After a late start to give our recovery a little extra oomph, we struck out to start our day of mutual exploration of Terceira. Given time constraints, we abandoned plans to explore the greater island, and instead opted to focus on the main city: Angra do Heroismo.
Of course, we began with pastries and a few sights in town:
From there, we headed over to Monte Brasil, a big public park / military base on the far side of the peninsula that promised a nice hike and great views of the town and harbor. However, before we got that far, on the way over we figured we may as well continue the search for Grant’s ancestors home… and think we may have found it (or at least something pretty close!).
Proof Grant was there!
From there with boost of optimism and potential victory in finding a match home to the one in Grant’s families painting, we set off to hike Monte Brasil. The climb was scenic at times, steep at times, and breezy at times; and all in was mostly what was promised. The views were certainly worth the work to get to them:
After our Monte Brasil adventure, we hopped a quick cab to one town over for one of the highlights of the San Jaoa festival: a bull fight. But, we should mention up front, this was no ordinary bull fight with a costumed matador deftly dodging certain death in a giant arena with stadium seating. No no, pretty much all of that is different on Terceira, except for the fact that there is a bull.
Let us break it down for you:
There is a bull…
But it’s not in an arena… instead, it’s let loose in the town port… and is “controlled” by four men holding a rope tied around the bull’s neck.
There is no matador, instead, any and everyone who is interested, gets to tempt, prod, dodge, and run from the bull. The best and most fearless at this were 2-3 local teenage boys, one of which would put his hand on the bull’s head and horns as he ran it in circles, just inches behind him.
Another interesting element is the addition of the port. It may or may not be a surprise that one of the goals is to get the bull into the water. This happened on several occasions for each bull (there were four in total) and sometimes the bull would chase taunting spectators into the water down the boat launch ramp, while other times the crowd would team up and use both the mooring posts and their combined strength to literally push the bull off the dock into the salt water below. Needless to say, it was insane, but looked like loads of fun (with just a dash of danger to life and limb).
At the fight we quickly made friends, including with this local gent who needed a hand with his umbrella!
After the bull fight, we ate at an amazing seafood joint, located on the same harbor, called Restaurant Beira Mar. Our AirBnB host, Fatima, had recommended it with rave reviews, along with some very specific items she wanted us to try. We had three different sea creatures, some of which Jess had never had before, and none of which Grant had tried before (and we love seafood!).
First was the bread with a soft cheese (shaped like a jello mold) which you topped with a spicy red hot sauce:
Next was the cracas, which are essentially large barnacles. You get a nail with a bent tip and have to fish out the barnacle flesh from inside it’s rocky shell. It looks crazy, but let us tell you: it tastes delicious! It tasted like a lovely cross between lobster and crab, with a little extra salt and taste of the sea thrown in.
Next, we had about a dozen lapas, which are limpets (mollusk type creatures that suction themselves to rocks with a shell on top, so only have one-sided shells). They were a little bit chewy at times, but were expertly seasoned with garlic, pepper, and lemon.
Finally, we shared a hulking slipper lobster, which had literally been swimming in the tank behind us, not long before. It was very tasty, and though similar to the cold water Maine lobster many of us know and love, Grant assured Jess that Maine lobster was still much better.
With full bellies, and a little bit of sunburn from the 3 hour bull fight, we settled in for our last night in Terceira, with dreams of mainland Portugal dancing in our heads.
-G & J