porto d' Angra,

onde já nom se podião suster as naos da

bomba e tão velhas, que era cousa d'espanto

como se sostinhão sobre o mar; e muyta

gente morta, e outros doentes que morrerão

chegando a terra, onde tambem Paulo da

Gama faleceo, que vinha doente.

Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India

[ Then they ran straight north until they had

a view of the islands with which pleasure was without

account, and they arrived at them, and they ran

through them until Terceira, where they

appeared at the end of August in the port of Angra,

where the ships of the pump could no longer be

sustained and were so old that it was a wonder how

they could stay afloat on the sea; and many

dead people, and other sick people who died

upon reaching land, where Paulo da Gama

also died, who had come ill. ]

(trans Google)

 

 

 

 

 

We follow Vasco da Gama's example and continue up the Rua Direita to the Praça Velha. Unusual for the Açores, the Praça is predominantly lihgt-colored calçadas, with an interlaced system of darker, basalt grids.

The Câmara Municipal (19th century) occupies the eastern side of compact square. The female figure at the peak of the pediment holds an eagle and the Portuguese brasão das armas, the embodiment of Angra. The Praça is a fascinating mix of window styles, building forms, pinks, yellows, and that baby blue.

Paulo da Gama hũ dos Cappitães que

acompanharão no descobrimento da India

Oriental seu jrmão o heroico Dom Vasco

da Gama no anno de 1497 e voltando no de

1499, faleceo o dito Paule da Gama na Ilha

Terceira e jaz sepultado nesta Capella mór

de São Francisco.

Maldonado, Fenix Angrense

[ Paulo da Gama, one of the Captains who

accompanied his brother, the heroic Dom Vasco

da Gama, on the discovery of the East India

in the year 1497, and returning in 1499,

the said Paulo da Gama died on Terceira Island

and is buried in this main Chapel of São Francisco. ]

(trans Google)

 

 

Further up the hill to the west, the Sé Catedral de Angra do Heroísmo (16th-17th centuries) picks ip the pink theme and adds deep green, herringbone stripes in the tower caps. With the sunlight dimming, the lights at the Memória a Dom Pedro IV turn on. By contrast to Ponta Delgada, Angra already feels bolder, more confident and more open – not just in its palette, but with its shapes and textures.

Behind the Catedral, the Palácio Bettencourt (late 17th, early 18th century) slides down the slope. And the small streets begin all around the Marina area being to fill with nightlife.

Valeu a pena? Tudo vale a pena

Se a alma não é pequena.

Quem quer passar além do Bojador

Tem que passar além da dor.

Deus ao mar o perigo e o abismo deu,

Mas nele é que espelhou o céu.

Fernando Pessoa, Mensagem

[ Was it worthwhile? All is worthwhile

When the spirit is not small.

He who wants to go beyond the Cape

Has to go beyond pain.

God to the sea peril and abyss has given

But it was in it that He mirrored heaven. ]

(trans Joao Manuel Mimoso, 2004)

 

 

 

 

After a wonderful dinner and as we climb the hill below the Forte, we relish the night's reflections by the Marina – the spotlights of the Ermida de Santo Antonio da Gruta (17th century) lodged in the hill and the Padrão do V Centenário da Descoberta dos Açores (1932) erected at the top. Camões gets the last word:

Que as Ninfas do Oceano, tão fermosas,

Tétis e a liha angélica pintada,

Outra cousa não é que as deleiltosas

Honras que a vida fazem sublimada.

Aquelas preminências gloriosas,

Os triunfos, a fronte coroada

De palma e louro, a glória e maravilha

Estes são os deleites desta Ilha.

Camões, Lusiadas, canto IX:89

[ For, all our Ocean-maids so fair, so sprightful,

    Tethys, and eke her Isle of angel-ground,

    None other thing be they, but the delightful

    Honours that make our human life renown'd:

    That high pre-em'inence and that glory rightful

    are but the Triumphs, and the brows becrown'd

with Palms and Bay-wreaths, wond'ering gaze and praise:

Such the delights my fabled Isle displays; ]

(trans Richard Francis Burton, 1879)