From the Azores to Portugal

38’48 N 21’11W

We are now back aboard Mojomo heading for Portugal. We arrived at the Azores Friday morning and left Sunday. ETA for Portugal is Saturday evening.

The Azores were incredible. Friday morning it was so great to see the shape of mountains form during sunrise on the horizon. It was culture shock to be on land and interact with other people besides our small crew. We had some of the best food of our lives as sort very classic, and very posh restaurants.

Eric and I went on the best run of our lives about 2 hours after arriving. Cliffs bordered the coast as when ran around the edge of the island through all sorts of tiny roads. Eventually we ran through the remains of an old amphi-theatre made from volcanic rock on the edge of a cliff and then turned around at the end of a huge rock jutting out around a crevasse the waves were crashing up into.

A few hours after arriving Matt came back from the dentist (he had to get a tooth pulled!) he announced with a mischievous grin, “Hey guys, I just rented a big black Mercedes limo with a crazy driver to take us around the island for a few hours!” And indeed he was crazy, which made the evening even more epic. Besides showing us all the sights of the island, he also shared with us the uses of refrigerators, and the fact the his dreams frequently predict the future (he has seen several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in his dreams just days before the actually happened).

The new section of the island recently formed by volcanic eruption 50 years ago was very interesting, along with some other epic views, but what really blew Eric and I away was the volcanic crater on top of the island that originally formed the island years and years ago. About 2000m across the top and 400m deep, it was extremely lush and terrain like I had never seen before. As we came to the edge, we simply were at loss for words. There was a trail along the top, and a very haggard one that lead down into it. Unfortunately, we did not have the spare hours to hike down, but Eric and I want desperately to come back to it one day.

Friday evening there was some festival and we went to see a very ’European’ band play an assortment of all kinds of instruments. I joined in the crowd and danced around for a few hours before Eric and I finally went back to the yacht at 1am, which we found out the next night was extremely early!

Jonathan