The Azores – Thursday 22nd June 2023

A morning of rapidly changing plans! I had originally booked the Blue Tuk tour for 9:30, so at 9:00, just as I am about to slap on the sunblock, the phone goes – it is reception – Rui, the Blue Tuk guide, is asking if we can postpone until 10:30 as it is still quite dull, but the views should be better by then. I say this is fine and put the phone down. It immediately rings again – it is Lisa, Norberto has called her to say the spotters have seen a Humpback, do I want to go out to see it? So a hurried re-arrangement (via reception) of the Blue Tuk tour to 2:30 this afternoon, only to get another call from Lisa to apologise – Norberto can’t get enough people to make the trip viable (he was hoping to be able to persuade some people to switch to this morning, but to no avail). I decide against any further attempts to rearrange anything else!

I had thought I’d try lunch at Atlantico, the ice cream shop, but the only thing I can positively identify on the menu was chili con carne with tapioca, and it seemed a bit too hot to be eating chili, so instead I went to the Volga, another nearby café and had a very nice toasted steak sandwich and chips.

While I was eating, I saw a blackbird trying to catch a small lizard who was having none of it (I don’t think the bird was expecting it’s lunch to fight back…). After I had paid, I wandered over to the scene of the battle, not expecting to find anything, when a flash of movement caught my eye, and I was able to spot the lizard hiding in some vegetation at the base of a tree. A bit of subsequent research suggests it is a Madeiran Wall Lizard, a species accidently introduced by hitching rides on ships travelling between Madeira and the Azores.

Rui arrives at 2:30 for the Blue Tuk Tour. We start off going to the Espalamaca Belvedere and the statue of Our Lady of the Conception, then down to Almoxarife beach, where we see crabs, but no people (it being a dull weekday afternoon, no one is thinking about sunbathing…), then back up through Horta, including a visit to the main church, which was built by Jesuits, and took over a century to complete before going up Monte da Guia – It is much easier ascending by tuk tuk on a dull, windy afternoon than it is on foot on a sunny one! Our tour then takes us past the Atletico restaurant that I recall visiting 10 years ago and had thought I might try again tonight – Rui recommends it as a good place to eat, so that makes my mind up. We continue up the coast to a viewpoint overlooking an arch in the cliffs and some sea caves before returning to the hotel – an enjoyable and informative tour.

I walk back down to the Atletico in the evening, and while it is busy, I am able to get a table (with a pyrography map of the island) outside. It is warm enough, but there is quite a breeze at times which blows loose serviettes etc off the table, and at one stage threatens to take the placemat while they are trying to serve my dessert.
The rib-eye had been recommended and was offered as either “beef” or “steak”, the difference, according to the diagram in the menu, being that the steak was a thicker cut. I ordered the beef, and the resulting meal would have been served a “steak” in any UK pub (two steaks in a Wetherspoons!).

When I got back to the hotel, there was a message waiting from Lisa to say there would be no whale watching trips tomorrow (probably due to the weather, rain has been forecast), and she would call at 9:30 to arrange what was happening instead.