Malaquias Branco

When we first arrived on Flores (May 2006), we sort of tried to "test ourselves to destruction" on how cheap wine we could drink. Starting from the bottom up, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our second experiment - Malaquias Branco - was perfectly drinkable at 0.9EU a litre.

Yes, that's right - 0.9 Euros (approx £(GBP) 0.60) a LITRE!

Now, we've been told that the locals only use it to hose down the animal fodder: apparently we get smirked at in the shop as "the crazy English" for buying it to drink. But it's really perfectly OK.

But then one day, there was no more Malaquias Branco. It was like a scene out of Whisky Galore - " Maybe some will come with the next ship " said Linda at the shop (without conviction). "Jose Antonio is going over to the wholesaler in Santa Cruz, tomorrow - maybe they will have some left ..." (even less conviction).

A Malaquias Branco drought! This is a very serious matter because the next wine up the ladder in cheapness is 4EU a litre - a 450% increase and this could wreck our precarious finances!

But today the drought ended! - MB in abundance in the shops in Santa Cruz. HURRAH!!

Weather

While we're on the subject of the weather, here's the Balneiaro (I think that's right -the swimming area as there's no beach) at Faja in the summer:-

And this is the same view about three weeks ago (in February)

One Tourist Doesn't Make a Summer!

But three might make a spring!

I mentioned before 2007's first tourist in Faja - well another two were spotted today! And the cagarros (see below) are most definitely here in some force now so we can certainly declare that spring - if not necessarily summer - has arrived in Flores.

"What's the weather like in the Acores, just now?" I hear you all asking. This is the most frequently asked of all FAQ's. Well, we're British (Scottish to be precise), and what I say in response to this VFAQ is "The weather in the Acores is quite like the weather in Scotland but about 5-10 degrees warmer over the year." Thus, today is March 13th but we had our lunch outside. But that's because it wasn't raining - which it does here quite a lot. But rain is good for the waterfalls which is a good excuse for a photo.

This is the biggest of the many waterfalls around Faja after heavy rain:-

The first Cagarro of spring

We call them Cory's Shearwaters but Azoreans call them Cagarros - handsome big chocolate brown seabirds of the albatross family, much bigger than the Manx Shearwater we are used to in British waters.

The Cagarro spends most of its life at sea but comes ashore to breed in summer. I believe about 60% of the world population of cagarros breed on the Azores. And when they are here breeding on the cliffs of Flores, they don't half make a distinctive noise. "Wack-wack-wack-wack-WAAAAAAAAAACK" at night, as they wheel in flight above the village at night. Summer holidaymakers in Faja Grande are warned "If you hear a funny noise, it's the cagarros."

All of which is a long winded introduction to say I heard my first cagarro of 2007 last night.

I found myself explaining this about the cagarros to the first tourist on Flores of 2007. Is it global warming bringing the first tourist and first cagarro in February?

Weekends

People say to us "I don't suppose there's much difference between the weekend and a weekday, is there?" Err, WRONG! Our local shop cum bar - Sala de Convivio as it's rather nicely called - closes at 3pm on a Sunday (c.f. 8pm the rest of the week). Which means we can frequently be caught napping if we want to fit a couple of beers in between getting up and catching Eastenders on BBC Prime. Nobody said it was going to be easy out here!

Below is a gratuitously gratuitous picture of the sea breaking on the rocks at Faja Grande where we live.

Let's try again, shall we?

You would think that giving up high powered jobs in Edinburgh (UK) to retire at the financially unhealthy ages of 42 and 48 respectively to the island of Flores in the Azores would be a bloggable sort of subject, wouldn't you? Well I can't really understand why I've not really managed the blog thing to date. Anyway, this blog is under new management, all previous entries have been deleted (both of them) and the new management ethos is "Stream of Consciousness" - i.e. don't think about it too much, just blog it. So ... What grabbed me today was this advert for holidays in the Azores in Hello! magazine. Apart from the marina and the dolphin, all the pics are of our island of Flores - we live in the distance of the pic at top right.