Ferry was to leave Horta harbour at 8.15am and so we set to meet at 745am outside the house ...
Had a quick breakfast ... prepared some lunch & a drink ... bathroom ... and met Marcus as planned ... quickly walked down to the harbour and could see people ganging up waiting for the ferry. It was still very windy and cloudy and so it wasn't the right day to climb to the top of Pico as we would see absolutely nothing ... yet we needed to break off from Faial.
It was fun watching the different people waiting for the ferry as a variety of characters with different intentions were crossing over to Pico. The German tourists can be spotted from a mile and Marcus really stays away from them ... they embaress him as he says ... with their shorts, socks and sands or shoes ... told him i'm used to them in Malta. Then you could see the usual commuter who is either visiting family or an errand to Pico ... and then the locals but really dressed in Sunday best with all the kids in dresses and suits ... reminds me a bit of Gozitan people crossing for a wedding and its so obvious that they're out of place in such gear.
The journey was bit bumpy but nothing compared with yesterday's ... yet the wind and clouds gave it all a different dimension. It seemed like we travelled in time as the ferry is quite old ... sort of the Imperial Eagle in shape and size ... and the islands looked like raw rock sticking out of the sea. As we got to the port of Madalena in Pico there were as much people waiting to board back to Horta so they barely gave us a chance to disembark. The usual taxi pests and tourist bummers were around and needless to say Marcus was even better at getting past them than i am ...
Since it was a Sunday there was barely any activity in the port and the public transport was inexistent. We attempted to hire a motorcycle or a car but they were either not available or too expensive ... and so we opted for a taxi ... who asked us for a €100 ... and which was way above what we wanted to spend considering that motorcycles were advertised at €14 for the day. Considering the weather conditions and the situation we decided to stay in this Pico harbour and tour the neighbourhood.
As we got into the tourist info booth the lady was very sympathetic to our situation and strongly recommended we visit the Wine Museum some 1 km away from the town and enjoy the scenery of the wine fields ... as so we took off.
Instead of going directly to the wine museaum we walked for some 2 miles along the coast as Marcus is very much into surfing and it was very nice to look at the breaking waves on the northern shore of Pico overlooking Sao Jorge at a distance on the right and closer Faial on the left. As we reached the end of the shore where nobody was around we did an inland turning towards the museum which was some mile away ... but the walk was enjoyable as a strong breeze kept us cool.
As we got to the museum it was deserted but open ... entrance was €2 and free on Sunday ... so we had to go in for sure. The fat girl at the counter was very friendly and after asking us about our nationality she asked me if i had any Maltese Euro coins to exchange as it was really hard to get hold of them. After an exchange of some €3.40 we started the tour of the place.
Its quite a modern museum and the information, provided in English, was very good with smelling samples and displays of different grapes which i had never seen ... so it was most interesting to see how the Cabernet grape looked like ... and Shiraz ... etc ...
After some 45 minutes going around the place and scrutenising several old instruments and techniques that were employed for wine making we started our way back to port.
We decided to have a light lunch at one of the cafes at the port ... a burger & fries ... while we watched the gulf between Pico and Faial ... wind still blowing.
At around 2pm the next ferry made its way into the port to pick us and another 50 commuters up and drop us at Horta. At this time the wind picked up even more and the boat rocked ever so much ... for some reason which later was clear the captain was movig the boat parallel to the waves and so each wave was hiting us right in the middle and rocking the boat. As soon as we crossed three quarters of the channel the captain turned the direction directly to Horta with the waves straight ahead ... the way i would have crossed all the way ... and boat stopped rocking right away as we were facing the wind and the strong waves ... but the sea flying all over the boat soaked everybody. Everyone was in a panic not to get wet but me & Marcus were laughing our heads off as we were in a sheltered spot ... only got few drops over us ... but didn't last much as the captain quickly swirled around Monte da Guia to shield all from the North Westerly waves ... we were about to enter Horta port.
As we got off the ferry we walked home and Marcus wanted to go for a swim some time later. We agreed that if i was outside i would join him, but if not, i would have gone to the department ... which i did at around 4pm ... till 7pm ... walked back home and watched TV while i rested my legs on the bed until i fell asleep ...
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