Day 1 in the Azores
After arriving in the early morning in the Azores, we finally went to sleep. Some did at least. It took me until around 6am to finally fall asleep, too many thoughts and emotions going through my head. I was just too wired on adrenaline and excitement. Don’t worry, I’ll write about that soon, but let me do a quick update on where things are.
We had to sleep on the sailboat, because after all we hadn’t gone through port, customs, police and immigration. Around 8’ish it was time to start that wonderful process with the crews of other eight or so sailboats who had arrived overnight from all over the world and all of these people, ourselves included of course were, let’s say, cranky and stinky.
The big four, were essentially four little rooms in a building. First port authorities, then immigration, then customs and finally police. It all went very smoothly, except they refused to stamp my passport because I brought my Spanish passport and the Azores is part of Portugal and, just like Spain, thus are part of the European Union. I insisted on a stamp as a souvenir, but they stuck to their line of “only non EC passports.”
We filled up with fuel and water, moved the sailboat twice and finally found a spot in the harbor we liked. Around noon we all had the same idea, food then showers. Yup, first feed ourselves even if we are imposing our aromas on the rest of the Azores population. Get to the hotel and it is “full.” A few smiles, a little flirting and surprise! Two rooms opened up. That Latin charm always works. Hot and long full pressure showers were just what the doctor ordered. We visited Pete’s Cafe where will go for drinks tonight. Probably also dinner but not clear yet. A little shopping, a lot of walking and we are back at our hotel rooms. Dad is sound asleep. I’m like on speed. I cannot stop. I refuse to rest. Tomorrow I plan to go photographing the town while José Manuel and Dad go grocery shopping.
We are waiting to hear if a whale tour captain will allow us to follow him tomorrow afternoon. That would be too cool!
Then we will not return back to port with the tour but continue sailing to La Coruña, Spain. That is the plan, we’ll see what happens.