Graciosa is the second-smallest of the nine islands of the Azores,and probably is one of the most laid-back. Everyone says hallo (or at least bom dia or boa tarde), traffic is almost non-existent, and the local specialities are very good white wine and small sweet tarts called queijadas (though queijo - cheese - isn't one of the ingredients). We had dinner in a restaurant in the back of a cafe  - excellent food and a very pleasant atmosphere, though as is often the case the menu was aspirational, listing what they might ideally hope to have rather than what was available. We went for alcatra (a stew of, on this occasion, fish), then took up an invitation for after-dinner drinks from Phil and Diane, a couple from Colorado. They had a pretty small (27ft) cruiser, which evidently sailed OK but didn't run to refinements like a galley. Understandably they showed enthusiasm at our invitation to a roast chicken dinner the following evening. That went very well, with much animated discussion of sailing, the world and its troubles. An enjoyable evening from which we parted on good terms!

 

The best day out on Graciosa (an island about the size of Alderney) is to walk up the volcanic cone, through a tunnel in the side of the crater, then down to the lowest point.

This proved to be a lovely walk with great views, an abundance of flowers and forest, and a good climax in a very steep spiral staircase that leads to the bottom of the Furna de Enxofre (sulphur cave), a huge cavern at the bottom of a narrow shaft, with a small lake and holes containing boiling mud.

After our assorted fun on Graciosa, we headed back towards Terceira at the east end of the central group, staying this time at Praia da Vitoria on the east end of the island. A large bay is partially enclosed by two breakwaters, with a very pleasant town and a small, well-run marina at the north end. 

A lot of Americans are around because Praia is next to the very long airport runway which is shared with a major U.S. air base. This week is the festival of SaoJoaninas (St John), but on Terceira this is a major annual knees-up rather than a serious religious festival. We took the bus to Angra and spent time very pleasantly in a lovely public garden listening to a band concert, complete with bandstand and a diminutive boy playing the triangle.

A by-product of the large cattle population and a period of Spanish occupation is that no festival is complete without a bullfight. These are generally not the traditional Spanish variety but involve a bull, inadequately restrained by a long rope with half-a-dozen men attached, being let loose on a town square, a beach or a quay so that the local lads can display their bravery by inciting it to charge then getting themselves out of trouble as best they can. Such events result in no injury to the bull but frequent injuries to the young men. We found one such event in Angra yesterday, on the old town quay at Porto Pipas.The festive atmosphere became somewhat subdued when the first bull fairly soon caught one of his tormentors, knocking him down then tossing him so that he was carted off in an ambulance, seriously hurt or worse. This was a fairly unedifying spectacle so we decided not to stick around for further events.