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)

Açores – São Miguel (Este)

On Wednesday, we explored western São Miguel; today, from Ponta Delgada (pop 67,229 in 2021), we head east. After breakfast near the Jardim Padre Sena Freitas, we drive toward the Lagoa das Furnas, another of the island's significant, water-filled caldeiras.

Our first stop is between the towns of Vila Franca do Campo and Furnas. The Miradouro do Castelo Branco (date unknown) is on the western edge of the caldeira. The Miradouro is not on the road, so we park near the stone gate and walk along the ridge for a couple hundred meters.

 

 

 

The 'white castle' looks less like a defensive structure and more like a folly – an eight-bit game character with his arms at his sides. The crenellated roof terrace offers views of the southern coast and the Ilhéu da Vila Franca, the Lagoa and the town of Furnas to the east, and beyond them, the Pico da Vara.

 

 

 

 

 

Driving to the lakeshore, we enter the Mata-Jardim José do Canto (19th century). We remember this name from the Jardim yesterday in Ponta Delgada. The woods are beautiful and quiet, though the trees are water-logged. The picnic areas at the water's edge are flooded in glassy shallows; some of the trees lean leaning. The results are solemn and picturesque.

José do Canto and his wife are buried here by the Lagoa das Furnas in the Capela de Nossa Senhora das Vitórias (1864-82). The neo-Gothic stone chapel seems to stand as a ruin; we hope it is being rehabilitated. Unfortunately, after seeing images online, the interior is not open, though the stained-glass looks intact.

A bus-full of tourists (are they speaking Polish?) interrupts the silence. We decide to head into town for lunch.

 

 

Furnas (pop 1,399 in 2021) is built into a slope. The Parque Dona Beatriz do Canto runs along the base of the slope, parallel to a small stream; the stream powers the Moinho da Agua. The village is clean, well-kept, just adorable – as if everyone repaints their house every year.

Furnas is recognized for two gastronomic treats: 'cozido das Furnas' and 'bolos lêvados'. The friendly waiter suggests we try everything. The bolos are filled with garlic butter and local cheese, just a bit sweet and crispy. The cozido is a mix of meat and vegetables (like a pot-au-feu or New England boiled dinner) cooked in the geothermal vents, so it's thoroughly cooked and pungent – a 'mineral-y smokiness'. The portion is enormous, which appears to be the practice on this island; the food is flavorful and filling.

 

 

We walk-off the lunch by heading up the hill to the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Alegria (Igreja Paroquial, 20th century). The church is well scaled and perfectly sited for the towers to remain visible all along the way. The interior features a cycle of stained-glass, with linear portraiture and designs reminiscent of Expressionism: two tall panels in each side chapel, an eight-petal rose over the entrance, and a triptych over the altar.

CAUSA NOSTRÆ LÆTITIÆ

[cause of our joy – alegria]

 

 

 

Walking east from the Igreja, the land flattens out and the view opens to the walls of the caldeira. We pass the attention-grabbing 'Casa Invertida', which is actually clever way to hide an electrical substation. The streets are lined with tall palms and more pollarded trees (oriental plane-?).

The road bends downhill to a wide, cobbled square in front of a small garden. Steam rises between the trees.

 

 

 

The Caldeiras das Furnas shares a rise with the Jardim Público da Courela, at a fork in the stream to the east of town. Thick steam and sharp fumes rush from the bubbling puddles of the Caldeiras. Behind a squat wall of basalt, the plot looks like a malformed concrete work site. Each feature is encircled with rocks and identified with ceramic tombstones.

The garden setting allows these dramatic oddities to act like water features, without the ducks. The path bridges muds and plumes to the lovely grounds further east, all wrapped by the stream. The path doubles back into a sweaty gully of landings and enclosures which overhang more vents. This valley intensifies the temperature and the humidity.

 

 

          

 

 

 

As we descend to a lower level of the park, we see the colors of the runoff mix with the geology. Manmade channels direct the rusty liquids through a series of stepped pools. Bright ribbons parallel the stonework and cut through the ground-cover.

The locals are putting the hot streams to work – doing what, we're not exactly sure (cooking? farming? heating?). Other caldeiras present as holes full of hot, black mud, perhaps the source of all this basalt. With all the shapes and colors, it feels as much a Wonka-like factory as a playland or a sculpture park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Furnas, we drive to Vila Franca do Campo (pop 10,323 in 2021). On the EN3-2A roadway, we encounter the local 'romeiros' (pilgrims), who make a circuit of the island every year during Quaresma –

thus, they are the 'romarias quaresmais' (Lenten pilgrimages). They wear colorfully trimmed capes (top image), carry the traditional walking sticks, and sing hymns as they travel from church to church.

We do not mean to interrupt them, and have to crawl along behind before the spotter lets us by – an mazing tradition and an touching expression of faith.

 

 

 

 

In Vila Franca do Campo, we drive out to the Miradouro Ilhéu da Vila to get a closer look at the turtle-like silhouette of the Ilhéu da Vila Franca. The bright green mat of grass ends abruptly at a shelf of sharp, inky rocks, where the Atlantic foams white.

To the east, the Marina of the Vila extends to meet the ocean. In the center of town, the torre do relógio makrs the Câmara Municipal.

 

 

 

To watch the sunset, we drive up to the Miradouro de Nossa Senhora da Paz, then climb the stairs to the Ermida de Nossa Senhora da Paz (1764, escadaria 1967-68) – it's a miniaturized version of Bom Jesus in Braga, but with tiles instead of fountains. There is a parking area to one side of the Miradouro, though people seem to insist on parking inside the semi-circular platform. The views south to the island and village are fantastic.

 

 

The arched panels on the ten landings to the Ermida depict scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary (bottom to top): Anunciação, Visitação, Natividade, Circuncisão, Entre os Doutores, Agonia no Getsêmani, Flagelação, Zombaria ("AVE REX IUDAO"), Via-Crúcis, and Crucificação. The "Flagelação" (2008) appears to be a replacement and is the only one made at the Viúva Lamego – the others are made at  the Fábrica Sant'Anna Lisboa (1968).

A young lady climbs the escadaria on her knees. When we reach the top, her Portuguese-Canadian father explains her devotion, and we have a good chat about travel, and our shared search for peace and appreciation for beautiful places.

 

 

 

An older tile illustration in the stone frame above the portal of the Ermida shows "N(ossa) S(enho)ra da Pas". Five additional panels behind the Ermida (left to right): Ressurreição, Grande Comissão, Pentecostes (center panel), Assunção, and Coroação de Maria. These are also from the Fábrica Sant'Anna, so we assume they are also circa 1968.

 

 

 

 

Behind the back deck, the island's farmlands keep going. A group of lazy calves welcomes us to the rolling pastures cut with sandy paths, and a backdrop of forested volcanic mounds. Roosters and chickens cling to the upper walls.

To the west of the Ermida is a 'life-sized' stone cross, a necklace of white beads embedded around the base. The striking image of the Ilhéu da Vila Franca and the dark outline of the southern rim of the Caldeira Velha against the golden waters is a forever photo – the perfect end to a day filled with quirky locals, unique flavors, and epic sights.