Day 9

We had yet another day off according to the official program, but our guide knew a nice hike and the majority of our group opted for this extra excursion. The weather did not look very promising and when we were dropped off at the parking place on top of the shore cliffs that was the starting point of our hike, the fog was so dense and the wind so strong that I could not see anything through my glasses without wiping them literally every two minutes. The path was mostly downhill, which was about as strenuous as all the climbs we had the days before, but luckily this took us around corners of the cliff-face that protected us from the wind and me from the need to actively regain my sight every two minutes. When we dropped below the fog/clouds we could see a bit better where we were going, but spectacular ocean views were still not part of the deal this day.
We had some occasional spats of rain, but it was not cold so with my plastic rain coat I would get as wet from sweat wearing it as I would get from the rain without it. Moreover I did not have a cover for my bag to keep things dry in there, so I wore my coat like a cape around my shoulders to keep my gear dry. When we reached the beach below, we passed a very idyllic coffee shop, where we got ourselves some refreshments before continuing a level walk to the village that marked the end of our hike. We wanted to get a drink in the village café while waiting for the hotel shuttle to pick us up again, but the place was full. However, upon seeing us everybody got up to let us sit. I felt a bit bad about that, but this type of hospitality was not uncommon here. Another thing that we noticed here and across the Azores is that tourism had not reached a point yet where people had started to realize what they can ask money for. Soda’s were probably expensive to get to the islands, so they were about twice as expensive as coffee or beer, but then again the latter two generally costed less than one Euro, meaning that in this particular case, locals got up for me to sit and the owner made 2 Euro’s, which included a generous tip percentage wise, but still did not feel all that right.
After the rain and wind, the shower in the hotel was very nice. Unfortunately I got a second, slightly less pleasant shower that evening in the restaurant, when the waitress handed me my plate across the table, which had quite a bit of meat juice on there that a few second later was all over my new shirt and favorite jeans.