My friend took me straight from the airport to a trip around the island. Every 5 minutes I asked him to stop. I couldn’t stare. Everything amazed me.
I started exploring the islands of lost Atlantis from Terceira. I had learned about the island’s existence a few months earlier. And for a long time I wasn’t able to pronounce its name.
When I came here, I thought I was crazy. I was flying to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. To a small island. For 10 days. What will I do here for 10 days? Then it turned out that it was definitely not enough.
Five years ago on Terceira I saw dolphins in their natural environment for the first time in my life. For the first time I ate octopus, snails, lapas (limpets) and cracas (barnacles). I was drinking vinho verde (green wine). I picked bananas in the backyard garden. I was riding a motorcycle. I watched bulls running on the streets. I was in the middle of a volcano. I visited lava tunnels. I took part in Sanjoaninas. I was drinking caipirinha. I washed ones again clothes that got wet while drying out. I was swimming in the ocean. I was walking along an empty riverbed. I drank wine in a local vineyard.
Every day I asked what we would be doing the next day. And every day I heard it depends on the weather. I didn’t understand it. It seemed to me that you always had to have a plan. Today I know that it’s worth having a plan in the Azores, but later you need to adapt it to reality. Well… Not only in the Azores.
I saw a world different from the one I knew before. I saw that you can think differently. That you can smile at strangers. Enjoy what you have. Even if it’s not much.
Even if I had never come back here – I would never forget this place anyway. The juicy colours of pristine nature would remain in me. The sound of the waves. Birds chirping. Human kindness. Ability to enjoy life.
Of course, I urge you to see all the islands in the archipelago! But even if you visit only part of them, or maybe only one – you will come back home with a special mark in your heart. And I have a request for you – take care of this mark. Take care of beauty and goodness experienced in the Azores. Of respect for nature and for each other. Take care of it. Take a piece of the Azores with you to the world!
