After our whaleless whale watching adventure Sunday morning we wasted little time moving on. The island of Terceira is small in size but big on adventure. The main roads and the secondary roads are very well maintained and easy to navigate. While there is plenty to see and explore on foot, seeing the whole island requires either a guide or a car. Since we have plenty of time we opted to explore on our own, so Sunday afternoon we rented a car that we'll have for three days. This will give us plenty of time to check out the coast as well as inland sections of the island.
We took off westward toward San Mateus with a simple goal.........food! One thing we've quickly learned is that food on the island is surprisingly inexpensive and quite diverse. Being an island in the middle of the ocean, of course seafood is quite popular. Additionally the island is known for outstanding beef and dairy products (cheese and ice cream!). One of the friendly and helpful representatives of Azores Getaways suggested several restaurants around the island so we decided to start checking them off the list.
First up was Beira Mar, which specialized in seafood. More appropriately it specialized in "fresh seafood" since it sits directly on the harbor above the docks where fishing boats unload their catches of the day. Scanning the menu Beth and I both zeroed in immediately on the "grouper". However Tomas, our very helpful and friendly vegan waiter shared with us that "grouper" wasn't the same as the grouper that is caught around Florida and that we might be disappointed. All three of us (me, Beth and Tomas) got a kick out of the fact that we were being guided through the menu by a vegan, especially when he told us it wasn't for health reasons but for moral reasons. We settled on a local grilled fish (boca negra) and fish and shrimp skewers. A tip of the hat to Tomas, both were very tasty and the setting was perfect.
Afterward we drove up the northwest coast checking out several really nice viewpoints along the way as well as a local cheese shop where the locals were enjoying a concert by the "town band", which appeared to be made up mainly of high school students. Content with our exploring for the day we headed back to the hotel across the inland route. We both think that Terceira seems like a combination of the big island of Hawaii, Cornwall and the Yorkshire Dales of the UK. If you throw in the food, you'd have to include a little bit of coastal Spain.............not a bad mix!
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| The only thing standing between us and the food is getting the picture! |
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| Still no whales in sight! |
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| A small freshwater lake inside one of the many extinct volcano's on the island. |
