My long-time friends Steve, Stephen, and Grace invited me on short notice (a couple weeks out) to join them for a mid-September vacation in the Azores. I had only a vague awareness of the Azores. Essentially, that 1) they are a group of isolated islands somewhere in the eastern Atlantic, and 2) my grandpa had spent several weeks stranded there in 1945-1946 on the way home from his service in WWII after their ship was damaged in a hurricane (my dad made a video to share that story and photos).
My friends generously covered the cost of the Airbnb and rental car, which they’d already booked, so I needed only pay for my own airfare, food, tours, souvenirs, and unplanned hospital visit (see below). SATA Air Açores offered direct flights between Boston and Ponta Delgada at a reasonable price, so it was a great opportunity for an exotic getaway with some of my best hometown buddies. We flew out of Boston late on Saturday and arrived in the Azores early the next morning.
September 9, 2018
São Miguel Island, which lies at about the same latitude as San Francisco, CA, felt tropical as we walked out of the airport to the rental car lot. It was a partly cloudy morning with an energizing warm breeze, the pavement was wet from recent rain showers, and I could smell the lush vegetation and salty sea in the humid air. We crammed our luggage, then ourselves, into the rental car and hit the road with the windows down!
We started the adventure with an early lunch in Punta Delgado. I ordered grilled scabbardfish and it was not good. I normally like fish and seafood, but that fish tasted borderline rancid and I stopped eating it. Fortunately, good dining would be the norm for the remainder of the trip (and I didn’t get food poisoning!).
We had time before check-in at the Airbnb so we chose to go for a hike at Lagoa do Fogo (Lake of Fire), one of several volcanic crater lakes on São Miguel Island. We followed the paved road up tight switchbacks to the parking area and trailhead. It was a ridiculously scenic place. The hike down to the lake was steep but worthwhile. Beautiful Kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) grew all over the lush slopes, making for interesting photography. Native to the Himalayas, those plants are unfortunately highly invasive exotics in the Azores, Hawaii, New Zealand and other places outside of their home range.
We spent some time walking around the lakeshore and enjoying the amazing scenery. There were a few anglers and I wondered what fish species might lurk in the emerald water. When a fisherman hooked into something I stayed to watch, but was unimpressed to find out it was just a stocked Rainbow Trout—another non-native species in the Azores (rainbows are native to the Pacific Coast of North America but have been widely introduced around the world).
The hike out felt tough in the heat and humidity, and we took some time at the top to admire the views and snap this panoramic shot:
That afternoon we went to Vila Franca do Campo, the coastal village on the southern coast of the island just east of Ponta Delgada where we would be staying. We picked up groceries and beer and after getting settled in the Airbnb I unpacked my travel rods and rigged us up in preparation of our chartered fishing trip the next morning. The Airbnb was nice, with ocean frontage and a view of a small island. We made dinner, tossed a football around, and clinked beer bottles that evening.
September 10, 2018
We got up early to drive to the marina in Punta Delgado for a half day of fishing with Oceantur. For this day we would be using our own light tackle and dropping bait to the bottom to maximize the diversity of our catch.
The ride to the fishing spot seemed long but once we dropped lines the action was good. After a tap, tap on my line I reeled up from the depths a fish that blew my mind. Look at the colors on this Ornate Wrasse!
The next fish was a sea bass called the Blacktail Comber, and it put up more of a tussle. Through the morning we pulled up a variety of smallish reef fishes, including several sea bream, combers and wrasse and a few oddball things. I ended the half-day fishing trip with six new species (all pictured here). Stephen got a pair of gorgeous Swallowtail Sea Perch (Anthias anthias) and Steve got the largest fish of the day—a fairly good-sized Blacktail Comber.
We kept some of the sea bream and the Ballan Wrasse for dinner. Fortunately it was a beautiful day to fillet the fish outside, so I didn’t have to make a mess of the airbnb kitchen. The cooked fish went well with Sagres beer (cerveja).
That evening we tried fishing from shore near the Airbnb. We used small hooks and pieces of shrimp I bought at the grocery store for bait. The fish were small, but I was able to add three more species to my angling lifelist. The first was a White Seabream (Diplodus sargus), which were very common. My surprise catch was a juvenile Derbio Pompano (Trachinotus ovatus), which has some cool black markings on the fins. Finally, we all caught a few Rockpool Blenny (Parablennius parvicornis), which were abundant in the rocky tidepools.
September 11, 2018
Our Tuesday morning started with a trip to the marina in Ponta Delgada for another half-day fishing trip with Oceantur. This time we left the light tackle behind and exclusively trolled for big game, including tuna and Blue Marlin. But that type of fishing can be hit-or-miss, and we missed. We still enjoyed a sunny morning on the deep blue water, but finished the day with no signs of fish. The biggest surprise was the appearance of the Heerema Thialf deepwater construction vehicle, which wasn’t there the previous day and was nowhere to be seen the next.
Getting skunked stunk, but at least we’d caught some cool species the previous day and had opportunity for more via shore fishing. And we had a spectacular afternoon and evening exploring the island, starting with a charcuterie board lunch and wine in Ponta Delgada. We also went on a few short hikes in beautiful Sete Cidades area, on the western end of the island, including Lagoa do Canário and the iconic Miradouro da Grota do Inferno, a scenic trail to a point overlooking several volcanic lakes.
September 12, 2018
I started the next day with a solo 5K run around Vila Franca do Campo. Then we all headed to the black sand beach for swimming and body surfing. It was all fun and games until I rode a wave to shore and got slurry of sandy water splashed into both eyes. The fine grit blinded me, and I crawled up the beach and shouted for help. I could feel lots of sand in my eyes, a scary and painful sensation, and I couldn’t open my them. My friends bought bottled water to flush my eyes with, and I tried to cry out the foreign material. Slowly, I was able to to open my eyes and work the sand out until I could see again. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to scratch up my eyes too bad and I was able to return to normal.
We chilled out at the Airbnb during the heat of the afternoon before venturing back out for some drinks at the marina followed by evening shore fishing.
I added five new fish species, including Thicklipped Grey Mullet, Azores Chromis, Dusky Grouper, Red Porgy, and Cardinalfish.
We capped off the night with a game of Bears vs Babies back at the Airbnb.
September 13, 2018
I did some shore fishing near the beach on Thursday and caught one new species, the Lesser Weever, and several larger Thick-lipped Grey Mullet. When I caught the weever I didn’t know what it was and identified it later that day. I learned that they have venomous dorsal spines that can inflict excruciating pain and swelling (potentially fatal if you happen to be allergic). As you’ll note in the photos, I handled it nonchalantly with bare hands. Fortunately, I avoided being stung.
The mullet put up a good fight on light tackle. I caught three of them all about this size that morning:
After breaking for lunch Steve and I returned to the water for some afternoon fishing. We tried casting lures and Steve hooked up with a fish on a Rattle-L-Trap. It was a species I hadn’t caught (and still haven’t), the Atlantic Lizardfish.
I attempted to unhook the fish for Steve, but it thrashed wildly and drove a free-swinging hook deep into the pad of my left thumb. The fish kept squirming, with it and myself both hooked, and I was relieved to finally unhook it and toss the fish back into the ocean. But the hook was in my thumb past the barb and I couldn’t pull it out with my hands. So, I planned to suck it up and yank it out with a pliers. And then I fumbled and dropped my only pliers into an unreachable crevice among the large boulders. I cut the line and we walked, lure hanging from my hand, which was dripping blood, to a nearby store to see if they had tools. The girls working there didn’t speak English but they pulled out a first-aid kit, cleaned the blood off my hand with a sanitizing wipe, and gave me some gauze and directions to the hospital. I walked in, paid a flat fee of about $60 USD. The doctor injected a local anesthetic, cut the hook, slid it out, and bandaged me up in a manner of minutes. It was an easy and relatively inexpensive process.
I put the fishing gear away and we piled into the rental car to go for an afternoon hike at Parque Natural dos Caldeirões. The place was amazing. We bought ice cream at the gift shop and hiked around the botanical gardens and waterfalls, and hiked through the forest and up through farmlands just as the sun was setting.
September 14, 2018
On Friday morning we went Scuba diving with Best Spot Azores. Steve and I buddied up and did a 37-minute dive to 60 feet and saw schools of pelagic fish, coral and rock outcroppings, and various aquatic invertebrates crawling on the corals. The water was cold and the current was pushing, so it was nice have the anchor rope to hold on to for descent and ascent as well as for orientation. Steve and I decided the one dive was enough, and grabbed lunch while Stephen headed back out on the boat for round 2 (Grace went along and hung out on the boat while he was under).
We found a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint in Vila Franca do Campo that served cheap beer, which we enjoyed on the ocean-side dining patio of our AirBNB that night.
September 15, 2018
We spent Saturday in Furnas, a city in the interior of the island. It was a rainy but warm day, which was perfect for enjoying the mineral hot springs at Parque Terra Nostra and wandering around in the topiary gardens getting drenched. I had an octopus salad for lunch, and found the tentacle chunks to be a little bland and chewy, but my choice of dessert (Queijadas da Graciosa) was so delicious that I made them a few weeks after returning home and shared them at a work potluck. Here are some photos from our day in Furnas:
We returned to the same pizza place, drank a few beers and reminisced about our high school years. I also talked Steve into a slightly buzzed 5K run through the city streets that night.
September 16, 2018
I started my last full day on São Miguel Island with an eleven-mile run in heavy rain. There was a hurricane approaching the Azores, which potentially threatened our departure flight (it ended up missing the Azores before dumping rain on the British Isles), but all we experienced from it was bands of heavy rain. I stomped cheerily through puddles, some ankle-deep, and explored different parts of the small city.
The rain let up after my run and I tried fishing one last time near the beach, hoping for another species or two, but the giant waves made it really hard to fish with the tackle I had.
I packed it up there and tried micro fishing the more sheltered water near our Airbnb and succeed in landing one final species, the Rock Goby (lifetime species #493).
That afternoon we headed into Ponta Delgada for dinner at a seafood restaurant. Stephen footed the bill and ordered an enormous seafood sampler platter to share. It included crabs, barnacles, oysters, shrimp and other marine organisms. Native Minnesotans, we also followed the live Vikings-Packers game on our phones over dinner (it was an exciting game that ended in the most unexciting way: an official tie as time expired in overtime).
We packed up our luggage and flew home the following day, September 17. Thanks Steve, Stephen, and Grace for an amazing trip in an unexpected destination!