Linda invited us Sunday afternoon to Faja da Almas, where the village was hosting a sopa. A sopa is a meal, in this case a bread soup and fish that had been caught locally that morning along with locally made wine, is a gift back to the community. The locals provide the food, prepare it, all are welcome, and it’s a lovely way to build community. The food is placed along long tables, and people step aside to make room for you willingly to take a place at the table. We met a couple, Fatima and Pedro, who live in California, but have Azorean roots and come back every year for several months. This particular faja has no car access (ATV at best), so most families have homes in town, and come to this area for the summer months. You have to haul in everything by foot, so things are done very simply, but it was absolutely lovely.
On our way back from Topo, the eastern most point of the island, we got blocked (only one road in and out of Santo Antao).
It was quite simple, but everyone was dressed in their Sunday best, a local brass band played, and thousands and thousands of hydrangea blossoms were stewn on the road to mark the route.
We also made a stop at the Cascata do Cruzal, a beautiful waterfall with the remnants of an old mill at the base. Most of the waterfalls on the island are quite steep, and right at the ocean’s edge, so it was fun to be able to walk a path down alongside this one.
It was back to Casa Lane Thornton to rest a bit, and then down to Calheta’s local festival. After a kebab wrap to line my stomach, we sampled the local wine (of course,) and wandered around the waterfront looking at Azorean specialties on display and listening to a local band perform an Abba medley (not Trip’s favorite, but I loved it). Andy and Linda were kind enough to have us stay over that night, and it was a bit of a lie-in to recover the next morning.
With a pitstop to enjoy a local museum about Azorean geology, flora, fauna, and culture, we headed down to Faja do Ouvidor. Linda quite sneakily led us to the first set of natural pools, which were beautiful. Then she asked if we minded a short hike to more. A series of steps and bits of concrete poured here and there, led to 20 minutes of meandering down to a much more remote, much bigger and even more beautiful series of rock pools. We should have brought swimsuits!
It was hard to beat that view, and with that we headed back to Velas.
But first, we stopped at an old cheese factory that had been converted into an artist’s studio, and it was still set up for a festival that had happened earlier in the year. Pieter Adriaans works on the first floor, and his pieces are on display on the second. Little did we know that Linda is a talented quilter, and that her work, some of which is all about her life in the Azores, was also on display!
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