After four days in Madeira, we landed in São Miguel, Azores, the island where my father’s parents lived before they emigrated to the U.S. My parents visited São Miguel in February 2000, which my mother wrote about in a small notebook I took on this trip.
The Azores has nine major islands in the Atlantic — about a thousand miles from Portugal and 2,400 miles from the U.S. As a child, I believed that’s where Atlantis was located.
Our daughter Emily joined Zack, Julia, Brian and us, arriving from Lisbon at the airport in Ponta Delgada within minutes of each other. I already posted about the food we ate. Let me share some of the highlights.
FARMS: While Madeira’s number one industry is tourism, it is agriculture on São Miguel, including fishing, of course. Yes, tourists come here, but they are not the center of attention. I saw large fields and herds of cows. It was corn season, as it was back in Western Mass. where we live. We visited a pineapple plantation, which grows the fruit in greenhouses. The island has a tea plantation — we brought back bags of green tea grown there.
FURNAS: The five of us rented a house in Furnas, located in the eastern most of three active trachytic volcanoes. (That was the view from the back porch.) It is a charming village, where people get bread delivered in the morning in bags tied to their front door. It was an easy walk down to the active part of the village where there were restaurants and shops. Coming back meant trudging up a hill. Still, the streets were wider than those in Madeira and not as steep.
The village’s center, where we were staying, had springs and geysers of varying temperatures and chemical compositions, some much too hot to touch. People who lived there used the hot springs for cooking, including bags of corn. There were pipes where you could collect mineral-rich water, even cold. The air from their steam smelled of sulphur and iron.
The village has a hot springs spa, which we enjoyed one day.
HYDRANGEAS: The bushes grew all along the roads, a massive and impressive display of blue blossoms.
TILE WORK: I enjoyed the intricate tile work, often done as murals such as the one in the photo above. Also notable was the intricate stonework on walkways like the one in Ponta Delgada shown above.
PORTUGAL VS. SCOTLAND: Brian was excited that we would be there when Portugal played Scotland in a UEFA Nations League game. We watched the opener in a small bar then saw the rest at the restaurant that broadcasted it on a wide screen TV. Cristiano Ronaldo, the football aka soccer superstar who grew up in Madeira, scored the winning goal.
SUNRISE AT NORDESTE: One morning, Hank and I got up before dawn to accompany Emily to Nordeste to watch the sunrise. To get a full view of the sunrise you need to either hike or drive down an insanely steep road (a sign at the top warns about driving). Emily, who snapped that photo above, walked farther than us.
MEN OUTSIDE COFFEE SHOPS AND BARS: It was common to see men smoking, gabbing, and drinking on tables outside coffee shops and bars. As in Madeira, people smoked openly in public.
AGUA DE PAU: This village was the former home for my grandparents. We attempted to visit the church Nossa Senhora dos Anjos (Our Lady of Angels), but it was locked. My parents attempted a visit three times, according to my mother’s travel diary. A feast honoring Nossa Senhora dos Anjos is held at the bottom of the street in Fairhaven, Mass., where I grew up. Four men from the village, grateful for making it safely to the U.S., had a life-sized statue of Mary carved from one piece of wood. The 700-pound statue is carried by men during a parade. My father was one of those men, and now my brother Tony is. I was sorry I couldn’t see inside the church, but I slipped my late mother’s memorial card in the door.
CATS: Unlike dogs, cats seemed welcome in restaurants and coffee shops. Of course, they are useful animals that help to keep down the rodent population. (We saw lots of bait stations in black plastic boxes.) But Hank, who is more than fond of the animal, seemed to attract them. When we ate lunch one afternoon, the table we chose had a cat sleeping on a chair. It woke up and climbed onto Hank’s lap. The cat stayed there throughout his meal, much to Hank’s delight as you can see above.
BEACHES: São Miguel has more than 20 volcanic, black sand beaches. Zack went swimming among the high waves at Ribera Grande, a popular place for surfers. We discovered the best beach in Agua de Pau on our way to the airport. Zack, who had brought along his bathing suit, took a swim and then let it to Hank.
MEETING PEOPLE WITH MY LAST NAME: My first last name is Medeiros, in which the ‘s’ is pronounced in the Azores as if it has an ‘h’ after it. I met several people with that last name, many of who had relatives in Massachusetts cities like Fall River. I learned later from my brother that my grandparents’ last name might have been Mattos, but was changed by immigration officials.
BUTTER: I forgot to mention the butter of Azores in my last post on food. Made from the milk of local cows, it is the best butter ever. I froze two large blocks, and when we flew back, I wrapped them in plastic inside my suitcase. I am saving them for special occasions.
THE END BUT NOT REALLY: Did I see and experience enough when I was in the Azores and Madeira? Hardly. But it made me excited to revisit, to explore more where my family came from, perhaps even to find family although I know many of them moved to other continents such as Africa and South America. I have been practicing Portuguese although many people speak English. Eu retornarei.
