os açores

 Just now and again life comes along and surprises you. And that's the feeling here in The Azores. It's so gratifying.

The Savage Port

I look out at the harbour, where a blue turquoise, sea-beaten boat with the name Gilberto - Penteado- P. Delgada is painted on the stern. Above it are a multitude of what were once red buoys. Bleached by the sun, now some are white, pink and beautiful....rose. A Portuguese flag flutters prominently yet discretely in the breeze. Like inflated balloons the floats hover above the green blue ship, dancing in the sunlight.
Sunshine is intermittent here, yet forever; it seems eternal because even though clouds emerge the sunlight is piercing always and the island welcomes the blows of a beautiful sea breeze - it's calming and relaxing but to enjoy the island life quite properly, I feel, would take years to fully discover. To truly know it, one would have to have been born here - even the São Paulo born Brazilian waitress serving my wine ensconces this idea: I've only lived here twenty years, she tells me, serving me the most exquisitely grilled octopus tentacles and roasted vegetables: peppers, tomatoes and courgette. Time here has a different sentiment; it holds a pure essence - yet still ravaged by a pace of life far flung from these lands - this is EU territory - one of the Powerhouses of this world.

oculos de sol

A handsome waiter serves me an orange Aperol Spritz - grabs my glasses - can I - he asks and tries them on. Nice sunglasses he tells me. A nice interlude. And just let it be that...an interlude.

The harbour wall is grey, dark; it is a charcoal black, strong volcanic rock. Except you should never judge a book by its cover. It's structure seems impregnable...but with only one caress it can concave in ones' hand. And that's what the ocean does here. Its ferocious nature and splashes caress this fragile Atlantic rock, eroding its strength with each swash whilst they tear away relentlessly with the roar of the backwash,  that can sweep all into the deep ocean blue

Volcanic pumice

The pumice is there in view but stronger, muscular set concrete tripods of rock armour peak above the harbour wall - placed there not only as warning of storms that hit these islands but for the hurricanes offshore that occasionally kiss this shoreline.

Bulbs

Inside the restaurant where I sit the decorative lightbulbs with their linear dark amber-orange filaments (off as it is daytime) swing casually. Whoever put them there must have calculated a safe distance, otherwise they would collide - as I am sure have ships against these islands. Thank goodness those lightbulbs are 1.5m apart which is an irony in this world we still experience - I'd never have made that juxtaposition a few years ago - but the bulbs would break had it not been considered.

São Miguel

Here in Azores a calm air prevails - the perpetual wind continues, fluttering visitors and residents surgical blue facemasks alike who amongst all, I seem to blend in. I definitely do not represent the elite jet set, who come armed with enormous cameras, ready to catch whales in their parabolic lens and photograph the volcanoes stepping off their yachts, but I definitely do not represent the locals either, whose smiles are warm and grateful - I hope I am in between - exotic in these lands.

Yet, locals and foreign residents alike smile at tourists because very few make it here and even fewer still can visit in these tumultuous times. I am but a passer-by enjoying these moments that we live when, for just an instant, momentarily we can reminisce, think and remember a time we took for granted where a new virus hadn't emerged and almost conquered our very existence and freedom. Here, life remains with the new restrictions but in an air of happiness. Few places can say it but The Azores can, it's a nice place, even in these times we live in.

Wednesday 14th July 2021

The orange turned into a blue!

The armoured tripods...