The Azores – Hydrangeas

Those of you who follow my blog know I just spent a week in the Azores. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been asked many times how it was to which I don’t have a good response.

Every day started and ended much the same. In the morning, my travel companion, Ali, who is so very cheery as soon as the sun rises, would whisper my name until I got out of bed. I’d mumble a few things and then it was off to breakfast, which consisted of a shot of coffee, a gulp of passion fruit juice, and soggy scrambled eggs. We’d stuff apples and bottles of Gloria Patri water in our camera backpacks and head for our temperamental car rental. Once we managed to finesse our way out of our street parking spot (better put, ran into the curb a dozen times… I think Azores streets were designed for the width of a single horse… or cow), we’d head up the curvy, death roads, as I like to call them, and start our daily photo adventure. At the end of the day we’d consume an amazing amount of steak, fish, bread (Ali – was it 9 pieces that night?), and wine and then fall asleep to the sound of old American movies, which they play on Azores television stations.

Not every day started off well. The Azores are literally in the clouds, which is a bummer if you want to see anything five feet in front of you. Then there was the rain, wind, and street signs that showed cars falling off cliffs… but that story is for another blog post. By then end of every day we had come across new landscapes, interesting people, and places we never could’ve imagined. I’ve decided to post a series of photo vignettes to tell the stories.

The first has a little back story having to do with my tradition of giving my mother a photo every Christmas. She likes this so much she has started to make requests, even though I tell her it doesn’t work that way. She really loves hydrangeas and has a spot picked out for my future hydrangea photo that she insists I will take for her. She even offered to buy me one to take photos of. Again, it doesn’t work like that.

Hydrangeas typically run rampant in the Azores. The islands are blanketed with them… usually. Apparently we just missed the right season for them. For the first few days of our trip, all we saw was soggy, barren hydrangea plants. I was really disappointed. As the days went on, Ali and I got more adventurous. There are many photos to come of scenes that we can safely say the majority of tourists, and probably Azorians, have never seen. I won’t detail every one of our adventures because my parents read this blog and I love them, so I’d prefer not to give them heart attacks. The photos will speak from themselves. More on that in the next blog post. Anyhow, during one of our journeys, I found a few hydrangea bushes that were oddly just starting to bloom. I suspect this has to do with the high altitude and moist location of this particular part of the island. Sorry to spoil part of your present, mom.