Sabbatical - remarks on hostels (traveling in the Azores)

After having toured a month in the Azores, my observation is that there seems to be quite a boom to create tourist accomodations. When walking around, you see little signes of "AL" on the houses which stands for Accomodation Local. 

Many are hostels or bed&breakfasts, but interestingly, they seem to gater to people with a bit more money and with many more demands than your average young backpackers. We stayed in quite a few, the best ones listed below (ordered by our dates, nothing else!):

• Joe's place in Pico (Madalena) 
• Mantaray Lodge in Faial (Horta)
• Facing Bay Hostel in Terceira (Porto da Vitoria)
  

In our rooms, we had a private bathroom, towels, etc. just like in a hotel. The bed linens were also of a very nice quality (much appreciated by me!!). And additionally, we were able to use a shared kitchen (a pic of Matt cooking at Mantaray Lodge while I'm chilling with a glas of wine :). There often were also laundry facilities which made travelling for a longer period of time very convenient.

We really liked these places! Maybe one factor was that we travelled outside of the main season, so fewer folks, but we also liked bumping into other travellers  in a very low-key way and share hints. 

Interetingly, many of these places were paying attention to their environmental engagement, for example, not promoting bottled water, making guests to recycle, and some even said to use environmentally friendly cleaning products. 

Hmm, a little remark about cleaning products. A smell that you cannot avoid in the Azores is bleach, there seems to be a serious overuse culture among the cleaning personel. You cannot avoid it when entering any type of accomodation from hotels to rural houses (sure it might account for enviromental damage of micro-cultures....).

And on top of bleach, there are often various notes of cockroach repellent, yack, with hues of humidity&mold. With such warm and humid year around temperature, there surely are many issues around. This is a hidden secret of Azores that one cannot read in travel guides ;)

Sabbatical - boots made for walking (traveling in the Azores)

After the Pico hike, and a few other small ones, I felt less motivated to do another hike at San Miguel, the last island I visited. There was no big urge, besides, my hiking boots got totally worn out after Pico. A good thing they took me up and back with no problem!! 

After summiting the the “Piquinho” (a small 70m volcanic cone), we took a break and I noticed that the sole was breaking up a bit. By the time we got down, the bottom layer of the sole was completely loose, but luckily, still hanging on from the front and the heel (see the one on my right hand). I was still able to wear them to the airport, but eventually, in one of the shoes, the sole broke off and was dragging badly.

On Terceira we did one more hike and I applied this ingenious hack to fix my shoe using shoe laces. Well, it didn't last very long, but long enough to enjoy a wet hike in awesomely strange green boggy marsh lands just outside Gruta do Natal. 

When a gobbler told me that he cannot fix them (because he does not have the right materials), my heart broke a bit. So the picture below is from the officially last hike with these well loved hiking shoes.  

I was sure I could try to clue them myself (with my expert knowledge of shoe making, por supuesto ;)) However, a dear friend had a word of wisdom and she convinced me that a new pair would be safer for my future hikes. After all, I don’t want to miss a summit because of a broken boot!!

So, with a bit of a heavy heart, I said good bye to my fidel companions of 13 years. They’ve taken me up Kilimanjaro (2009), Mulhacen (2016), Teide (2019) and countless other hikes. I bought them at Landers, Wyoming on a recommendation from Skipp's wife Diana. She had the same ones and she said, you'd love them. And I did, thank you for that!!

I already decided that I’m going to buy new ones from the same brand, I loved hiking in those boots. They were just right: the sole had good fraction so you didn’t have to worry about slipping or sliding. The soles are also thick and ridge enough so that you don’t feel any rocks or roots, and get a conformable gate on whatever surface. They were also the right size for hiking, I had enough toe room and in downhill, I never got black toenails. I hope my new Vasques boots will last me at least 13 years, if not even longer!!

Sabbatical - remarks from traveling in the Azores

Starting Day 10 in the Azores with a beautiful view on the Pico mountain, its silhouette is as bold as ever  with the little lava cone sticking up on the top - like a cherry decorating a cake.

It looks really harmless but the climb was excruciating, some 1150 m vertical climb in 3.8 km. It was a non-stop ascent and which is worst, non-stop decsent. My quads are still aching after tree days - pretty unheard of. I spent 3h10min going up and 3h20min coming down. 

At the end of the trail, we could already feel the weather changing and so it did, the tropical storm Guston made its way to the Pico island and the following day we got trenched. Which was not that bad for a day of rest and celebrating my birthday!