After the museum we headed to our hotel to load up a backpack with food and supplies for a hike we wanted to take up Mount Brazil. We had heard it was pretty steep so we wanted to make sure we had enough water, food, and rain gear to keep us dry. We loved seeing more of the city as we walked over to the mountain from our hotel.
On our way we ended up stopping at a bakery to get some yummy pastries and while in the store we ran into two American young men in their late 20’s and 30’s who had just moved to Terceira to play basketball for the Azorean team! It was so fun to talk to them and they gave us a little tour of the city and told us some of the best places to eat and shop! We were so grateful for their kindness and loved finding someone who knew our English language!
City Center Church
Cool pool we found meandering through streets as we headed for the mountain.
A picture of a park we thought our kids would like.
At the base of the Mount is an old fort that is now a military base. They had guards posted to keep pedestrians out.
Once we got past the guard we found a walking trail and assumed it went up the mountain. In reality though it just took us to the other side of the mountain.
We eventually hit a dead end and probably would have stopped there if we didn’t know that you really could hike to the top and that there was even a little farm of sorts to see. So we kept looking for other roads. Eventually we found a dirt road that seemed to be going in the right direction. We took that hoping it would eventually lead us to the top. We saw some wildlife while we hiked.
And eventually we made it to the farm! But only by sheer luck of taking another trail that looked promising! It certainly was no easy task to find!
But even the farm was not the top of the mountain, so we continued exploring and eventually found another road that took us further up.
These were the views from the top!
Then it was time to head back down the mountain.
It was a fun hike up Mount Brazil!
After our hike we went back into the city where we went out to a restaurant our American Basketball friends had recommended that had good American food. Adam got a salad and I got a burger with fries. Then we also got and an accidental cappuccino when the waiter didn’t understand Adam’s request for “hot chocolate!” Oh the fun of language barriers! The rest of the evening we spent back at the hotel vegging from our long day walking around the city and hiking! It was a great first day in the Azores!