A Mountain Boy in an Island Paradise - Vacation of a Lifetime, Part 4

“I am surrounded on all sides by the ocean, and I am happy.”

I love the mountains. To hike among towering peaks; sit on a grassy hillside and look out upon a beautiful valley framed by forested hills and snow-covered summits; listen to the peaceful sounds of aspen leaves rustling in a light breeze, a gurgling mountain stream, early-morning songbirds or a buzzing hummingbird; to take in a lung full of pure, fresh, crisp air; to feel the sun on my face, close my eyes, and just be – this has long been my idea of heaven on Earth.

Nowhere has that dream been more real than in Colorado. I’ve been in the Appalachian hills of New England, the jagged heights of the Peruvian Andes, the forested highlands of Hokkaido, and a few other ranges, but no mountains have spoken to my spirit like the Colorado Rockies, especially around the home I owned before I came to Ukraine.

But I was a latecomer to high-country bliss. I grew up in eastern Massachusetts, not far from Cape Cod and the Atlantic Ocean. There were no mountains. It wasn’t really such a long way to visit the Berkshire highlands of western Massachusetts, White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Green Mountains in Vermont, or the Longfellow Range in Maine. But my parents were not big on traveling, so we never went to such places when I was growing up.

Before the Mountains there was the Ocean

Instead, our vacations were to the beaches and seaside close to home: the near parts of Cape Cod and the area around Plymouth. Even in this, we rarely got out to the outer cape, where the open Atlantic can freely deliver its pounding surf on the eastward-facing beaches. They preferred the more sheltered and calm beaches of Buzzard’s Bay or Cape Cod Bay. Only rarely did we venture out on day trips to the outer cape or even to Provincetown on the very end of the cape, and we never went out to the islands: Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

On those rare occasions when we did go out on the cape, seeing the “real” Atlantic was always a treat, and I marveled at the immensity of the ocean and the power of its surf upon the land. The Atlantic Ocean enthralled me, and I never lost that feeling. When I was old enough to drive and go off on my own, I went to the outer cape more often, and I took the ferry across to the islands. I went to the coast of Maine where the Atlantic waves have been carving up the rocky shore for millions of years. I loved all of it.

And more near-ocean living followed long before I got my first real taste of the mountains. I spent a few months close to the shore of central New Jersey, and had more opportunities to visit beaches along the American East Coast from Maine to Virginia.

Guam is Good

Then, I had my first real island experience: an 18-month Navy assignment on Guam in the western Pacific. Island living was something entirely new for this impressionable kid in his early 20s, and it had a significant impact on my young life. It was a turning point in many ways.

Guam is tropical; it’s always warm, sometimes hot, and it’s always humid. And the water temperature is always in the mid-80s F (around 28-29 C). It rains a lot, especially between July and November. The vegetation was very different from anything I had known before, the native people were very different, practically everything was different. And for a young guy like I was, it was a great adventure.

What made life on the island especially unique was that it was small. Guam is only 30 miles (50 km) long and 12 miles across at its widest point (four miles across at its narrowest). On any given day, you can watch the sun rise out of the Pacific Ocean in the morning, go about your business all day, and the watch it set into the South China Sea in the evening. You can’t go very far on such an island, but surprisingly, we always found a lot to do, so we were never bored.

Guam came into my life at a time when I needed it. The exotic nature of the environment, together with our youthful need for fun and our raging hormones, fueled the “sex, booze and rock and roll” lifestyle (no drugs) that my friends and I enjoyed for most of that time. We partied hard, but we also enjoyed the beaches, jungle and other features of the island: “boonie stomps” to old caves, Talofofo Falls, the ocean-fed pools at Inarajan, and more. I even went on a week-long ocean adventure on a sailing yacht.

There were some bad points too, like a big earthquake during my first month, the supertyphoon that ravaged the island, and loosing a friend who stupidly went out from Ritidian Point on a surfboard and never returned. But that island, with its amazing beauty and the ocean all around, still visits my memories and dreams on occasion.

Even after Guam, the ocean wasn’t done with me, and the mountains had yet to beckon. I lived for almost a year in Monterey, California, where Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean were a regular part of my life. And for six years in Japan, the ocean was never very far away, although I rarely visited it.

After Japan, I came to Colorado full-time (I had already been an official resident for more than six years). Here, I discovered the joy and beauty of the mountains, and I pretty much forgot about the ocean. The Rocky Mountains were just so awesome that I didn’t need the ocean. I sort of forgot about the ocean, and in particular my memories of the island faded.

A New Island

Many years later, I found myself on an island about the same size of Guam: Sao Miguel in the Azores. It is a different kind of island, but it still brought back a lot of memories, and it reminded me of the things I enjoyed the most about those 18 months on that little bit of tropical land in the Western Pacific: lush vegetation and ocean views from almost anywhere.

Sao Miguel was the last phase of my “Vacation of a Lifetime” in Portugal. It is the largest of the nine islands in the Azores, all of which are essentially the tops of huge volcanic mountains that rise from the depths of the ocean.

We spent four days on the island before returning to Ukraine. It was the best part of the whole trip. I had thoroughly enjoyed my days in Lisbon, and experiencing the magnificence of the Atlantic Ocean along the south coast of Portugal was amazing. But Sao Miguel was special; it was almost magical.

The first thing you notice once you start to tour Sao Miguel is how green it is. Everywhere you look, on the hillsides or the pasturelands, it is amazingly green. It is, perhaps, the greenest place I have ever seen. There is a beautiful contrast of the brilliant green of the island with the deep blue of the ocean. And in so many places, the green is dotted with flowers of various types and colors. It’s a feast for the eyes.

We arrived in Ponta Delgada, the island’s main city, on a Sunday afternoon and quickly got checked into our guesthouse, Atlantic Home Azores, which I wrote about in Part One of this series. Once we got settled, we had plenty of time to explore the nearby parts of Ponta Delgada. Our island “home” was just across the street from the harbor and marina, and we had a fantastic view of the ocean, as well as the hills to the east.

We walked the length of the main street, checked out the locations for our whale-watching excursion and our car rental, went through a number of shops, and found a decent place for dinner. We also located a small grocery store right in our complex – perfect for getting what we needed to make our own meals.

Day One: Whales and the Lake of Fire

Monday morning was all about cruising out on the open ocean in search of whales. This three-hour trip on a fast catamaran set the tone for the whole visit to Sao Miguel because it was a unique and special activity that got our spirits soaring. We cruised far out from the shore where the waters are rough and the whales are plentiful.

We learned that these tours often go out without seeing nary a flipper, although they almost always manage to locate some dolphins. And we were lucky: we came across several pods of resident sperm whales. It is difficult to get close to them, and we had to settle for seeing their backs and flukes from a distance, but at least we did see them.

After trailing several pods for more than an hour, we broke off and made for an area where dolphins were pretty common. Again, we were not disappointed and were treated to a fun show of 50-100 dolphins swimming along with our boat, crossing our bow, and frolicking in front of us.

After the cruise, we got our rental car and set off for sights in the central part of the island. The main focus was Lagoa do Fogo (Lake of Fire), one of three large lakes formed in the craters of old (but still nominally active) volcanoes. But we started at a small oceanside community called Lagoa, just a short drive from Ponta Delgada. We noticed there, as we did in most coastal areas, the distinct difference in the coastal landscape compared to the mainland. The rocks are mostly black, as they are young volcanic rocks. And the sand along the beaches is mostly black volcanic sand.

The drive up into the hills surrounding Lagoa do Fogo was breathtaking. Here is where we first saw just how green everything is. The hills on Sao Miguel are all volcano formed, and many are extremely steep. As a result, the roads have to weave their ways up the slopes, with a lot of S-turns along the way. The government has constructed many viewing points along these roads, places where you can safely pull your car off the road, walk around a bit, and enjoy absolutely mind-blowing views. Our first views of Lagoa do Fogo did just that.

When we finally had our fill of natural beauty for one day, we returned to our home base and found a place to park the car. Then we did some grocery shopping and made our own amazing dinner of spaghetti with linguica, a Portuguese sausage I remembered from my childhood. It was a fantastic first day.

Day Two: The East

We had a romantic idea to get up early one day and drive to the eastern tip of the island to catch the sunrise. But getting up early was difficult, particularly because the bronchial irritation that hit me in the Algarve had gotten worse, and the coughing made it hard to get a good night’s sleep. Still, my friend managed to get up and take some nice sunrise pictures from Ponta Delgada.

Day one had been focused on the center of the island, so we decided to go to the eastern end for day two. The main targets were the volcanic Lagoa das Furnas and the hot spring baths in the town of Furnas. After making ourselves a great breakfast in the guesthouse, we were off for Furnas.

Like the day before, we drove up from the coast into a series of gorgeous green hills and had to wind our way to the small town of Furnas. Along the way, we also had to stop for a parade of cows. Dairy cows are big business on Sao Miguel, and they have the right of way on the roads.

We found signs to the Caldeiras das Furnas and Lagoa das Furnas, and in no time, we were there. Like Lagoa do Fogo, Lagoa das Furnas is a large lake formed inside an old volcanic crater. But there are some notable differences. First, the water in Furnas is green, not deep blue as in the Lake of Fire. And there are more active signs of volcanism around Furnas: the Caldeiras.

The Caldeiras are a series of hot spots next to the lake and include holes from which scalding hot water bubbles up from the ground and others where boiling mud can be seen shooting out. And there is a lot of steam. The area of the Caldeiras is a tourist spot with a wooden walkway that allows visitors to safely get up close and personal with the water and mud geysers, a nice park area, paddle boats on which to go out on the lake, and of course, some small souvenir shops and food stands.

Local restaurants prepare food in special pots buried in the hot ground of the Caldeiras. As we walked along the boardwalk, we saw many spots where food was cooking, all marked with signs advertising the restaurants.

Our next stop was the famous hot bath resort in the town of Furnas: Poca da Dona Beija. To our surprise, the people running the place were from Ukraine and greeted us in Ukrainian. We changed and spent an hour or so enjoying the various pools in which hot geothermal water was mixed with a cool flow to maintain a comfortable temperature of about 40 degrees C (104 F). The water as quite rich in iron, which cast an orangish color on every place where the water flowed.

After the hot springs, we made our way leisurely down out of the hills and back to the coast at a placed named Povoacao, which was the original main settlement on the island centuries ago. The rest of our day consisted mainly of driving eastward along the south coast, around the east end, and then westward along the north coast. Of course, we stopped repeatedly at one memorizing vantage point after another to take in the beauty and, of course, take pictures.

As the afternoon drew late and evening was not far off, we decided to look for a fishing village called Porto Formoso on the north coast. We had been advised by the very friendly and helpful owner of our guesthouse that there was an excellent fish restaurant there that always had the freshest fish. We found Casa de Pasto O Amaral, but were a bit surprised at what we found.

When we entered the place, it looked like we had simply walked into a neighborhood bar, and we were not sure what to make of it. But the man behind the bar asked if we were there to eat, and he motioned to a doorway that led to a staircase. At the top of the stairs was a large dining room that was open to the street along one side. We took a table with a view of the street below.

Next, the waiter came to our table, not with a menu but with a board, on which were three fresh, uncooked fish. We each chose one fish, and the waiter went away to have them cooked up. In the meantime, we enjoyed an appetizer of fresh bread, cheese that was sort of like mozzarella, and a spicy sauce.

Finally, our fish arrived served with potatoes and a bit of sliced vegetables. With the exception of salmon, tuna and perhaps fish and chips, I’m not much of a fish eater. I’ve always been particularly averse to eating a whole fish with a head, little bones, and all that. But this was quite good, and I liked it.

And with that, once again it was time to head back to the guesthouse and rest up for our last full day on the island. That night, we saw that a huge cruise ship had come into the harbor. Its size and bright lights added a little something extra to the allure of the harbor at night, but it also meant that there would be a lot more tourist buses on the road the next day.

Day Three: The West

There was still one more volcanic remnant to check out: Lagoa das Sete Cidades, a series of lakes created in an old volcanic crater. The two main lakes, Lagoa Azul (Blue Lake) and adjoining Lagoa Verde (Green Lake), are separated only by a narrow bridge/road from which you can take in the beauty of the whole valley. There are other lakes as well, but we didn’t get to see them because on this day, we had some low clouds and thick fog.

As always, the drive up the hillsides to the top of the crater was amazing in its own right. And when we got to the point where we could see the lakes, it was nothing short of phenomenal. But the best part was getting down to the lakes, where we finally decided to take some photos of the car with the top down. It was about time.

After seeing the lakes of the western volcano, we made for another famous site, Termas da Ferraria at the very western tip of the island. Here there is a small cove where water heated deep underground by volcanic forces rises and enters the ocean. Ocean waves surge into the cove and mix with the hot water to create a fantastic bathing experience.

After changing our clothes, we walked carefully on the volcanic rocks that were sharp in some places and slippery in others until we got to the ladders that allowed access to the cove. There were a series of ropes strung across the cove so that bathers could hold their places, more or less, and not be either pushed up against rocks or pulled out to sea.

The water temperature is never constant, but it tends to be warm more often than cool. As the currents in the cove ebb and flow with the movements of the ocean, you feel hot surges of geothermal water followed by cooler waves from the sea. And all the time you are buffeted to and fro by the waves. It was really a blast.

The complex has a restaurant and spa, so after showering (cold) and changing, we had a nice lunch. Seafood, of course. Then we took off again, this time for the north central coast and what they call the “Tea Country.” We didn’t find exactly what we were looking for – a tea plantation and factory – but we did find more awesome ocean views as we went through several northern towns. 

Driving back to Ponta Delgada was a little sad as we knew we were facing our last evening on the island and the vacation overall. It was coming to an end. The next day would be about returning the car, heading to the airport and starting our journey back to Ukraine. We made dinner at the guesthouse, and I even did laundry. 

The Last Day and the Long Trip Home

The next day, my travel companion made the most of the time available by walking around Ponta Delgada and spending some time at a swimming and sunbathing area near the marina. But I was too exhausted to do more than return the car and then stay at the guesthouse until late afternoon when it was time to go to the airport. Dealing with my bronchial irritation and the associated coughing, the lack of sleep, and a few other issues had left me more tired than I had imagined. I was wiped out.

And so we returned. We left Ponta Delgada on Thursday afternoon, had one more overnight in a guesthouse in Lisbon, left Lisbon Friday morning and got back to Kharkiv around mid-day on Saturday. In between, there were planes and trains and taxis and one bus ride, as well as killing five hours or so on hard bench seats in Boryspil Airport. We were tired, but we survived.

And just like that, it was all over except for the memories.

What’s the Point?

I started this post writing about the mountains and how I feel when I am graced with their power. I realize that the same is true of the ocean. The difference has probably been that I’ve spent more time alone in the mountains, more time to experience that power without distraction, to let spirit move deeply within me. I had some of that long ago when I was on Guam, but it has become hard to really remember it. I think I just haven’t given the ocean the same opportunity to awaken my soul.

Spending time in such beautiful places on Sao Miguel, as well as the beaches of southern Portugal, gave me glimpses of the peace and spiritual connection that one can receive from the ocean if one’s mind and heart are in the right place, and if enough time is allowed. We didn’t have that much time – we were on the move almost constantly.

But I saw enough and felt enough to know that I want more. I’ve long thought that I would like to spend a week or so on the west coast of Ireland, just looking out at the ocean. Perhaps spending time on one of Ireland’s Aran Islands would be even better. I often imagine the inspiration I might get from just being in the presence of the ocean in this way, inspiration to think, to write, and perhaps inspiration to find answers to some of my biggest personal questions.

Of course, I also like being warm, hanging out in shorts and t-shirts, or even being able to swim in warm water. That is something Ireland definitely does not offer. So maybe a trip to a warm island is in order. I’ve been thinking recently about the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, Bali in Indonesia, the Canary Islands of Spain, or even Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. Have to save up for that kind of trip.

Perhaps a return to the Azores is in the future. There is more to see on Sao Miguel, and there are other islands to explore.

I have other thoughts about the trip, about what it meant, and about the future. But I think I will save those for one last post, sort of an epilog to the whole experience.

--------------------------------------------

Other parts of this series:

Part 1 - Lisbon, Sintra and Cascais

Part 2 - The South Coast and Algarve

Part 3 - Southwestern Spain and Back to the Ocean