A Nice, Slow Day

We slept in today and spent most of the morning lounging around. The place we are staying provides coffee and a continental breakfast. They also have a beautiful pool, which is where we decided to have our coffee. We also made a new friend … don’t tell FDR. 

We then walked downhill about a half a mile to the main road in Saō Mateus, the little community where our place is. We waited for a taxi for quite some time, but the festivities in town made it difficult to get one to come and get us. So we hopped on a public bus to Angra — €1 each for the three mile ride. 

We found a nice restaurant on a side street in Angra and had lunch at about 2:00.  We’re never exactly sure how the food is going to fair when we don’t have a recommendation … but this place was pretty good. We had a steak with a mushroom cream sauce … steak has been not as tender as we are used to but has beefier flavor. This one was good. We also had squid in a butter sauce with boiled potatoes. It was great. It might be one of our favorite restaurant dishes of the trip so far. The French fries, believe it or not, were not good.

After lunch we bought bull fighting tickets for Saturday night, walked through the city’s gardens, and decided to spend the rest of the day back at our accommodations. 

We did make a stop at the grocery store first for some dinner fixings. Then just relaxed for the evening. 

The weather here is amazing. Temps have been in the low 70s — night temps are about 65. The clouds come in and out, we’ve had some rain at night, and today has been mostly cloudy and breezy. When the sun is shining it is hot. Yearly rainfall must be pretty high, as evident by the greenery everywhere. We think it might look like a cross between Ireland and Hawaii (we’ve never been either place, but that’s what we think). We have all the doors open in our bungalow … Jim loves it and Kristi is a little chilly. 

The bird life is very noticeable. Many species of birds sing their hearts out all day long. 

Beaches are not plentiful, like one might imagine. Most of the islands shores are sheer cliffs or volcanic rocks. The island has just a few small beaches. That doesn’t keep people from swimming; they have created areas among the rocks, with ladders and all, for swimming in the ocean. 

We are a little bit surprised at how much English is spoken on Terceira. Also, very surprised at how many Americans are here. But of course that’s partly because of the Sanjoaninas celebrations. Portuguese immigrant communities from the Central Valley send groups here to participate in the festivities. There was a whole group of teenagers from Escalon at the restaurant where we ate today.  Linda told us not to be surprised if we see people from Tulare and Hanford.

Our newest friend also spent the afternoon and evening in our little bungalow. It’s amazing how comfortable he is with us.