MY FAVOURITE PLACE ON EARTH
Blue whales, dolphins, turtles, the Azores is a remote treasure trove of unrivalled riches, says PHILIP HOARE
Nine volcanic islands, flung out in the middle of the Atlantic — nowhere else quite compares with the Azores. Head north and the first land you’d meet would be the Arctic. To the south, Antarctica. Remote, but utterly beautiful. They are enigmatic islands. it was here that the celebrated ghost ship, the Mary Celeste, was discovered, with its crew strangely vanished. Columbus called in after discovering America — and was promptly arrested by the islanders. no golden tourist beaches here — just black basalt, as if still bubbling with volcanic lava into the sea.
indeed, the central island of Pico still has an active volcano, which is the tallest peak in Portugal, to whom the islands officially belong.
The islands of the Azores give their secrets away reluctantly. But surrounded by waters so profound that they fall to a mile in depth just 100 yards from the shore, they are home to perhaps the most extraordinary and beloved animals on earth: whales and dolphins. And lots of them.
no fewer than 26 species of cetaceans are found here, from the dolphins that sport playfully off the bow of your whalewatching boat, to the Holy Grail: the blue whale, the mightiest, largest animal ever to live on earth.
To see one of these creatures — as big as an airliner — raise its majestic flukes and dive into the Atlantic is a sight that will remain imprinted in your memory for ever.
Zooming out of the harbour at Lajes do Pico, the town’s oldest settlement (there’s still a chapel, dedicated to St Peter, dating back to 1460), we set off in the estimable company of espaco Talassa, the first whalewatching operation organised in the Azores back in the eighties.
They were still hunting whales here then — those same hunters became expert whale-finders. As a result, this is the most dependable, most ‘ hands- on’ set- up i’ve experienced in 17 years of whale-watching.
espaco Talassa’s low, fast Zodiacs take you out, close to the water, and close to the action. On most of my trips with them, since 2006, i’ve watched open- mouthed as massive sperm whales — the species of Moby-Dick fame — turned and tumbled right by our boat, as if blissfully aware of our presence. The ocean erupts with exotic animals: flying fish, turtles, even Portuguese man o’war jellyfish. Suddenly, in come the dolphins: bottlenose, spotted, striped, common and Risso’s, all scything through the surf in search of food or, often as not, merely playing. Only the most cold-hearted human could fail to leap when these exquisite creatures decide
to ride the bow wave of the boat. our expert young skipper, Joao Quadresma, negotiates the action with zippy aplomb, directed by whale-watching on clifftop towers called vigias.
ALL the while, the majestic peak of Pico rises through the cloud cover that runs around it like a fur collar. Not that the islands’ delights end with its marine animals. the Azores’ fertile soil grows the best vegetables I’ve ever tasted, and the people cultivate their own tea, bananas, and grape vines.
In a little home-town restaurant on Pico I have the single most sensational fish I have ever eaten — hoicked on long-lines, direct from the deep, dark Atlantic.
so fearfully deep and dark that even though I am addicted to swimming in the sea every day, I feel a frisson of fear as I descend a wonky steel ladder directly into the raging depths.
But I am glad when I do — my body joyously buoyed up by bouncing, rocking waves. A million times better than any theme park.
the quiet island of Pico is a blissful retreat. our hotel, the Aldei da Fonte, is a quirky collection of neat villas built of volcanic stone. sequestered in its tree- shade perch on top of the sea cliffs, it’s surrounded by lush gardens and active wildlife: from the blackbirds and finches of daytime, to the bats that zip around your head at night.
More eerie is the strange squawk of Cory’s shearwaters as they come into land at dusk. they sound like demonic Donald Ducks; sailors used to say they were the voices of their drowned comrades. After your second sundowner cocktail, you might even believe it.
the islands are subtle. their people are taciturn, yet friendly; stalwart inhabitants used to the precarious life of an oceanic archipelago. Perhaps that’s what I like about the Azores.
It is a microcosm of our own island: defiant and independent, yet irrevocably connected, by history, by other species and by the roaring miraculous sea itself, to the rest of the world.
But sometimes I wonder if it isn’t a mirage, as if, once we turn to leave, it might just vanish into a sea mist.
PHILIP HOARE’S new book Rising Tide Falling Star, £16.99, published by Fourth Estate, comes out on July 13.
TRAVEL FACTS
TAP Portugal ( flytap.com) flies Gatwick to Pico Island, via Lisbon, from £213 return. Doubles at the Aldeia da Fonte ( aldeiadafonte.com, 00351 292 679 500) from £61 B&B. Half-day whale-watching ( espacotalassa.com, 00351 292 672 010) from £34, or an eight-day package with trips and accommodation from £438.