I have a friend who considers herself a traveler. She ticks off countries like she's hoping to visit every spot in the world before she dies. She only stays at LUXURY places where she can go shopping for EXPENSIVE things. She has the exact SAME experience everywhere she goes. No different from going to a McDonald's, you know you'll get the same hamburger, with mildly regional variations.
I have another friend who has to find a new animal sanctuary every year. A place where protected animals can be visited and petted by tourists who have enough money to visit them. She went to the Galapagos Islands recently, and was annoyed by how many other humans were around her, and how the birds and sea creatures are being crowded out. This person also complains about how much Jackson Hole, Wyoming has changed in 30 years since she started coming every summer. She doesn't seem to notice that she's part of the problem.
If either of the above is you, I might ask you to stay home.
Or, better yet, GO. But leave behind the above expectations. Talk to the people on the islands. Understand that there IS a culture there and that it goes back centuries. That it connects to the earliest Portuguese sailors, and Fado music and the idea of "Saudade" (a longing for something that never existed).
YES. It is pristine and gorgeous. And YES, you can find almost any sport, activity, scenery that you want to imagine. If you want to hang out by the beach all day, with or without alcohol, you can do that too.
But it's not Disneyland. It's not about hikes or rappelling down into ravines and volcanic variety that would make a geologist drool. (Okay, it IS, but it is still MORE)
You can go island hopping; there are 9 of them, each different. But spend time getting to know how they are different. I've lived in NYC for years, and I describe visiting exactly the same way. "It's a great place to LIVE, but I wouldn't want to VISIT there," The travel is the part you might remember more if you don't get enough hours on the ground to actually experience it.
It is like the most amazingly attractive, sincere, delightful person you have ever met. The more you get to know her/him, the better it gets. Except this is like 500,000 of them.
I've been there a bunch of times and I still haven't figured out how to define the magic of the Azores.
Okay, here is a link to some of the fancier pictures:
HuffPo's Version of the Azores as the Best Kept Secret, with Jaw Dropping Pictures
PS If you go to just one island, my vote is for Sao Miguel. Start there. I'll tell you why in a future post.
I have another friend who has to find a new animal sanctuary every year. A place where protected animals can be visited and petted by tourists who have enough money to visit them. She went to the Galapagos Islands recently, and was annoyed by how many other humans were around her, and how the birds and sea creatures are being crowded out. This person also complains about how much Jackson Hole, Wyoming has changed in 30 years since she started coming every summer. She doesn't seem to notice that she's part of the problem.
If either of the above is you, I might ask you to stay home.
Or, better yet, GO. But leave behind the above expectations. Talk to the people on the islands. Understand that there IS a culture there and that it goes back centuries. That it connects to the earliest Portuguese sailors, and Fado music and the idea of "Saudade" (a longing for something that never existed).
YES. It is pristine and gorgeous. And YES, you can find almost any sport, activity, scenery that you want to imagine. If you want to hang out by the beach all day, with or without alcohol, you can do that too.
But it's not Disneyland. It's not about hikes or rappelling down into ravines and volcanic variety that would make a geologist drool. (Okay, it IS, but it is still MORE)
You can go island hopping; there are 9 of them, each different. But spend time getting to know how they are different. I've lived in NYC for years, and I describe visiting exactly the same way. "It's a great place to LIVE, but I wouldn't want to VISIT there," The travel is the part you might remember more if you don't get enough hours on the ground to actually experience it.
It is like the most amazingly attractive, sincere, delightful person you have ever met. The more you get to know her/him, the better it gets. Except this is like 500,000 of them.
I've been there a bunch of times and I still haven't figured out how to define the magic of the Azores.
Okay, here is a link to some of the fancier pictures:
HuffPo's Version of the Azores as the Best Kept Secret, with Jaw Dropping Pictures
PS If you go to just one island, my vote is for Sao Miguel. Start there. I'll tell you why in a future post.
