Nicki and Al Hike Relva

Thursday - 18 Sep The Hike to Relva 

Nicki and I decided to go for a hike. With everything else going on, we had to take a bus so the others could have the car for errands. So we walked down to the marina and figured out how to use the bus system to take us to a town called Relva, on the westerns side of Ponta Delgada. The bus ride was only 20 minutes long and they dropped us off in the center of town. 

We decided to head towards to ocean, since the hike we wanted to take was in that general direction. As we walked, we found a path going  down to the water that we thought might be the hiking path we were looking for. It turned out to be a path that fisherman used to get down to the water to snorkel the waters just off the rocks. The path was well established with stairs in many areas.  

Just before coming to the water, we found a set a cement tubs. We later surmised that they were used in times past by the fishermen to clean their fish that they caught. The water was fresh and we drank heartily and filled our water bottles from the running springs. 

When we got to the bottom, the path ended and there was nothing but rocks. We thought maybe there would be rocks for a short way and then the path  would take up again. But that was not the case. After hiking across the very large, volcanic rocks for about 45 minutes, we decided to turn back.

We saw fisherman snorkeling in the waters just off shore. Sometimes they would yell and wave to us. One actually held up an octopus on a spear for us to see and we exchanged the thumbs up symbol.

The hiking the the rocks was pretty rough. I twisted my ankle a  little and scrapped my leg on the sharp rocks, causing my leg to bleed profusely for a short time. I thought the blood pattern looked pretty cool, as you can see in the picture.

We had a little difficulty finding the path back up, but once we did, it was not a bad hike up. It felt so good to have accomplished such a difficult hike. We took this selfie to celebrate the occasion.

It took a little bit to figure out where we needed to go to catch the bus again. We were finally shown a bus stop where we were told to wait. But when the bus came about 15 minutes later he didn’t stop. So we jumped up immediately and started following him. He stopped a little ahead and we thought we could catch him, but the driver took off even though we knew he had seen us. A little ahead, he turned the bus around and stopped. That evidently was the correct place to get on.

A few minutes after the bus took off, we realized that Nicki had left her brand new iPhone on the bus stop bench. So she stayed on the bus and took the return route back to Relva. Unfortunately, when she got there, it was no longer there. It really bummed Nicki out.

I had not made the return trip but got off the bus when it arrived in Ponta Delgada. Almost immediately I say Gayle and then the rest of our group slowly showed up from their morning of  shopping and getting laundry done. We ate lunch at a little snack bar on the marina and waited for everyone to arrive, including Nicki.

The afternoon was spent with a little shopping and preparing for a barbecue that Spencer thought up. We had a veritable feast, with fish, shrimp, portuguese sausage, pizza rolls, a fruit salad and some cooked zucchini. After dinner we had a little birthday party for Nicki with ice creme cakes and a little pie. It was a great idea and we all really enjoyed the food.

Most everyone, except Cindy and I, went back down to the marina area. They wanted to see the puppets and listen to the music that only a few of us had seen the night before. But the concert turned out to be boring music, so they came back to the apartment not long after they had left.

Starley checked her email and miraculously there was a message from a Luis, saying that he had Nicki’s phone and would like to return it. We were amazed. So we called him and he spoke English well so we arranged to meet him a few minutes away from the apartment. Even more surprising was that he didn’t want any money for his trouble. But we finally convinced him to take a 20 euro bill. We told him it was the American way and that he was our Azorean brother. We got back to the apartment and rejoiced in the “miracle of the iPhone” and recognized the hand of God in the process. 

Afterwards we packed for our flight out of the Azores on Friday. There was beginning to be a sense of sadness for leaving our special, enchanted island of Sao Miguel.