Views of Sequim, the Olympic Peninsula. . .and beyond
The most enduring images I have of Terceira Island are of the long, long rock walls and green fields. They’re beautiful, functional, and old. Agriculture thrives on the island.
This wraps up my trip to Terceira Island. But our travels didn’t stop there. Stay tuned for where we headed next.
We explored the city of Angra on foot our last day on Terceira Island. Eye candy! This was the view in one direction.
Here was a view nearby in another direction.
The characters in the windows and doors reminded me of the 1960s painters, Walter and Margaret Keane. This building is apparently empty and for sale.
There was color everywhere, narrow cobblestone streets, and sidewalks were often cramped or nonexistent. This is a city that grew up long before modern cars.
People share the streets with cars. Locals are accustomed to it. Tourists? Not so much. Driving on Terceira Island was my least favorite thing to do.
We ended our second day’s tour with Gui and Azores 38 N with some striking panoramic views of Angra do Heroismo, the small UNESCO World Heritage city on Terceira Island where we stayed.
Old buildings are protected. They can be extensively remodeled on the inside but the exterior must be preserved. I’m not sure how far this preservation extends.
There is a beautiful mixture of old and new in the city. And lest you think all the churches are traditional, here’s one that breaks the mold.
There’s evidence of Terceira’s volcanic origins all over the island if you know where to look. On our Azores 38N tour, our guide Gui took us to see fumaroles — a volcano “breathing” — at Terceira National Park. You can see the steam lightly rising on two sides of the photo above.
One of the geologic highlights of Terceira is a dormant volcano that visitors can enter. It sounded great until I read accounts that estimated access required walking about 700 stairs in and out. No doubt interesting but my knees wouldn’t have survived the effort.
From various high spots on the island it’s possible to see multiple volcanic calderas, wide basins of land that remain after a volcano goes extinct.
We traveled a lot of back roads with Gui. Here we were caught in a Terceira traffic jam. I was told there are more cows than people on Terceira.
Yesterday I told you that there are a lot of rock walls on Terceira. Most are used to corral livestock. These above are different. This is a vineyard moving into its winter dormancy and it’s unlike any vineyard I’ve seen before.
While it has a mild Mediterranean climate, Terceira’s address in the Atlantic Ocean means it doesn’t attain the warmth needed to ripen wine grapes. So the vineyard is divided into small rock enclosures. These enclosures absorb solar warmth and then release it to the grapes.
Did I have wine on Terceira? Yes. Was it from the island? {Head slap.} I forgot to ask.
We’re accustomed to traveling independently but without a great guide book or a lot of study it’s easy to miss a lot, even on a small island like Terceira. But a bus tour didn’t appeal. So…
We hired our first-ever private guide, Gui Bruges of Azores 38N, the very best thing we did during our stay. Gui was informative, upbeat, and a lot of fun. And most of the time he was at the other end of the van above, driving.
We could have driven ourselves but we’d never have found the overlooks and beautiful spots like this that Gui led us to. Not to mention that we’d probably still be wandering, lost, on the narrow, unsigned roads that lead to the best places.
We toured with Gui for two days, exploring the Terceira coast and its history and the volcanism that created the island. The farmlands above are notable in that the lines you see are rock walls that divide the fields. These walls cover the island, hundreds of miles of them.
The Azores were formed by underwater volcanoes sputtering to the surface of the Atlantic, spewing lava. As with other rock strewn lands, when the land is cleared the rocks have to go somewhere.
The island is dotted with small coastal villages that are surrounded by agricultural lands – a lot of dairy and beef farming.
It didn’t take me long to become fascinated with the churches in Terceira Island. They are a central feature of all the villages we saw. Their forms and colors are striking.
In the small city where we stayed, Angra do Heriosmo, most views encompassed at least one prominent church, and often many more.
This is Se Cathedral, located in the center of Angra, originally built in the late 1500s but partially destroyed by an earthquake in the last century and since reconstructed.
Sao Sebastiao, the oldest church on Terceira, was built in 1455. Original frescoes have recently been discovered inside and are being restored.
The Church of Mercy in Angra dominates the waterfront.
I came home with many pictures of beautiful churches dominating the view in neighborhoods throughout the island.
As we traveled around the island of Terceira we passed a number of these tiny gems called imperios. We learned that they are used during the annual Festival of the Holy Spirit.
The imperios are also used to store reliquaries, penants, and symbols related to the Holy Spirit faith and celebrations.
The Portuguese love of color is evident in these fascinating little buildings.
Click here for an article about the Cult of the Holy Spirit associated with the Portuguese Catholic faith.