Day 18 Oct 14 - Eastern Sao Miguel

Today we went on a tour of Eastern Sao Miguel called the Nordeste Tour. Check out the following link to see what where we went http://www.azoreantours.com/tours/nordeste/

Although the weather was a little rainy and the skies looked very foreboding, we started the day in good spirits. First stop was our neighbouring village to the east, Rabo de Peixe where we had the opportunity to view a combination of a working fishing village and a 'Social Community' (or what we would call the 'subsidized housing' in North America) in one area. It was an opportunity to really understand the economic diversity within this small island. In recent years, the EU has provided funds to Portugal to ensure that the lower income families lived in safe housing and have adequate access to the education system.
These villages are quite remarkable. There are colorful, ornately decorated homes of the fisherman; then you would find rows of generic stark subsidized townhomes; one block over you find huge, modern homes of the wealthy. Overall the villages are clean and orderly, but the Social Community areas are intimidating with young and old men gathered in large groups around the local taverns.

Colorful street of fishermen's houses

Dock area

The ever present Jesus or Saints painted on the boats for good luck..

Next stop.. Ribeira Grande.

The Espirito Santo Church - 17th century

Impressive tile work outside of City Hall

We stopped at a park located near Achada-Nordeste which used to be the location of a working mill.

Nordeste, which is Portuguese for Northeast is logically located in the northeast of Sao Miguel.

We picked up some meals in a local cafe and drove to a viewpoint to have our picnic lunch. It was a little rainy and a lot windy..but it was still a very good lunch!

From our picnic location we continued on the very curvy road along the eastern and south-eastern coast to our next stop in Povoação. This was the first colony on the island of São Miguel and a wealthy community with many of it's inhabitants working abroad in Bermuda.

We then drove to the very isolated fishing village of Ribeira Quente. This village is located on the south-eastern coast and is only accessible by a single road or by boat. The road to the village uses two tunnels which took a total of four years to complete (completed in 1939). In 1997 a massive mudslide caused by an intense rainstorm killed 29 people and due to the remote location, it took rescuers 2 days to reach the survivors.

We finished our tour with stops at a ceramic factory and a pineapple plantation near Ponta Delgada.

Some miscellaneous sights along the way...

This ended our 3 days of guided tours of the island and we bid farewell to our guide Gary and picked up our rental car for the remaining 1 1/2 days we have left in Sao Miguel. It's a small island so we don't think we will get too lost!