Dear Readers, as the Azores are stuck in the middle of the North Atlantic it’s no wonder that the weather is changeable and today it’s ‘blowing a hooly’ as my Scottish pals would say, along with a spot of horizontal rain. So, no whale watching, but we did have a few expeditions to explore the culture and history of the Azores. It’s always good to put things into context, and to be honest I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a RIB boat in this weather, plus the swell is something else.
So, first up we went to the wine museum. The Azores used to be famous for their wines, but, as with many other places, the vines became infected with dusty mildew and phylloxera, and had to be removed back in the nineteenth century. However, recently viniculture has made a comeback – Pico in particular has rich, volcanic soil, and the unique method of growing the vines has been given a UNESCO designation.
What’s so special about Azorean wine? Firstly, each vine is grown in its own little cell, made up of volcanic walls in a way that’s very similar to drystone walls.
Model of the volcanic rock walls used to grow vines
The walls protect the vines from the wind and rain, but more importantly from the salt water. However, it means that the vines grow very close to the ground, which makes them very labour-intensive both to prune and at harvest time. This means that Azorean wine is extremely expensive – while you can get a bottle of mainland Portuguese wine for less than 5 euros, the average price of a bottle of Azorean wine is closer to 25 euros. Nonetheless I shall see if some of my fellow travellers want to share a bottle later in the week, so that I can report back. The things I do for my Readers!
Furthermore, some of the grapes are turned into the Azorean version of grappa, a highly distilled spirit. It reminded me most of the time that I shared a cup of methylated spirits with a homeless man called Joe when I worked at the night shelter in Dundee. Actually that’s a little unfair, but it’s strong stuff with a lingering fiery quality that makes me think instantly of heartburn. it comes in many flavours, which might help to offset the effect.
The Azoreans also make a wide variety of different gins. Dad would have approved.
The old distillery
And then it was on to the geology museum – the Azores, as I’ve mentioned before, are on the edges of no less than three tectonic plates, so they regularly have earthquakes (in fact you can download an Azores Earthquake app), and in 1998 the neighbouring island of Faial had a major earthquake which killed 10 people and left 2500 homeless. Anyhow, here in Pico they have embraced new technology in the museum sector, so first of all you can sit in a circular cinema and experience a journey to the centre of the earth. Who knew that being surrounded by molten iron at the earth’s core would be so painless? I did get a bit of a sweat on, though, which hopefully helped to evaporate some of the dampness from my wet trousers.
The pod of geology
Even more excitingly, we then got to experience an earthquake, wearing VR goggles and standing on a shaking platform. 23 seconds (the length of the first earthquake( can seem a very long time when you’re in what appears to be a welter of falling masonry. It was the first time that I’d ever used VR goggles, and they were pretty cool, so I guess I’m Down With the Kids now.
The wobbly earthquake simulator