Pico-by night

I almost forgot about these pictures-they were taken at dawn in Lajes do Pico.

Faial

Because my memory cards were almost full, I had to take pictures with another camera-and I don't have those pictures now-so please forgive me for the little glimpse on Faial. I just have to tell you that this lovely island is as charming as Pico-oh, I forgot something important-DON'T ever go to Peter Cafe Sport - http://www.petercafesport.com/ - they are terrible, have awful high prices, the food is miserable and honestly I have no idea how they get to survive on the poor service they deliver - but this is because Portuguese are tooooooo kind. Ok, so now that I said it, you can just enjoy Faial and Horta as any other tourist. I was lucky enough to get to see a traditional "fiesta", to see fireworks on the last day-hm, I guess they were especially for us, incredible :-)), to swim in a warm ocean next to some happy kids who have the most wonderful childhood without knowing it, to see an amazing church and admire a beautiful statue of Nossa Senhora da Fátima and the three shepherds in the garden of another church. The hotel was amazingly beautiful, I swam until the very last moment and jumped into the cab with my hair wet. On our way to the airport I found out details about the life of the driver, who made a discount just for us to get a coffee-aren't Portuguese just too sweet? :-) and then got to wave to the passengers getting out of the airplane that just landed and that took us back to Lisbon. This is a very fast glimpse at the Azores, where a part of my heart still remained :-)

Border dolphins

I couldn't figure it out-were these dolphins Pico dolphins or Faial dolphins? :-) To get to Faial you just get to cross the sea for about 20-30 minutes-lovely trip. And then the show begins. And almost for free. We chased the poor whales and dolphins for 3 hours in Pico, I burned my lips and thought I would die-of course, everything has to have a little bit of drama :-))-and was lucky to have this idea of not eating before jumping in that crazy boat that kept jumping and flying over the waves with an incredible speed. These dolphins just showed what they could do in a few minutes-they were the ones who were chasing the boat, everybody was going "aaaahhhh, ooooohhhh, aaaahhh, oooohhhhh" and again and again and everything for us-to greet us in Azores. Lovely.

Pico dolphins

My dear dolphins, playing around the boat. They were so playful and happy-amazing-we could hear them breathe, as well as we could hear the whales.

the Pico mountain

The Pico mountain is the highest of Portugal (2351m) - it is majestic and mysterious and this is the view we got to see from Lajes do Pico - perfect :-) Pico is almost all the time veiled in clouds so to see it is a matter of chance.





On our way back from Faial to Lisbon we flied over the Pico mountain-you do not want to know what a crazy pilot we got to have-he just turned the plane around the mountain so we can admire it in all its splendor-I think it was one of the most amazing experiences. Thank you dear pilot and thank you dear Pico to take a peek at your peak :-) Love you.

Pico-the magic island

To be honest with you, Pico is no.1 in my top of the islands of the Azores archipelago. This is because it was unexpectedly, amazingly beautiful, quiet, very clean, it had style, grace, magic and a sexy peak :-) I expected a less developed island, locals were trying to convince me of the contrary and well, I trust them, but I had the impression that they all love this place-they all took so nicely care of their houses, almost all were renovated (I found out that many were destroyed during several earthquakes that took place in the past years and the state helped them rebuilt the houses) and very, very clean (I am even thinking about writing a thank you letter to the president of the town hall of Lajes do Pico and congratulate him for his work).






It took us about 20-30 minutes to get to Lajes do Pico, of course the most beautiful place on earth :-), and the taxi driver-this was the only place where we had only women taxi drivers :-) - stopped several times or got to drive slower and slower so that we can take pictures and admire the beauty of the island. The roads were impeccable and the place is blessed with magnificent views-you can see the São Jorge island on one side, always the Pico peak, the Faial island....it is real bliss. The weather was perfect, a little bit humid so we felt like being in a green house, but that offered a lush vegetation and those amazing green hills. I liked the architecture, simple and lovely and the whole feeling the place brought to my heart. Pure magic.





The nice church of the town offered us a small surprise-the first day we got there there was a crazy bat flying around so we had to get away but he was funny and we got to visit it the next day.





The place where we got to stay- because our main purpose, I must confess, was to get see the whales - run by some French, Portuguese, Canadian-Portuguese guys was just lovely - I would recommend them with an open heart - http://www.espacotalassa.com/ so if you want to see the whales talk to them. We got there and started to jump up and down in the room because we were sooooo happy of what we got. The breakfast was simple and stylish, you can eat lovely food and admire the Pico mountain (usually veiled in fog) and during the night hear the crazy sea gulls offering a concert of sounds that takes your breath away.