Amir Klink

"Um homem precisa de viajar. Por sua conta, não por meio de histórias, imagens ou TV. Precisa de viajar por si, com seus olhos e pés, para entender o que é seu. Para um dia plantar as suas árvores e dar-lhes valor. Conhecer o frio para desfrutar o calor. E o oposto. Sentir a distância e o desabrigo para estar bem sob o próprio tecto. Um homem precisa de viajar para lugares que não conhece para quebrar essa arrogância que nos faz ver o mundo como o imaginamos, e não simplesmente como é ou pode ser; que nos faz professores e doutores do que não vimos, quando deveríamos ser alunos, e simplesmente ir ver." Amir Klink















sexta-feira, 18 de novembro de 2016

day Three

the journey began early calling Afonso asking if I could stay overnighting on his place once we would go again for a dinner in Ramiro's place, celebrating his birthday.  "Sure you can" was the expected answer and so it was.
   So today the day could be way more relax once I had not to come back to the same starting point. Tried to take a bath on the ocean but the temperature of either the water and the wind was not inviting much,  followed towards East and I knew I would meet in Afonso's wineyard. on the way,  Prainha and Terra Alta were impressive souvenirs,  the volcanoes remains super present as the rock formation and the lava rivers.
   As soon as I approached Piedade,  the Eastern Village,  I finally see the sun,  apparently the northern coast is more suitable to be cloudy, entered some field roads to see the wine yards project to reborn on this place the production of the lendary "Czar" wine,  a 27 alcohol degree juice bought by a Russian Czar on the begging of the last century.
   The sun was going down and I followed straight to Lages,  25km after,  to finally offer myself a dive in the ocean at the natural pool,  already by night and it was time to meet my friends here to go straight to the Ramiro's birthday dinner...  delicious!!!

  

quarta-feira, 16 de novembro de 2016

day Two

   The post dinner reminded me how used I was of eating so much...  all that delicious food was still on my belly and it took one hour for me to be able to eat something for breakfast,  and just a couple of mug with corn flakes,  I simply couldn't put nothing else in.
   Lately I've been really tired,  reviewing my last two weeks I've been flying like crazy operating 18 flights in a week,  then pack everything and drive from Belgium to Portugal a 2000km alone in 25 hours,  then I participated in the half marathon of Nazaré and again pack everything to come here,  the day after you have it softly described in the yesterday's post...  tiredness was taking control over me that I even felt glad that the weather was crazy,  I could see the ocean full of foam from the wind gusts and some rainy clouds coming and I thought to myself,  no way,  bed will be for the next hours.
   Woke up at 14 and it was definitely time to move out for at least a small tour,  first stop was to buy a soup and continue to contemplate this island,  head toward East and saw a small track on one application I have on my phone,  climbing from sea level to 850 meters high and coming down again finishing right in the hostel street.
   Pointless to say that climbing up to that altitude is really going up,  sometimes on pedals,  a lot on foot if you decide to take small tracks in the middle of the fields and those one are the ones I like them most.  Now imagine,  pure mountain in front and the ocean in the back,  a bit far,  10km distance I would say,  the island of São Jorge...  amazing combination,  it seems that we are in mainland with the ocean entering in a channel.
Took me one hour to arrive to the top and then followed the GPS track to a lagoon called "Lagoa do Capitao"  and so far so good,  not much time left to become dark but on the way down is always easier...  I thought.  Crossed a field in cohabitation with 3 massive white cows and the problem.  was when I realized there was also a black bull  watching me....  no fences between but the field was so irregular that I felt safe once it would be difficult to them to be able to run as fast as me,  no problem happened. 
continued toward down and entered a single person sized track, me and my bicycle were not able to to go fast,  plus was becoming dark and the forest was really closing souch until it becomed a tunnel,  10 minutes later I had to use the flashlight of my phone for 20 more minutes until achieving a road that safely took me to São Roque,  the village were my hostel is. Time to rest again,  see you tomorrow.

terça-feira, 15 de novembro de 2016

Pico Island, Açores-Portugal

Day one

   Hello dear followers,  this year a new trip was something calling me to go out again and Azores was once again my preference.
   Not only because is one of the most natural and traditional kept places in Europe, not also because it has the highest point of Portugal of 2351 meters above visible sea level, not only because the isolation of being away of everyone in a extreme friendly place where we can engage a conversation with the locals without any fear from both parties as unfortunately we are becoming to be used to,  because of all this an a way more.

   Adventure started home, 4:30 while attaching my bicycle's bag to my backpack and then putting them both on me,  climbing on my motorbike and drive 100km to the airport,  arriving there 7 to fly at 8 on a new version of the SATA Airline  that become the new AZORES Airline.

    The engagement with people started way before arriving to the island,  was even before having a seat while a another passenger tell me to pass because I was a pilgrim, I have on my backpack a pin that gave him a clue but when I look at him, Filipe, he was also wearing a "Camino de Santiago" shirt. The 2 hours flight were a non stop of exchanging experience,  once he was also a solitaire traveler on a bike and we knew by heart similar trails. While this his colleague,  Afonso,  also from mainland Portugal but willing to change his life to Pico permanently said in a no negotiation way,  "tonight you will eat fish with us for you to see what is live in this island".

   Landing in Pico with a Airbus 320 would be softer if the runway was bigger,  the pilot had to use the brakes more then normal,  while this Filipe was already showing that the village aside was where he was planning to build a small shelter for his vacations and perhaps one day stay here. Terminal was super small and confy,  the security was so discrete just to comply with the minimum regulation once for people here is normal to park the car and leave the keys inside,  the security hazard is none. We stepping out they insisted they would take me to the youth hostel,  "it's on the way".

   Pico is also the second biggest of the 9 Azorian Islands,  and the name of the third one is called Terceira, right aside and very visible Horta and São Jorge easily possibly to travel by daily Ferries,  so the distance that looked very small between the airport and was at least 8 km,  they dropped me and we dealed to meet later.

   Check in in the albergue done,  bike mounted and went out for a small tour out of São Roque once is not the main village of the island,  headed west to Madalena and noticed that here life goes by really slow,  almost no tourist and started to absorb the local energy,  small villages by the ocean with renewed houses probably from all the emigrants that were forced to leave the place in the past to earn their lives either West to America or East to Europe.

   Cycling on the road,  3 hours later,  a car stopped by my side,  was Afonso,  it's surely a small island I told him we passed a bit together at Cachorro,  a place where a dog shape volcanic rock was found and gave the name to the place.

   Continued to the hostel to have a shower and waited them to go for the special dinner in Ribeiras,  on the other side of the island where a group of locals were waiting with a huge pot full of "Caldeirada" (slow boiled with tomato sauce and unions) and local wine that taste like strawberries...  delicious,  came back home with feed to the soul.