The Azores – definitely not the Ranch

Full disclosure- i’ve been up for about 30hrs so don’t be too judgemental on the grammar or spelling!

Door-to-door, 23.5hrs to get from Squamish (home) to our Airbnb condo in Ponta Delgada, Azores, Sao Miguel Island. Portugal, World! We considered that pretty darn good, given Hurricane Lorenzo which was due to make landfall in the Azores pretty much at the same time as us, we lucked out. The only stressful part about the trip was the very short connection in Lisbon since we had to get out from the very back of the plane (you KNOW how long that takes!), go through customs, claim our bags, make our way to check in, check our bags, go through customs and to the gate to board our 3rd and last flight of the journey. There was no time to slow down or even stop for a pee, nevermind lunch! You can imagine the surprise when we ended up at the gate very next to the one we had exited an hour and a bit before! All that running around to literally get right back to the same spot! It all worked out it gave us the opportunity to stretch our legs and it was also a really good lesson in booking separate tickets for separate parts of the trip – i’ll take that in consideration for my next trip!

FYI – I’m traveling on this trip with my friend Chelsea, we go back a long long time but due to our different work schedules, we don’t see each other all that often but we make sure to do a vacation together once in a while 🙂 When i say ‘we’ for the next couple weeks, i’ll be talking about Chelsea & I! We are in the Azores for 2 weeks and will be visiting 3 of the 9 islands that form the archipelago, quite a different vacation from the Ranch but i’m looking forward to discovering this new & exciting spot in the world.

We picked up the first rental car of the trip just as the skies opened up with a huge downpour and winds. We still managed to find our way to our airbnb condo just across a popular swimming beach – no swimming there today with the tropical storm winds and crazy crashing waves. The building is older (smells old too!), it takes 3 keys, 2 elevators, countless corridors & at least 10 doors to go through to get from the street / parking but luckily, our lovely ocean view apartment is much better than the rest of the building. Jet lag & all, we weren’t sure we’d find our way back on our own after the owner checked us in!

After a much needed shower & brushing my teeth, i finally felt human again and we set off to explore the town a little bit, get a lay of the land, get some groceries. First place we hit was a tourist info centre, our main inquiry was how to get a SIM card so that we could have data as we travel through the island. We got to the place at 5:58pm and were promptly informed that they close at 6:00pm (website said 7pm but that was summer hours which ended on 01oct19…. yesterday). The lady had zero interest in helping us and made sure we knew that ‘they were closing’, ‘were closed’, ‘were 1min post closing’! I never did ask her about the SIM cards but found it on the internet later, we’ll deal with that tomorrow. Anyway, we managed to find a grocery store, got a few essentials for the week and we explored a little bit, we’ll be back another day.

Fatigue was starting to set in so we went back home for a salad for dinner. …… and i got to try my first Azorean wine – it didn’t disappoint! We then looked into options and made some tentative plans for the next few days – we’ll be BUSY & i’m really excited about it, you’ll just have to wait til tomorrow for details 😉

I can’t post this blog without talking about LORENZO! Given the travel advisories, devastating predictions of the Azores being directly in it’s path, the threat of delayed flights, power outages & potential closures of the areas we were planning to see or stay at ………. it all worked out so far. The 2 islands we’re going to next week were hit a lot worse but we haven’t heard of the extent of the damages yet. Here in Ponta Delgada / Sao Miguel, there is definitely unsettled weather, high wins, some rain still/ there are some road closures near the waterfront but overall, life still seams to be going on about it’s usual chores and tastes.

That’s all i’ve got in me for today. I really need to get to bed if i want to be ready for tomorow’s discoveries. I leave you with a few pics.

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