We went to Pico for a month and during that time we spent 5 days on Sao Jorge. The time spent on Sao Jorge was spent looking at the places that my ancestors were from. I took some good photos of the Lemos home in Rosais and will post some pictures at another time of the churches that we spend so much time searching the records for in Velas and Topo as well as Rosais. I've read so many baptismal records of babies left in the "roda" that I wanted to see the roda........they've been removed from the churches and the girl working there in velas church didn't know they'd ever existed. We also spent 3 nights in Faja do Santo Cristo.....it was a very troubling experience......from a distance and the hike in was beautiful....very dramatic. Close up it was awful........the primary tourist to the faja are 20 to 30 year old surfers.......there was garbage everywhere......the trash cans were empty but 5 feet away would be 3 beer bottles. Garbage stuck in walls....people who live there had signs "nao Campo" in their yards.....people were camped on the church and every piece of open ground. They have no public bathrooms yet although they are in the process of building them so there was toilet paper and other trash laying around. We dug clams but there was so much broken glass that we had to be very careful not to cut ourselves. The 4 wheelers were in and out all the time......we paid 75 euros a night and had no hot water, were not told ahead of time that there was only electricity for 2 hours per night or that the place was filled with party goers.......the last night there we woke up at 2 in the morning to a bunch of drunk guys singing off key at the top of their lungs......dogs barking like crazy and people yelling in several languages to "shut up".......after singing way too long they finally quit! So needless to say we will not be going back to stay in the Faja do Santo Cristo. I was disappointed since my daughter and her husband like to surf I had planned on taking them there next year but I would be so embarrassed for them to see that aspect of our "beautiful" Azores. Then there was the time in Pico.......for 5 years now we stay in our adega. Our neighbors are so very kind, generous and welcoming. By the time we were there 2 hours they were bringing garden goodies and wine. We feel truly blessed to have so much beauty and kindness surrounding us when there......the vinyards and fig trees were sufferring from too much rain though and it was the wettest August we've ever spent there. I did however, learn to cook an octopus in red wine that a friend brought us...I had my doubts as I was standing there accepting this slimmy gift....( I had my laptop so I googled how to clean octopus and how to cook it in red wine)....it was delicious!
I made lots of fig and grape preserves and brought it back to Arkansas for a winter treat.....nice having fruits from our neighborhood that are easy to preserve for bringing home! Best regards, Nancy Jean Baptista From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Did you visit the Azores in 2009? Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2009 14:55:41 -0700 I thought it would be interesting to know who visited the Azores in the year 2009(only) or plan to visit in 2009 and which islands you visited. Myself, we went in May 2009 and visited Terceira and Sao Miguel. "E" _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. http://windowslive.com/Campaign/SocialNetworking?ocid=PID23285::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:SI_SB_online:082009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
