TERCEIRA – Azores

A week ago, my super trip began and I left with a one-way ticket with destination Atlantic ocean, to the marvellous archipelago called Azores.
Terceira is the third island for dimension, but its name comes from the fact that it was the third to be discovered.

Leggilo in italiano: TERCEIRA – Azzorre

Contended for centuries by Spanish and Portuguese, that counted on the support of France, the island is in an extremely strategic position, as the whole archipelago is.
For its localization, nowadays it still is greatly taken advantage of: on the island there is an American military base built during World War II by the UK. Speaking to any inhabitant, the affirmation is unanimous: if something happens in the world, this is the first place to know it.
With the war in Syria, for example, the planes brought the news over  way before than the broadcast.

Terceira is called the island of the fog.
With the last eruption in 1761, the centre of the island is made of old craters of the volcano. Santa Barbara, Roca do Chambre… the big and black cloud is present  90% of the times, and the fog up there is even thicker the one I’ve seen in the Pianura Padana!

The intern area is made of terracing of an intense green and a flora that reminds both the Alpine zone and the Scottish landscape. Cows and bulls are the main inhabitants of the area.
The villages fade away the inner you get.
In the period between May and October, the bulls are the main characters of the toreadas, a sort of corridas that take place in the streets and doesn’t involve the killing of animals. People run across the village along a fenced trail, trying not to be hit and hurt by the bulls – in Spain this is known as the vaquilla.

Because of their presence, the cheese of the island are one of the delicatessen, and the milk produced in the archipelago is then sold and is easily available in the mainland, or in the continental Portugal, as Portuguese call it.

The volcano has then created in the mountainous area unique attractions: Furnas do Enxofre (sulphur exhalations) and two volcanic caves excavated by the lava, Gruta do Natal and Algar do Carvao. However, its activity is visibile all over the island. The rocks used to build the houses or the ones that simply created the natural pools are of its unmistakable black.