Hello from the Azores! So I haven’t been writing about this trip at all, despite the hiking element. But better late the never, right?

Yesterday Megan and I flew to Corvo, the smallest and northernmost of the nine islands in the Azores. Population about 435.

Here’s “baggage claim.”

And the airport terminal.

We are here for two nights, and I hadn’t really made any plans for things for us to see and do. Walk around, relax, I guess?

We’re staying at Joe and Vera’s Vintage, which was extremely hot upon our arrival. Thankfully our second-floor room quickly cooled down when we opened the windows and got some ocean breezes.

After settling in, we did a bit of research on things to do. The main hiking route is around the caldera, at the top of the island. While hiking from the town is possible, it’s a long, uphill climb, so we hoped to get a ride up to the top. There’s no taxi service here, so took quite a bit of WhatsApping to find someone willing to take us. Eventually our lodging host said that another group had arranged a ride at nine the next morning and that we could tag along.

With our plans settled and ourselves settled in the room, we headed out for some beers. Some tiny, tiny Azorean beers. Why are beers so small here?

While enjoying our beers we got a ham and cheese turnover and made a new friend.

After enjoying the town windmills, we headed uphill for dinner.

Fish stew was the only thing in the menu.

The next morning we arose for our 9AM pickup.

Sharing the van with us were three folks from France—what seemed like a middle-aged couple and the older mother of one of the two. The weather was extremely pleasant in town, but driving up to the top of the island…the clouds got heavier…and the wind got stronger.

When we arrived at the drop-off point, we all hopped out of the van, and…THE WIND. The wind was unbelievable.

There was also so much confusion about the plan going forward. Was the van driver coming back to pick us up? If so, what time? The driver seemed to speak some French, no English. It all felt uncomfortably unclear to me.

But not much else to do at that point but start walking. We headed downhill toward a lake in the middle of the caldera, which was sometimes visible through the clouds.

From there it was hard to decide how far down to go. There’s a hiking route all the way around the lakes, but with such strong wind, threatening clouds, and no cell service, I was worried about what would happen if it started to rain.

We walked most of the way down the slope, but not all the way to the lakes.

Did I mention it was windy?

After returning to the top, we took the road back down to the village. About a 6 kilometer walk.

Still super windy on the way down!

Eventually we got below the clouds for a lovely view of the island.

A walk back through town, a glass of wine, and some reading.

And a visit at the next door church. Beautiful!