We're still here. It's a bit like an English summer climate, warmish
sunshine and cool nights. The town is a reasonable size with a decent
supermarket, a few restaurants and bars and a chandlery which is very
helpful, with a book swap so a load of differnt junk to read. All my plans
of reading the History of Britain etc have not quite made it, but there is
still time!
On Friday evening, there was a re-enactment of the first arrivals on the
island. Two replicas of old galleons sailed (ok, motored) into the bay,
rowed people in traditional dress ashore, where they processed through the
town. It was classified as a big event to start at 6.00pm, eventually
happenned at 8.00pm and really was not a lot to see. I'm sure it would have
been better if we spoke Portuguese. Yesterday we went to the local beach,
where we swam for all of 10 minutes in clear water, but cold - about 20C ie
about 9 less than we're used to. The sun was hot however and it may have
topped up our tans which are fading fast. Life is generally quite slow,
getting bits done gradually and trying to see the island as well. Our next
big thing is to do our painting on the sea-wall. Tradition has it that all
yachts must leave a painting for a safe passage and good luck. It's great
fun, wandering around and spotting paintings by boats we recognize, and also
looking for a space for us to add ours.
This island is much busier than Flores - you have to watch the cars before
crossing the road, there are queues in bars, one smart restaurant and hotel,
and one step neare to home. We're going to visit the other islands in the
group while we are here, one grows pineapple apparently. Then the 1500 miles
home.
We'll keep this up todate while we're here, still on satphone as easier than
trailing off to town for the internet cafe.
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