One Way Ticket

This island has the steepest sloping surfaces encountered by us in the Azores. Rock wall building and terracing has risen to a “high level”.

An invasive morning glory type of plant has in some areas covered and choked out trees. In my garden backyard, the plants die with autumn. Here with continual year long growth, they have become a nuisance. 

Jorge was our guide and driver. He told us about life on the island when he was a child even till now. (He lived in San Francisco when the 49ers and Joe Montana won the Super Bowl.). When Jorge was a child, there were more horse carts than autos. Now Holstein‘s outnumber people 3 to 1. 8000 2 Leggers and 24,000 4 Leggers inhabit the island. Louise asked Jorge if there were homeless people. He said there were two and he knew them by name. One of these men died about a year ago. He had refused the shelter that is offered on this island.

The cows are milked in the fields with generator equipped, mobile milking machines. Animals stay in the field year round.

It is claimed that this is the only place where coffee beans are grown in Europe. The plants and beans originally came from Brazil. 

Fajas are flat areas with extremely isolated villages. Some Fajas are volcanic flows, some landslide material and some made from each.