Pensao Residencial-Branco II Praia da Vitória

Tonight is my last night in the Azores. I fly to Lisbon tomorrow night, and fly back to Louisville on Friday morning, so this will probably be my last update. I had a great trip, but I'm tired and ready to come home. Not much to report today. Finally had a great work day, we're just about finished. Ankle is doing pretty good.

Have to update yesterday's post. I was wrong about the cows ...

... not order these things, they are not free. If you don't eat them, you don't pay. If you eat, you pay.

So, obviously beef and fish are pretty typical menu items here on the island. I think I've had steak 4 or 5 times so far on this trip. I think almost every dish has consisted of a meat item, white rice, a salad, and some form of potatoes. For the most part they've been sort of like french fries, one time I got boiled ...

... guys are stuck with seeing more pictures of pastures and cows

And finally, the ugly
The contractors busted a water line on the job today, not their fault, but still bad. And I'm not talking just a small little private line - I'm talking an 8inch gusher. Couldn't find a valve nearby and it took an hour to contact the water company and get them out to ...

... on the island. I haven't tried the milk yet, but I think that's going to be on my agenda for tomorrow.

Started out with a few more hours of work in the morning. Day looked like if was going to be another wet, cold, dreary day. Went out for a quick lunch, and then headed out to explore more of the island. By the time lunch was over, it was warm and sunny!!!!!! Made a ...

Boa noite! Had a pretty eventful day today as you can tell if you read my last entry. Got some muscle relaxers from the hospital, so hopefully I'll be able to hobble around some. Saw some great sights, as ususal, until the "incident". So far I have scrambled over 50 rock walls. Fell on number 47. In some of the pictures, you can see the rock ...

... I did it. This time it only swelled to the size of a lemon, last time was an orange! So, bought a brace and am waiting at the hotel for my co-worker who went to meet our other co-worker for lunch and then a contractor. I'll be back out in the fields shortly!

I'll wait until tonight to add a picture so the bruise can really come in. Here's a brief summary of all my ...

Work day 2! Things are going a little slow, but we drove some of the site today, which was great because I got to see a lot of the interior of the island. A lot of the island outside of the cities is agricultural, with a lattice work of old stone walls. Everything in the morning was green, and misty with lots of different aromas. We were in some areas that smelled like mint and basil, and other areas had ...

Well, we've moved onto Phase II of the trip - work :(. Didn't do too much today, had some delays with the scheduling, so just sat around most of the day. Unfortunately, we couldn't leave the site, because one of our team members needed to use the car to get some other work done. Weather is cool, overcast, and misty ...

... navigating through it, but made it through.

Met up with my american team member in Lisbon, and meet our portuguese partner on Terceira. It's pretty cool and overcast on the island. I need to check the weather and see if it's going to get any nicer.

Had an interesting dinner. It was the first time that the locals didn't speak any english ...

... the carriage is.  the driver is so cool looking with his tweed hat and wellies and the carriage is goooorgeous.  we stumble in and ramble off to see some old forts and the beach.  there's a lot of history here in the islands and most of the juicy stuff is Templar related.  some of the templars came here when they were persecuted by various kings and the catholic church and they flourished here.  the streets are inlaid with templar crosses and there are ...