The Azores - hidden treasure of Europe (part 1)
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| At Jardim José do Canto |
Firstly I
need to introduce with ourselves. We are a young couple, we both are economists
and we live in Riga, Latvia. In out free time/vacations we like to travel. As most
of the time we are quite limited on budget, out travel tips will be most useful
to travellers who travel on a budget. We don't use travel agencies; we try not
to use local excursions. Instead we try to plan our trips ourselves; we rent a
car and go wherever we want. We're definitely gourmets, we like to taste
different local dishes, but still because of the budget we don't visit (or
rarely) upscale restaurants. Instead we go to small local cuisines or prepare
by ourselves by using the local products.
Arrival at Sao Miguel, Ponta Delgada
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| B&B by Lapsa |
Why did we
choose to spend our vacation in Azores? It was mostly a coincidence – we were
looking for a place that would be not far away from Europe (we live in
Riga, Latvia), but in the meantime the place should be somewhat different from
traditional Europe – France, Spain or Italy. And that is how I found out about
these hidden treasures in the middle of Atlantic. We started to plan out trip
very early, so we managed to build a great itinerary. We started our trip in
Porto, Portugal. We spent some days there enjoying our favourite port wine (Croft – I would really reccomend this one,
the winery is smaller than Taylor's, Nieport or Kopke, but still we think it's definitely the best). After the
short stay in Porto we travelled further to the largest island of Azores – Sao
Miguel. I still remember the feeling – we were flying in a plane full of
Germans, the rows of seats in plane were placed very close to each other, but
that wasn't actually bothering me. Because I was very, very excited that we're
only some 30 minutes apart from Sao Miguel Island of which I've been dreaming
already for a while. We arrived at a late evening, about an hour after sunset,
so you could only see only some silhouette of the mountains around. But the
first thing I remember from Azores is the air. When you step outside the plain,
you get this feeling of thick and a bit humid air. And after you spend the vast
majority of your life in a polluted city, this kind of air in the middle of
Atlantic is enough to get dizziness only from breathing it. The airport in Sao
Miguel is small (at least at that point we thought it is small, but wait till
we get to Pico or Faial J).
We were awaited by out
transfer-guy from our Bed&Breakfast. And this is the first interesting
thing that happened to us in Azores. Prior our arrival we searched the web for nice
and cheap accommodation in Ponta Delgada (capital of Sao Miguel). And thanks to
AirBnb.com we found out about a place called "Bed and Breakfast by Lapsa". This was a huge coincidence, as "Lapsa" on Latvian means
"Red fox". At the beginning we thought that it's a similar word in
Portuguese, but then we found out that a Latvian girl Asnāte is running a
B&B in Ponta Delgada. We were really surprised, because Latvia has a
population of about two millions, and we managed to find a Latvian girl in so
distant to us Azores. So of course we chose to stay there. I really
recommend this place, centrally located – in a 5 minute walk from all the main
sighstseeings in Ponta Delgada. Asnāte
also took care about the breakfast which included different local delicacies, for
example sweet potato jam, local cheese and bread. It was a bit noisy in the
rooms because of the thin walls, but it's not a specific problem to this
B&B, that's the common feature of buildings not only in Azores but also on
Portugal mainland. So if you have an intention to visit Azores and you're on a
budget or simply do not intend to spend too much time inside, then I encourage
you to visit Asnāte and the great B&B by Lapsa.
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| At Ponda Delgada market |
We stayed
in Ponta Delgada all together 4 nights – two on the arrival, and two after our
trip to the other parts of Sao Miguel Island. What would we recommend? Firstly,
you should definitely spend some 2-3 days in Sao Miguel. There are plenty of
things to see. But... the real Azorean experience is out of the city.
Personally for me – the central and eastern part of Sao Miguel is the real
highlight of this island (will tell about that in the next blogs).
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| Local food |
On our
first day in Ponta Delgada we just wandered around the small streets of Ponta
Delgada. It's very easy to navigate in the city; the main landmark is the
church in the middle of the city. I would say you get the understanding about
the central part of the city in about an hour. After a short breakfast in one
of the local cafes, we met Asnāte. We had a cup of coffee in the harbour
promenade, she told us about how she moved to Azores. After the coffee Asnāte showed
us a bit of Ponta Delgada. For instance, we visited the local market which was
full of locally grown vegetables, fruits, and the Atlantic fishes. The market
is not large, but you can find everything you need. In one of the corners of
the market there is a small shop where you can buy a fresh bread and cheese. I
would recommend you fresh cheese that is wrapped in banana leaves, Sao Jorge
cheese, as well as bread from Furnas
– it's very delicious (a bit sweet) especially in combination with local cheese
and ham. And of course all the locally grown fruits and vegetables – they taste
so much better than when they're imported from distant lands. In the market you
can find also a large variety of sea food – shrimps, tunas, octopuses etc. We
wanted to buy some tuna, but were afraid that the aroma would ruin the perfect
kitchen of B&B. J
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| Bamboo trees |
The life in
the town is slow – no one is hurrying, people look quite relaxed. There are 2-3
shopping streets where you can find everything you need. There are some Chinese
shops with all the cheap stuff, and there are some boutique style shops for
richer tourists. There are also plenty of places where to have lunch or dinner.
I was surprised that Wikitravel
article is claiming that there are no good eateries in Sao Miguel. That's
totally wrong, there are plenty of them. Just don't eat things you would eat at
home (I mean, don't eat English breakfast or steak), choose local products and
everything will be fine. There are some good restaurants (especially sea food)
along the coastline. You should definitely try the local mussels – lapas, they taste very, very good. Prices?
The imported stuff is a bit more expensive that on the mainland, but the local
production, especially dairy products, vegetables, fruits, bread, pastry, some
meat products (like local sausages) are cheaper. Even by the standards of
Latvia groceries were very affordable. And I must admit that quality of the
local produced food is one of the highest I have experienced in Europe, the
cost-benefit ratio is definitely among the highest ones.
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| Ponta Delgada at night |
In Ponta Delgada,
we visited Antonio Borges garden (Jardim
António Borges). A beautiful
place where you can find a large part of the local flora and fauna in a very compact
area. Another great place is the Botanical garden (Jardim José do Canto) - a
lot of bamboo trees, banana trees, eucalypts, caoutchouc tree, hydrangeas, etc.
There was a small entrance fee (2-3 eur, don't remember precisely). This is a
good place if you want to get out of the city, but don't have a car. Both
of these places are easily reachable on foot from the city centre. In the
Botanical garden, first in my life I saw a banana tree with real bananas on it.
The first thing I did after that was a purchase of locally grown bananas. :)
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| Fruits at the local market |
Another great place to visit – a local pineapple plantation. Pineapples
are grown in large white greenhouses. It is very interesting to see all stages
of a pineapple growth as in each of the greenhouses the time when the pineapples
were planted differs. You can easily get there by the local bus (I don't remember
the number anymore, but tourism information centre will provide you with this
information). Actually pineapples were one our trip highlights. It's not so
easy to get good, tasty pineapples back here in Latvia; they are usually very
sour and not as fruity as it was on the Azores. Actually the history behind
this industry in Azores is interesting to – I recommend you to read this if
you're planning to visit the islands.
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| Pineapple at the greenhouse |
In general, I would say that Ponta Delgada is great start for your trip
around Sao Miguel – you can get here everything you need. All the main services
also are to be found there. Other parts of Sao Miguel are more kind of rural. You
can use Ponta Delgada as a base camp for the visits of the western part of Sao
Miguel, Cete Cidades, Ribeira Grande, Lagoa do Fogo or even Furnas. But if you
intend to go further to the east – Povoacao, Nordeste – then I would definitely
recommend searching for a base place there.
On our next blog we'll tell about the central part of Sao Miguel – our
visit to tea plantation, Furnas, Ribeira Grande, Lagoa do Fogo.
You can see
the other photos prom Sao Miguel here
(link to Google+).
Part 2 of this blog can be found here.
Part 2 of this blog can be found here.
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| Authors of the blog at B&B by Lapsa |
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