Terceira Tour

On Tuesday, the Base required JB to attend an all-day briefing. Spouses were permitted to attend if they wanted. I passed. But on Wednesday, JB was required to attended a tour of the island. Families were strongly encouraged to join them. The only catch was that kids had to be 4 or older or over 40 pounds.

Nick and Kristy had taken the same tour last year and strongly encouraged us to attend. They said someone had watched their boys for it, and it was an incredible day. Kristy told me that she was going to watch all three kids plus her two which would equal five children. I tried to argue, but it quickly became apparent that she wasn’t planning to take “no” for my answer.  We decided to go ahead and leave Elijah to play with her Noah despite the fact that he is over 40 pounds. We also had to leave Abigail as she was neither over 4 nor over 40 pounds. But we did decide to take Isaac with us to limit the fighting between our boys and give us some one-on-one time with Isaac.

The day started with breakfast provided by the Chapel. We then took a tour around nearly the entire island. I learned some very interesting things on this trip which included:

• The name of the island, Terceira, is pronounced “Ter-sara.”

• There are 55,000 people on the island. But there are 110,000 cows – two cows for every one person. Cows move from plot to plot via main roads so the major traffic congestion around the island is due to cow jams.
• There are very few traffic lights on the island – only a handful and only in the large cities.
• The town that we live in “Porta Martins” is pronounced “Porto Martinsh” and it is the most popular town for Americans; as a result petty theft is not uncommon. More violent crimes are nearly non-existent.
• It would take approximately 2.5 hours to drive the road around the entire perimeter of the island.
• There is only one major expressway on the island.
• There is only one golf course on the island.
• There are three “major” grocery stores (aside from the base Commissary) on the island.
• There are 70 spirit houses on the island; I’m still learning about this but it has to do with Easter celebrations of the Holy Spirit. Each community has their own “Spirit” house.
• The highest point on the island is Santa Barbara – 1,021 meters above sea level.
• The island hosts the only empty volcano in the world.
• Bull fights are a huge part of the culture on this island; the bull fights here do not involve the killing of the bull.
• There are various campgrounds around Terceira.
• There are four main walking/hiking trails.

• There are many “pools” to swim in which are basically incredibly large tide pools created by the rocks along the shore. (As you can see from the photo above).
• There are nine islands which encompass the Azores. They are in three clusters. (1) Clores and Flores (which are much smaller than Terceira); (2) Terceira, Graciosa, Faial, Pico, and Sao Jorge of which Terceira and Pico are the largest; (3) Sao Miguel and Santa Maria.
• You can take ferries between some of the islands but plane flights are much faster and not much more expensive.
• The rock walls that you see everywhere were the original way to separate land between landowners. It might be easy to move a fence, but moving rocks is another story. Most walls are no longer the original but the tradition remains intact. As you drive, you see landscape nearly everywhere of lush greens separated by square plots of land.

It was a remarkable afternoon. Isaac, as is usually the case, exhibited perfect behavior minus the inclusion of his brother. When it is just him, his behavior is nearly always fantastic. He is currently incredibly fascinated by maps, and he held a map of the island and studied it nearly non-stop. We had the opportunity to stop at a bull fighting grounds, feed ducks at a lake, eat lunch on the water, and walk around the downtown city of Angra.

Touring the island only confirmed what JB and I had quickly become aware of during our first few days here – we are living in paradise. Firstly, this island is by far more beautiful than anything I have ever seen in the continental United States. It also rivals some of the places outside of the U.S. that used to top my list. It is an island not overrun by tourists. Towns are still very proud of their simple charm and traditions. We are absolutely in awe of where we live and the fact that we get to live here for at least two years.

Click here to see more pictures I posted on Facebook of our island tour.