Hellllllo Sao Jorge – Land of the Faja

Yesterday was a travel day. We left the main island of Sao Miguel and made our way to the Island of Sao Jorge.
We are staying in a very remote area – kinda isolated cottage country. The Faja (or town by the sea) we are staying in has maybe 20 houses, most of which are secondary residences with a grand total of 2 permanent residents! And of course a church! A Faja by definition is “a flat surface near the sea, created from collapsing cliffs or lava flows”. Ours, Faja dos Curbes, is the result of a landslide.

Finding the place was a bit tricky – google maps doesn’t really work here and the place doesn’t have an actual address, not to mention the steep narrow road with tight switchbacks and close cliffsides! But we got there and were met but Luis, the very passionate owner. He actually bought the place (a rare thing as these properties are usually passed down from generations to generations) in rubbles 10yrs ago, took 2.5yrs to renovate it and ta-da ….. here we are enjoying it. He gave us the usual ‘tour’ of the place but had a lot to add about the history, the geographic background, regional birds, cultural information, even the ‘rules’ or etiquette of how to drive when there are cows on the road – we could have used this knowledge on our way down to the house! He was so passionate about “his island” and wanted to make sure we got the most of it. He told us about something ‘very special’ to do at just about every turn in the road – i just wish i had a pen to make note of it at the time! I think we got the main stuff and already packed some in today’s day.

Despite the best night sleep yet on the trip – comfortable bed, open window with sound of ocean crashing – it was still a slow start to the day. …. not sure why, guess we were in vacation mode! But once we got going, we packed a lot in as usual.
Started out with a hike. Drove to the trailhead, way up the top of the mountain above our Faja. From there, it was 5.5km down the mountain side, through pastures and fields, creeks and changing landscapes to Faja da Caldeira de Santo Cristo, a surfers’ paradise & surfers’ town. I’m not sure that pictures can really show how far down we came! 4.5km later, following the coast with small ups (didn’t feel so small!) and downs from Faja to Faja, we made it back to Faja dos Curbes / our home EXCEPT that the car was up at the top of the mountain so again, we did what was recommended by the locals and took a cab back to our car. As you can imagine with a town of 2 permanent residents, the cabs are not just hanging around, it had to come from town. On the hike, we got to see some of the damage left from Hurricane Lorenzo – we didn’t see anything too devastating, maybe one washed out bridge on the trails but they are already working at restoring everything. We also saw a few people repairing roofs of their houses and other buildings. 

Back at the car, we hurried back to one of the 2 main towns of the island to see if we could book a boat tour for tomorrow but they were closed – we can’t seem to figure out if they were closed for the day or closed for the season – seem to get different answers from the few locals we asked. Mind you, we didn’t really understand all the answers! We’ll come back early tomorrow am and see if we can figure it out.

We then followed Luis’ advice with the ‘must dos’ and headed to the very highest peak of the island. It has become quite clear to us that they aren’t used to tourists on this island – things are not as well marked as on Sao Miguel, add that to google maps not being so reliable, there is a lot of guessing going in the navigation (Chelsea drives, I’m supposed to be the navigator!!!). Once we found the top of the island, there was a 15km dirt road (also a walking trail) we followed – needless to say, breathtaking views but for an added bonus, we could often see both sides of the islands so it really felt like we were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean – which of course, we are!

Back to our humble Faja and residence, I had really wanted to cook on the outdoor BBQ/ fire place and we did. Took a little bit to get the fire going without kindling but with perseverance, and a lot of bamboo leaves (yard is all cleared now) it worked. We had bought fish in town, made fish and roasted tomatoes. It was sooooo good. Maybe also cuz i felt I hadn’t had a ‘real meal’ in a couple days – fruit, cheese & a couple pieces of bread were not going to cut it tonight! More to see and do tomorrow. And i will actually set an alarm so that we can have an earlier start to our day.