Day 13 in Pico 9-9-10

Day 13

As I sit here writing today's blog and Justin is washing is feet (we walk in sandals alot) I can't help but think that this leg of my trip is coming to a close. I just did some pre packing as tomorrow is my last day here and that we will be leaving Saturday morning for Lisbon. I am anxious to get there but part of me wishes i could stay. I'm gonna miss feeding my moms chickens, ducks, peacocks, cats, dogs, a goat and a sheep named Sean-ay. At first some of the animals are hestitant around new people but after seeing them everyday and attempting to make friends with them slowly i've gotten to the point that when i'm walking around the back yard i have a sheep following me and a goat getting up on her hind legs to greet me. :) Not only are there the animals that i'll miss but the breath taking views of the landscapes and the people including but not limited to family. Today was a very short day considering the amount of Caipirinhas that we drank last night. Not that i got drunk or anything like that be we were up till about 6 in the morning.  After getting up and starting to move around it was already 2 in the afternoon... my mother had gone to Horta to take my Grandmother to a Dr's Appt. She had mentioned that she needed some stuff from the beach house so I decided we would go get it.

 Adega/Beach house

I called my aunts restaurant and ordered a pizza so that we can take down and eat then we would grab the stuff and come back. We grabbed the pizza and made our way down a street that i've gone down so many times before and it hit me that it would probably be the last time in a while that i make this trip again to a place i have many fond memories of as a child. I thought i would take some pictures since it would probably be the last time i see the place the way it is today considering that everytime i come here things seem to change. We ate the pizza and sat on the cliffs watching the high tide waves pounding the rocks at the bottom.  I decided to go down to the pools where i learned how to swim, Justin went swimming and i just sat with my feet in the water. I wasnt really in the mood to be submerged in water today.  We were done after a while and i went to back to the beach house picked up the espresso machine and microwave and loaded the car up.
(they are seperate but attached)

I had promised my aunt that i would go back and take a look at what they did with the land. She has many many many more animals than my mother does. The best part were the pigs... she has like 97 of them and at the end of the month expects to have about 20 more since there are some sows that are expecting. We said our goodbyes and came to shower... we stink at this point from the pig pens.

One of the pigs. i have some videos of the smaller ones but for now this is the only picture i have.

We didn't want the whole day to go to waste so we hopped in the car and decided to go to the mountain area and see things that we missed the other day. First stop Pico de Urze. The pictures like many of the others that I've take don't do any justice to the views in person. We arrived at Pico de Urze approx 895m above sea level. My ears popping the whole way but totally worth the view at the top. One moment everything is clear and the next there are clouds everywhere, weaving through trees and bushes and even swirling around us, just amazing.

The view from Pico de Urze at sunset

Next stop we decide to find out what we needed to do to go up the mountain, so we make our way to the summit. We get there and it's already dark. The time just seems to be flying here. we watch an introduction video that they have set up there and since we didn't come prepared for it we decided we would come back tomorrow. Whether we do the whole climb or not that's still up in the air although it is something i'm sure will be really good for the both of us (I've already don't it once myself) He head back to the house. Kinda took a wrong turn up on the mountain roads and a trip that normally would've been 15 mins back to the main road took about 45 mins to an hour back to the house. Since we really didn't have any set plans it didn't matter and we just enjoyed what we were experiencing. we had to get out of the car a few times to read the signs since the growth of the trees and vines were covering them and we needed to know where we were going.  I got a few phone calls while we were treking in the wilderness one from my cousing Manuela, she wanted to hook up for a drink. We met at Rochedo, where i learned the server was an extended cousin of mine. The Kitchen was closing but thanks to Manuela and the guy learning i was his cousin they made Justin's and my meal. I had the Bife a casa and Justin had the squid Manuela had a vodka redbull. We ate paid and headed to Clube Naval to catch a few drinks before 2. The scene there is just too much to explain but to make it simple public displays of drunkeness can be somewhat amusing to watch until someone gets kicked out of the bar and putt putt's home on a scooter. Who knows where that drunk ended up... just hopefully not under a car.

So with mixed emotions about the last day approaching i'm closing off today with as much excitement for the next leg of this trip and i'm going to make the best of my last day tomorrow even though i'm sure there will be some tears.

B