TINY TERCEIRA
Tucked into the Azores, this island is known as an international crossroads,
TERCEIRA, PORTUGAL— A feeble sun had been peeking out of some seriously dark clouds when we left Angra do Heroismo, but now that sunlight is little more than a memory.
Rolling on big seas toward to the northwest of Terceira on the Big White, a relatively small fishing boat operated by a local company called SailTours, we encounter wilder winds and waves with every nautical mile we notch on the North Atlantic, feeling a bit like the explorers from centuries past who plied these wild waters.
Captain Alexandre Bettencourt had planned to park us in a calm spot in the lee of the island, but it becomes increasingly clear that the weather has shifted.
“That’s the Azores,” he says with a slightly apologetic shrug, as I shelter with him in the wheelhouse. Soon I join my fellow sailors, guide Paolo Ourique, who is already looking rather green from the sway of the boat and the shifting conditions, and Sara Bettencourt, the captain’s wife and first mate, out on the open stern.
Needing to steady myself against the hull just to stand up, I reason that today’s little excursion will be summarily cancelled, but, seeming to read my mind, Bettencourt drops anchor into the open sea, the island off our starboard now shrouded in cloud and grey, streaky rain. Emerging out the back, the captain flashes a big smile.
“Let’s fishing,” he enthuses, in imperfect English — and a moment later, line baited and in the water, I get one of the biggest bites of my life.
I’m just off Terceira in the Azores, taking part in one of the island’s most traditional pursuits. Surviving off fishing and farming, this volcanic archipelago, an autonomous region of Portugal, has been shaped by the sea. Many explorers have come this way in search of the New World, using these remote islands as a way station. Now, a new kind of traveller is com- ing to Terceira, in search of fish, food, and new horizons.
I start at the start — at the bottom of the Algar do Carvão volcano.
Ourique tells me it’s not a lava tube — which are fairly commonplace in places with intense geothermal activity — but rather one of the only empty volcanoes in the world. An eruption 3,000 years ago formed the mountain, and a subsequent blast 2,000 years later created the crater. Descending into a magmatic chamber I am ducking drops rolling off stalactites that grow one centimetre per 100 years.
Arriving at the massive chamber, now filled with an underground lake of rainwater, a German tour guide across the way starts to sing, and it’s a thing of beauty — the acoustics perfect for his Ave Maria. When he finishes, you can hear a pin drop, until everyone else starts singing, mostly snippets of pop songs, with Lady Gaga the most common choice.
Terceira, a 400-square-kilometre island with 56,000 residents, gained its international reputation as a global crossroads.
Terceira (meaning third in Portuguese) was the third in the Azores chain of island to be discovered.
Colonization of the island began in 1450.
You can feel the history as you walk the cobblestones of Angra do Heroismo, the island’s principal city, which twice served as the capital of Portugal.
“This was established as an Atlantic town,” Ourique says while we navigate Angra’s perfectly planned grid of streets. “The wind always brings you to the Azores, and almost all of the explorers passed through here.” The trade winds also carried a great wealth to these shores.
Ourique shows me the remnants of that rich history, taking me through the town hall — pointing out wood brought from Brazil, as well as silver and gold from America — then through the city gardens, where plants from all over the world are grown.
We finish up in the town’s ornate, Italianate 19th-century opera house, where Ourique declares, “Remember — you are in a small town, in the middle of the Atlantic.”
Driving around the green fields and steep, fertile slopes of the volcanoes, we stop for lunch at the old, restored farm, Quinta do Martelo, which showcases the quiet, agrarian life of centuries past.
Afterward, we settle down in the restaurant and tuck into a traditional combination of pork ribs, blood sausage and yams, plus plenty of fresh greens — all farmed on site. “Nowadays they call it organic and local, beautiful names,” owner Gilberto Viera tells me. “We’ve always used more traditional names. If it’s fish, it’s fish. If it’s meat, it’s meat.”
Speaking of fish, back on the water, I find myself braced against the stern of the boat and reeling hard. While we’ve come here in search of more placid, palate-pleasing fish like grouper and amber jack, whatever’s on the end of my line hits like a truck, my rod bending at an impossible angle.
“You’ve got a real fighting fish,” Bettencourt says, as he shows me how to pull up and reel down, bit-by-bit bringing in what turns out to be a bonito. It looks like a cross between a salmon and a shark, teeth flashing as the fierce, silvery fish thrashes on the bottom of the boat.
The excitement ebbing, we tarry a bit longer, hooking into a few grouper before the winds pick up even more. Pulling our lines and headed for the shore, we reach Angra’s harbour, the old town climbing the slopes and spread out before us. It may not be the Nina, the Pinta or the Santa Maria, but coming back from a day on the Big White, we all feel a little like explorers, looking forward to little time back on land. Tim Johnson was a guest of Turismo dos Açores, which did not review or approve this story.