Wake up early as fuck, get to the airport and on the plane at sunrise. Easy flight to Ponta Delgada, the biggest town of Sao Miguel Island part of the Azores archipelago. Meet up with Jake McGee, my surfing bud that I became friends with at the bu. He’s already been there for several days working on a shot and now that it’s over, I’ve joined him to try and score some waves and explore the island.
Straight on arrival we meet up with these two Brazilian surf guides, both named Joao, and make the mission to Punta Santa Iria. Out in the country, hike down a super steep, muddy cliffside down into this canyon with our boards. One section you need a rope to get through, another windy little pass to your right is a 40ft drop that you need to be careful with. Down at the bottom is a creek flowing into the ocean, big volcanic boulders, porous at the water's edge with waves crashing right onto it. “Oh man, we got skunked, no waves here.” They take us through and over the boulders for a 20 min walk past a cove and into a little bay where there’s a fat left breaking. Some nice crumbly, kind of loggy overhead waves, some of them fast, perfect for the blue dolphin. Incredible surf session, fat lefts, long rides, just stoked. One big kind of closeout where all it was, was a big drop, bottom turn off rail with my hand gliding across the wave face and right where I kick out, at the top of the wave, is a sea turtle. “Holy Shit!” That really made me feel like I was in some kind of tropical surf movie.
Surfed there for as long as we could til Joao said we gotta go because the tide is rising. One of the sections we have to get through around this small point on the return journey, the high tide washes in and makes the crossing treacherous. Waves crashing as you move over boulders, best to avoid. Make it back and do the exhausting trek up. Arms exhausted from surfing and duck diving but also from carrying the blue dolphin for so long all the way up. Serious patina on the boots. Insane day! Incredible mission started in Cascais and hours later surfing really fun isolated lefts in the Azores. Can’t believe I’m on a semitropical, volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic right now.
Nov 29
Pretty tired today, surfed our tits off yesterday. Praia Santa Barbara, black sand beach break with fat peaks rolling through, looks fun. Challenging paddle out and catch a couple. Some were ok but mostly closeouts. The waves were not as good out there than they looked from the sand. Very hard to pick a good one. Did manage to get a hollow left, and a long one over to this current in front of the car park, and could not make it back out. The current just did not let me. I struggled against it for a while and then gave up and went in totally spent.
The real beauty of today was the colors out there. With the black sand, the gray skies, and the clear blue water, the curl would be an electric blue. Almost neon blue. Right where the wave folds over at the top, the oxygen pockets are a phenomenal blue color that I’ve never seen in the ocean before. Every breaking wave was a flash amongst the muted grays and earth tones around.
Drove out to a lookout point in the countryside where you can kind of peer into the St. Iria cove where we surfed yesterday. See little lines in there but it looks no good. Yesterday the swell was north, today all west. Wish we had been up here yesterday so we could see what good waves down there look like from this perspective. The scenery is gorgeous. Volcanic mountains of green pasture land then dropping off into cliffs at the water’s edge. The earth is red, the seaside is black. The mirador is patrolled by a litter of kittens that do not move as the car approaches.
Went down to the southside since the wind was switching and had a fat meal. Ended up surfing this weird novelty type surf in Sao Roque. The wave is kind of like Leo breaking off of this jetty, nothing great but cool to be at a new place. Rushed out and made it to a bar just in time to see USA beat Iran and qualify for the round of 16. Bunch of drunk older dudes surrounding us two Americans, hilarious.
The wind is funky and blowing out Santa Barbara. Since the swell is west we go to the west side of the island to look for some big waves, they’re unsurfable, crashing on rocks or all jumbled up in a weird, sketchy cove. We patrol the fishing village of Moisteros and then climb up the volcano past rural land, ocean views around us.
Down into the crater we go, there’s a pretty large lake, still as a mirror, with the village of Sete Cidades tucked in next to it. Tiny but with a classic Azores architecture of white walls with black, volcanic bricks used as trim. Kind of crazy when you really think about the fact there's a village people live in within a volcanic crater. We climb up the other side of the crater and find a second one with a second lake in it, almost a perfect circle. This one is completely undeveloped, there's no land around the lake and the crater walls are super steep. Took a little stroll down a switch back path but decided not to complete the hike because there's no beach to chill at, at the bottom.
Took the scenic route through the interior of the island back to the south shore instead of heading back to the coast and along the perimeter. The way is much slower but today is an exploration day and we score incredible Sao Miguel country views. Around one of our pull offs is an aqueduct in Roman style with archways completely covered in a fluffy green moss. On the inside of each arch is an orange lichen beautifully contrasting with blue skies and the greenery everywhere else. We hang by the aqueduct and use the orange as a backdrop for some cool portraits of us. These moments at the aqueduct and the views beyond are some of the most photogenic landscapes I’ve seen. Everywhere you look, be it in the distance or up close, you see natural beauty.
In town we are greeted with offshore wind and knee to waist high little drainers, short, fast rides. Super fun, we catch a million waves before, again, a picturesque sunset. This surf session comes as a phenomenal surprise and was perfect after a day of exploring and driving everywhere. I hope the photos and videos we took today do it some justice. From volcanic craters and lakes, to green agricultural land, to glassy/offshore head dips, pretty amazing.
Dec 1
Awful surf on the north shore, totally blown out. Today is hiking/exploring day. Make a chill breakfast at home and off are to Lagoa do Fogo, a hike Dad recommended from when he was here last year. This hike is a journey from the top of a volcanic crater with a big lake at the bottom, a different one than yesterday’s, and then a trail along the beach of the lake, followed by a walk up and around the mountain back to where you park. A big loop. Only we couldn't find the trailhead going up the mountain so we turned and went back the way we came. Up at the top is a lovely viewpoint of the crater and lake below, it’s overcast with occasional patches of sun coming through. On the walk down through the muddy trail, it starts to warm up a bit and by the time we’re at the lake it’s blue skies and the greenery around is vibrant. The water is completely transparent, the walk along the lake is amazing and we have it all to ourselves, the rest of the tourists didn’t make the muddy descent. The climb back up though, is difficult and you do have to be on your game a bit to not slip on mud.
It’s all good because 10min away are hot springs at Caldeiras for a nice soak of your tired bones. You pay 10 euros to go into a lush little canyon with pools of hot springs and people relaxing. It is kinda crowded but people keep their voices down and there's a nice calming vibe in all the poolside murmuring. Feels amazing after all the walking and surfing we’ve been doing. Get some good conversation with Jake and head back to the north shore just to see if there’s a surf going down.
To my surprise, again, there is! The wind has calmed down and while it’s not great, catching a few waves at the end of the day rocks. It’s kind of a reef, kind of a beach break, some waves are fast, some are slopey. No two waves were alike at all. Had limpets at the snack shack. Epic day, non stop fun shit.
Dec 2
Today is the first of 3 days of savage wind and intermittent rain showers blasting on and off as a storm rolls through. Brutal onshore, no surf day. Perfect to go check out Ponta Delgada, the capital town of the Azores. It’s actually really beautiful, I’m happy we are here, it’s charming and nice to walk around. Most of the buildings are uniform with white plastered walls and trimming of black, porous, volcanic rock. Even the cobblestone streets and statues around are made of this black stone, really cool. We had a nice lunch in a restaurant called Tasca and watched Korea beat portugal. Huge game that led to Korea qualifying and the suffering of many Portuguese. Overall just a really chill day in town watching some games and staying out of the elements. Here in Portugal they go hard for Christmas and Ponta Delgada is no different. Nonstop Christmas carols and lights everywhere to the point where my airbnb host in Cascais goes to Morocco every year around December just to avoid all the holiday cheer. She says it’s too much for her.
Dec 3
Drove out to Furnas, over towards the eastside of the island but still in the volcanic/mountainous region, for a nice late morning soak. Ended up at this kinda boujee resort/spa/hot springs setup named Terra Nostra. There's 3 pools, one massive one that's the size of an olympic size pool and for that reason it barely feels warmer than lukewarm. We found a smaller one, the hottest of the three, and soaked for around 2.5 hrs. Earlier in the day it wasnt that windy, it was calm and pleasant, but after about an hour and a half of hot springs the storm hit and a torrential downpour began. There’s something really sweet about being warm in a hot spring while cold rain falls from the sky. It’s quite surreal because you really start seeing steam lift off peoples shoulders and top of their heads. Like everyone in the pool is melting or something.
Of course it inevitably becomes time for lunch and what was a real good experience in the rain becomes us rushing to get our clothes on and sprint to the car while a river falls on us. Absolutely soaked, down to the boxers I’m wearing. Stop at a shitty restaurant closeby and eat probably the worst meal we’ve had in Sao Miguel, along with the Netherlands shitting on the US, while soaked to the bone. The whole thing is laughable. Dry off and warm up at home and decide to eat out in Ponta Delgada for dinner, would've been just too sad to eat at home.
Dec 4
Late start, day after storm, the ocean is still chaos and unsurfable. Gives me time in the morning to figure out what it is I’m gonna do with the reminder of my time before heading to LA around Christmas. There’s a fat swell arriving in Morocco on the 12th that I know I want to hit so I decide I’ll head north to Porto to check out the town and the northern beaches of Portugal before heading there. It was a little bit of a tough decision but ultimately the beaches of Lisbon and south in the Algarve all have bad winds and very minor swell this upcoming week. The swell isn’t great up north either but at least the wind is forecasted in the correct direction so maybe I can sneak in a surf or two before Morocco.
Planning to arrive in Morocco on the 11th and hopefully score the swell as my final surf mission of the trip and then give myself a couple days in Marrakech to check out a nice big cultural center of Morocco, not just beach vibes. From there Barcelona for a few days before LA. Same logic as Paris, it’d be a shame to pass through and not see anything. Stoked to have the final 20 days planned out.
Do a nice long explore day of the island on our final day here. Went all the way out to the southeast town Ribeira Cente, super rural, really far away, took our time getting there, tiny fishing village. The beauty of today was that everywhere we stopped a rainbow and one to several cats would appear. At a vistapoint, cats and rainbows, at the rocks by the beach in Ribeira Cente, cats and rainbows. All day the sky was turning blue after the big storm. It was very Murakami-esque. This whole place is dreamlike, you go from a European vibe of cobblestone streets and old ass churches, into dramatic tropical cliffsides, into black volcanic craters. Imagine King Arthur in Hawaii, actually crazy!
End up back in the hot springs area for a soak in a new spot. It’s hot but kinda crowded so we don't hang around there too long. This area doesn’t really have good food (same place as yesterday is open for business) so we go to the queijaria close by and have a massive charcuterie plate for dinner. It’s a delicious arrangement of local cheeses so it's far superior to anything around. We ordered enough to feed 3 or 4 by accident but we did our best to eat it all. After a hot soak now we’re filled to gills with cheese hahah. What a ridiculous final day in the Azores.
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