Terceira, Açores.

Well, I’m not going to spoil the beauty of this island by telling you of the trip here, suffice it to say that Malcolm enjoyed it.
We arrived very early on the morning of Friday, 11th June (02.30am) and ended up mooring alongside, Roakeldais. After catching up on sleep we became more social and caught up with Esther and Otto who were very pleased to see us again.
On the Saturday, said friends needed some help—they wanted to do a walk which was not circular and asked if we would do it from the other end, meet them in the middle, take the car keys and drive back to pick them up. Great plan and it worked perfectly. The walk was blissful, down a dried out stream valley to the sea and then along the coast. Pictures on Picasa (Aqualuva Hike). The fun happened afterwards… we made a detour to a winery and while tasting the produce had our pictures taken for a news article in Mondays paper! After this we encountered a large herd of cows wandering along the lane to be milked –which delayed us a bit, next a herd of goats which moved a little faster but which couldn’t be overtaken! This on the way to “tourada a corda”. The main street is defended with boards to protect the buildings from damage and a young happy bull is allowed to wander around. ‘Brave men’ wave capes in front of him and he wants to play but when he approaches the men run and so it goes on. At no point does the bull get hurt (which is the good thing) but he does get pretty tired running about chasing his playmates and after 30 minutes he is re-boxed and another is used. It is a great social occasion with the whole town out to watch. Peanut and ice cream sellers refresh the crowds and a fair bit of drinking goes on in the bars along the street . It is from here that we stand (protected ) to watch.

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