Azores. The green wonder of Atlantic.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so oops sorry i'm still learning it's the big episode from the azores islands let's go ladies and gentlemen meet the azores an extremely green and isolated place with unique climate and ecstatic scenery the azores are god knows where [Music] locations situated very far away are usually called pardon my french the ascent of nowhere and the azores are right at the edge of it since they are 1500 kilometers away from europe and 2500 kilometers away from canada that's all plus the ocean the azores are even hard to find on a map they are right in the middle of the atlantic they're a very small archipelago roughly the size of luxembourg in terms of area there are nine islands here which are very far away from the rest of the world but to tell you the truth the azores aren't the most remote islands in the world the most remote islands in the world are the archipelago tristan de cuna which are 2 800 kilometers away from south africa and 3 300 kilometers from south america the only difference is that its population is 250 people while the azores are home to 250 000 people they have all the needed infrastructure and exponential growth from tourism but before we start delving into the islands it's time for a little history lesson the archipelago was uninhabited until the first europeans set foot on it in the year 14 something no one knows for sure the portuguese first sailed here and began colonization vasco de gama the explorer who opened the route to india also paid a visit to the azores instead of christopher columbus who thought he had discovered the route to india but we all know how that ended the azores became an autonomous part of portugal in 1976 but despite the portuguese language and eurocurrency they are quite different to portugal the culture dialect and the traditions are slightly different here because these remote islands weren't inhabited immediately but rather within a few centuries one of the main differences between the azores and the mainland is the climate i came to the azores in wintertime the weather would have been much warmer if it were summer in the summer there's also less strong winds and more sunshine in the summer you can go to many other locations which are also warm with no gale winds and have plenty of sunshine this is why the azores are an absolutely unique place right now we are located on the 38th latitude in the deep north but it's 15 degrees celsius here just to give you some context the 38th latitude also crosses cities like athens in seoul and it can be quite cold in athens sometimes it might even snow in seoul temperatures may reach minus 15 degrees celsius in january with snow of course no snow or frost was recorded on the azores in the entire history of observation and although winters here are really chilly the climate is still quite temperate moreover when the sun comes out which we're not seeing at the moment the environment becomes incredible here the secret behind this unique climate is the warm gulf stream current that crosses the archipelago and heats the ocean however harsh the ocean may look the water temperature all year round off the coast of the azores varies between 16 and 25 degrees celsius depending on the season the air temperature in the winter is also quite warm here locals wear light jackets mostly in case of rain there's no central heating in the azores so in the spirit of practicing proper feng shui instead of having a radiator in the corner there's a pot of flowers that is why people in bars usually wear jackets in short point of my trip is to figure out how pleasant the azores are in winter and whether you should come here in january or february or if it's better to wait until summertime let's get to it the advantages of winter in the azores becomes clear as soon as you rent a car which is cheap in low season but if you're used to automatic transmission that will limit your options another sacrifice in my case was that i didn't have much space in my car everything is pretty tight in here our exploration starts on sao miguel island which is the largest out of the bunch it takes an hour and a half to cross it which is extremely far by local standards we'll start with the city of punta delgada it's the island's capital and home for a fifth of the archipelago's population the less people there are the less problems there are too especially for the police wow the criminal activity i heard that it's very low yes it's very low yes the city seemed really empty to me to be honest there's not much to do here except for discovering the variety of sidewalks the portuguese seem to have their phd in laying pavers it's an art here the tiles are all laid out in the most bizarre patterns and shapes and it looks pretty amazing this is the local star alley for example the tiles are not only on the sidewalk but also on the walls this is the traditional portuguese azolejo there are plates with the names of streets and mosaics at stops and on buildings it looks amazing but definitely won't be anything new if you have ever visited portugal now let's talk about the locals i accidentally came across a city gathering that included the army kids clergy and parishioners but it seemed like not all of them were happy to see a man with a camera so i decided to leave the city because like so many times before it's out of the city where the most interesting things happen [Music] some roads here resemble park lanes but it's just normal inner city roads the island is kind of like one big park san miguel's unofficial name is green island which i think is understandable given the scenery [Music] these green hills against the background of the ocean at times resemble the faroe islands but a little more built up and sometimes switzerland like here for example it's thanks to the climate and the mountains that the azores boast such stunning greenery because the mountains trap the clouds causing higher humidity the air is super humid here and fog is a frequent occurrence as a result scenic pastures stretch to the horizon [Music] it's thanks to the warm climate that cows never leave the fields they sleep here and get milked on the spot the azores are pretty much heaven for cows sometimes the azores look very similar to the faroe islands the similarity is evident but as you may recall there is no forest on the faroe islands it's in this way that the azores differ significantly the forests are a strong and extremely interesting side of the island what amazes me so far on san miguel is the amount in abundance of flora it's so green here so many trees the air here is unreal which may partly be due to the humidity plus all this greenery that is just everywhere before the inhabitants came here almost all the azores were covered with forests but most of them were cut down and then new trees were transported from the mainland however on the azores there are still remains of a relic forest that existed here for hundreds of years before human settlements it's strictly guarded as a relic zone of the european union bio reserve the azores are one of the most eco places on earth with no harmful manufacturing within 1500 kilometers in any direction and thanks to the humidity there's plenty of plant life the azores are blooming and emitting spring aromas even in wintertime it's so crazy with the amount of greenery sometimes i feel like i'm in the costa rican jungle there's so much greenery so much the island's extreme isolation makes it a perfect place to house various trees and plants in order to save them from any possible epidemics on the mainland the azores became a kind of noah's ark for flora and different plants from all over the world are brought here there's bamboo for example palms that i don't know the name of and this ficus that was brought from australia it doesn't look that big on video but when i stand next to it to give you an idea of scale you can see it's huge in short the flora variety is insane here in order to describe this biological diversity on the azores more precisely i'd like to introduce a special term for this episode the term is endemic which means that it is regularly found among certain areas this term is mainly applicable to flora and fauna meaning that a particular kind of species is found only in a relatively small part of the region for example kangaroos are exclusive to australia another example might be the galapagos turtle only found on the galapagos islands the azores are home to 411 endemic types which can only be seen here nowhere else in the world not only are there endemic plants but there are also endemic animals i was lucky enough to see an azores noctola this is a bat that hunts not at night but in the daylight and is endemic to the azores there are also endemic birds such as the azores bullfinch not this one there are lots of birds here typically they nest here and use the azores as a rest stop while crossing the atlantic a pretty big advantage to this place is that the azores don't have mosquitoes and venomous animals we're looking at you australia plus the archipelago is not exposed to epidemics at this point you're probably thinking this place is heaven and beginning to question if there are any disadvantages to it firstly the houses are all covered in mold because of the humidity secondly there's a cat tax so cats apart from being super cute and somehow managing to accumulate more likes on instagram than i do are considered invasive and very dangerous animals here and several kinds of birds have become extinct here because of them even so i met quite a few cats here another disadvantage especially in winter is of course the sudden changes in weather and the very strong winds in general when the sun is shining the temperature and climate are perfect not cold not hot a fresh breeze in short everything is perfect but a light breeze can quickly turn into a gale and the biggest problem is that the weather usually changes really quickly in winter the atlantic climate is unpredictable and both the pharaohs and azores suffer from the shifting weather the weather changes in just a few minutes just because it's clear blue sky in the evening doesn't mean that the wind won't change things overnight because of the unpredictable climate no one relies on weather forecasts instead they all use an app called spot azores that shows the real-time weather through webcams located all over the islands you can see for example that the weather is normal in ponte delgada so you can just go there fortunately i got lucky with the weather that's why i packed up in a car and drove to the center of the island to show you some interesting parts of sao miguel just a few decades ago you couldn't do much in the azores apart from farming and whaling i mean you could literally die from boredom here then a series of interesting events happened first the archipelago got connected to broadband thanks to the cable that links the us and europe with the internet everything is more fun even at the edge of the world secondly portugal started investing money in infrastructure development they began to build roads then low-cost airlines joined the party and people started flocking in as a result tourism in the azores is expanding rapidly now there are plenty of people here in the summer although the winters empty the place out nevertheless the portuguese government heavily invests in the development of the islands they've built many roads and some highways here too the infrastructure is well kept today the azores are comfortable to travel through and it's clear that the infrastructure is well maintained for decades now people have had plans to turn the azores into one big resort but not many folks have succeeded however there is one popular local attraction that gained fame by accident this is a deserted hotel called monte palace that opened in 1989 and closed shortly after in 1990 due to low turnout it was a luxury five-star hotel with 88 rooms two restaurants and a nightclub today the hotel is fully deserted but getting into it despite the boarded up doors is now a tourist attraction even though it can be dangerous people try to get in mostly because of the great views from the room's balconies this could have been an amazing view i mean it still is it's just that there are no visitors by the way i found some information on the internet that some chinese investors decided to buy this place out because tourist flow is growing every year so who knows maybe this hotel will open its doors once again in a few years in these hotel views open up to perhaps the main attraction of the island it is seyte sedade's lake situated in the crater of an enormous stratovolcano see how fast the clouds are moving that's how strong the wind is i even struggle to keep my drone flying there are a bunch of former volcanic calderas nearby with beautiful volcanic lakes in them only visible from the sky unfortunately but if you want to see it in person you'll have to go up to a peak charmingly referred to as a viewpoint on a hell [Music] unfortunately i don't have long flowing hair that would swirl in the wind right now because the wind is so strong that it's physically hard for me to even face it on the return trip however you get a great view of the lakes in the city called seite sedades yep you heard that right azorians have built a city in the volcanic crater which is 400 meters deep and 5 kilometers in diameter this city is home to 800 people try to forget the thought that it's a volcano and doesn't it kind of look a little like switzerland now [Music] as you've probably picked up on the locals have learned to benefit from their proximity to the volcanoes first off they begin to develop fully operational geothermal power plants they aren't developing as quickly as the icelandic ones but the first geothermal power plants on several of the islands have already been built and are now fully operational secondly there are a lot of hot springs here which serve as a perfect tourist attraction there are of course man-made pools you can swim in too they are right on the coast but it's better to go up into the mountains in a place like the slopes of the fogo volcano the main local feature is a hot waterfall with high levels of iron there are only three relatively small pools here but this place is incredibly picturesque and literally drowns in greenery which makes it absolutely beautiful what's best is that the entry cost is only 5 euro what's up iceland hot springs are perfect in cold weather it's 17 degrees celsius outside so it's not freezing but it's a little chilly i bet it would still be amazing to dive into those hot springs right now [Music] volcanoes are the main architects on the azores which sometimes create unreal masterpieces i'm pumped to show you one of them [Music] this place is next to villa franco de campo half a kilometer away from the beach and it's very unusual [Music] it's an uninhabited volcanic island that formed as a product of underground eruptions as a result it acquired a caldera 150 meters in diameter when you look at it from above it's hard to believe that it's not man-made because the circle in the center is nearly perfect the best part about it is that in the summer boats run regularly here also this place serves as a natural beach secluded from the strong ocean waves its depth is 20 meters lots of things on the island are connected with volcanoes most of the beaches have dark sand and the coastline is full of black volcanic rocks hotels unsurprisingly also try to mark it off of them i stayed at this one for a night which is called volcanic house it is constructed entirely out of volcanic stones back to volcanoes for now they've done quite a bit of damage which we'll see a little bit later on on another island however volcanoes are also a reason behind such rich greenery on the azores volcanic soil is full of sulfate and sulfate is a great fertilizer add a lack of winter and you get a pretty ideal farming environment i'm going to talk about farming now haven't gone crazy don't worry it's just that due to the climate you can practically grow any kind of fruit here pineapples for example the azores are the only place on earth where pineapples are cultivated in greenhouses this is what it looks like oh and by the way pineapples don't grow on palm trees it looks more like grass they get exported at an early stage of their growth since they don't have a long shelf life let me share a quick story about how they ended up here a couple of centuries ago the azores were supplying all of europe with oranges not pineapples and as you can imagine there were lots of plantations here because the azores are tiny and europe is big but then there was a change in the climate there may have been some kind of disease in short all the orange plantations on the island were lost it brought a great deal of trouble because it takes nearly 10 years for an orange tree to bear fruit pineapples on the other hand only need two years the azores supply pineapples with the lowest acidity on the planet hence they're quite sweet but we aren't stopping with pineapples the azores are also home to a tea plantation and as the locals say it is the only tea plantation in europe and it's here of course that tea is grown tea was brought here by portuguese sailors who were returning on their ships from india what's also interesting is that the azoreans hired two tea specialists from macau which is also a former portuguese colony they came here and all this tea grew under their control so we can say that this portuguese tea is as close to authentic chinese tea as you can get this is the tea manufacturing facility there are machines and even a tea sommelier room where products are tested in the summer there is a bustle and tourists can see how tea is made but in the winter since it's the off season and the crops are harvested these premises are empty the shop though is never empty and you get treated to a free tea which is very nice of them the best thing is that the excursion is free and you aren't expected to buy tea afterwards either but you still do it out of courtesy a whole pack of tea is less than three euro thank you the real surprise for me on san miguel turned out to actually be two things the first is oddly enough the parks i never thought that i'd come to the azores and fall in love with the parks since it's not something the islands are really known for but the parks man if you can even call them parks i think they're more accurately described as zen places it's one of the real beauties of the island i know it might sound weird if i recommended coming here only for the parks but they really are amazing there are tons of them here but let me show you one of them this is the coolest park i've seen and it's called terra nostra it would almost be a misnomer to call this place a mere park i was taking a walk here and felt like i was in a forest there were almost no people there are thousands of plants here blitzing your eyes with green color it's really difficult to put into words how everything smells and how calm and beautiful it is here there's a well-known thermal pool in the park that was built more than 200 years ago and he can swim in it there are other hot springs too and many people come specifically for them but in my opinion the best thing to do is just walk on these paths and truly rest my soul guys please don't think i've gone old man senile on you overnight but i truly have never really enjoyed parks this much in my entire life you should definitely visit them if you're around the second discovery i made that i wasn't expecting here were the viewpoints beautiful views are one of the staples of sao miguel thanks to the geography of the island there are tons of cliffs plenty of ocean and more basically wherever you look will prove to be beautiful the locals have set up dozens of viewpoints which basically come one after another they are all well equipped there are barbecue areas with gazebos and equipment including firewood basically it's top notch i've stopped at almost every viewpoint and have enjoyed every single one just as i was really hitting my stride the island ended i reached the island's eastern edge the town of nordeste home to the outermost lighthouse on the island beyond it there's only the ocean in europe it actually took me less than a tank of gas to drive all over the island the charm of san miguel is that it's like an appetizer to the island of the azores comprising the general makeup of the archipelago most people don't travel out of it to the other islands they just come here spend a week and go home as for me it took me three days to see everything here in turbo mode and i'm ready to see the nearby islands now and in turn to show them to you let's go then homies there's a ferry line between the islands but the number of islands it serves is small in the winter time so air travel becomes your only option i completely forgot to mention that planes work like buses here people get off some get on and we're back in the sky in no time [Music] [Music] so the bathrobe at 11 degrees celsius is definitely not the best idea but hey we're on the islands this one is called fayal and the one next to it is called pico i plan to spend a couple of days here and look around since these islands aren't too big we'll begin with this island and its capital which is called horta as you may remember the azores are located halfway between europe and america in the island fayal where we are right now boasts the most comfortable bay among all the islands in the azores archipelago it's well protected from big waves and it used to serve as an airfield for aviation planes back in the middle of the last century weren't capable of crossing the atlantic on one tank of gas and required a refueling point like fail today it's one of the most visited marinas in the world and a place where yachtsmen meet while crossing the atlantic you can store your boat here in wintertime hide from storms or just rest for a couple of days stock up on food and dry your clothes during the history of this marina a couple of unique customs popped up there's a very cool tradition here in the horta marina the tradition is that every yacht that stops over has to leave a drawing to commemorate its visit as you can imagine there have been lots of yachts over the years so there are countless drawings here there are more than 10 000 drawings here and they are everywhere on walls the ground and even benches any free space is occupied by drawings it would probably take you a couple of days to see all of them several peers are also covered with a huge canvas of these drawings i actually got tired filming it all there are so many of them each piece usually includes the yacht's name the crew members names country of origin and year of visit [Music] some don't bother too much with creativity others put their soul into it it's actually an amazing ritual that allows you to study the history of this place big props to the municipality in that not only do they not ban it but they strongly support the tradition some pieces of art are over 20 years old and over time the paint starts to degrade that's why some of the art gets covered in wax the best method is to use tiles check this out this one is over 10 years old but still looks like new so if on a whim you decide to leave your mark here bring something stronger than paint the tiles would be perfect and as a word of encouragement there's still some space around so go for it we're not done with customs yet as horta is home to probably the most famous yacht cafe in the world that is over 100 years old it's called peter's cafe sport many yachting celebrities have been here and as tradition everyone who sails in on a yacht has to stop by this cafe cafe sport is not big but it's the kind of place where you spend the first 15 minutes studying all the artifacts and relics that were gathered throughout the 100 years of the cafe's existence the cafe is managed by the third generation of the same family and the kid in this picture is jose who has been managing the cafe for over 40 years now he's kind of a big deal here it was my grandfather's study cafe in 1918 and but we are here on the streets since 1901 we start to help the sellers in very small things but they were very important for them and it's because of them that the small cafe in this small island became well known it was possible to exchange cash in the cafe and more importantly they organized a post office here where sailors relatives would send mail to their loved ones plus you could have a snack here not sure what the food was like before but it's pretty good now the second floor is dedicated to a very cool scrimshaw museum scrimshaw is the art of engraving on bones and it's one of the largest private collections in the world each painting is a precise engraving that is then filled with ink this process usually takes weeks and even months but in the end you get a real masterpiece especially in the case of portraits here's jose this is cousteau and this portrait is over 100 years old all of these drawings were made on sperm whale's teeth and since whaling has long since been banned here this collection will most likely not be updated the museum is very interesting and you should definitely pay a visit to this place and to peter's cafe sport of course by the way i forgot to tell you yesterday that i rented this fiat panda for 60 euro here the best part about it is the built-in phone holder this is the first time i've seen something like this which is super convenient because i usually have to carry one with me all the time and here it is permanently built into the car it's perfect for renting cars right now you're probably expecting me to tell you about all the sights of fayal but it's kind of tiny and i didn't even realize how quickly i reached the middle of it here's a perk about coming here in the winter for you all the parking spaces at tourist spots on fael are absolutely empty this is an extremely nice bonus i came to the highest point of the island which is 1 000 meters above sea level and since the azores are volcanic islands you can probably imagine what was waiting on top [Music] a massive advantage of this caldera is the hiking trail that takes you around the crater if the weather allows of course i got very lucky with the weather first the clouds parted above phi al and then despite all the bad weather forecasts the sky cleared up above pico which is the island next to phil bearing the peak usually hidden in thick clouds i swear guys moments like these make me feel like an excited kid again i'd already come to grips that i probably wouldn't see the peak i mean that i wouldn't see it without clouds but here is where where are you here's the peak don't worry i've already made an appointment with my eye doctor it would probably make more sense to talk about this mountain when we're on the other island but since the weather is good there's no point in waiting let me tell you why i'm so happy mount pico isn't that tall rising only 2 351 meters above sea level but what if i told you that it is one of the highest mountains in the world we can only see what's above sea level but its largest part is actually hidden under water so if there was no ocean here the mountain would rank in the top 10 highest mountains reaching more than 8 400 meters by this standard pico would have been only 400 meters lower than everest my friends just in case you also get lucky with the weather on fayal or pico i guarantee you'll have an unforgettable experience it's a portuguese mount fuji i tell you pico probably doesn't look so much like fuji but for me they both evoked similar emotions we move further across the island in order to see another iconic place that is also connected to volcanoes this time though in a sad way the thing is that fayal is home to one of the strongest volcanic eruptions in the recent history of the azores today its traces can be witnessed near a small village of gepello in the western part of the island the lighthouse that you see now looks pretty typical at first glance but it actually plays a crucial role in understanding what happened as you probably know lighthouses are positioned to be extremely visible which is why they are usually placed close to the shoreline so they can be seen from all angles the lighthouse you see now was also built next to the shore it used to be right on the edge of the island until 1957 that's when the eruption of capelino started which altered the landscape of fayal as a result this is what the shoreline of the island looks like today some volcanoes are up quickly and die immediately some volcanoes erupt and produce smoke long after they're done but kapalinos was entirely different interrupted not just for days or weeks but for 13 months in a row this volcanic eruption added terrain to the island two and a half square kilometers in size it's on your screens right now which is why the lighthouse is no longer on the shoreline it is hidden far behind it the consequences of the eruption which lasted for more than a year were devastating for freyal a third of the island's population fled and the government even started providing free housing which didn't stop people from leaving as they were scared of all the unknowns that the future held interestingly after the eruption the u.s started to provide azorians with visas and about 1500 people moved there the event formed a large community of azorians in the u.s and now the population of azorians is much higher than the original number of azorian immigrants nearby villages suffered the most especially the village of cappello which strongly exhibits traces of the catastrophe it was quite difficult to find witnesses of the tragedy because more than 60 years has passed but i found some in this cafe it's here where i also found a picture with the lighthouse we saw earlier in the erupting kapalinos meet thomas who told me that the eruption was preceded by a number of earthquakes that lasted for over a week people were very scared some of them hid in the nearby villages and some of them left forever some of which went to america i was born in the united states oh really yes and you came back here yes my father don't like to stay there and i come back i've been three times in america but i always live here but this is a beautiful place yes this is really beautiful that's why i don't miss america this is a beautiful place indeed the village never managed to recover now serving his home to only 500 people which is five times less than in 1957 before the eruption by all isn't very big and it takes 30 to 40 minutes maximum to get anywhere the locals are used to such compactness and see it as a big advantage big island big problem small island small problem well [Music] this is my third car rental over the last few days and if i keep this up i'll probably become a car blogger [Music] now let's delve into pico island it doesn't strike you as picturesque at first glance kind of looking a little apocalyptic instead the shoreline is full of bare looking trees like they're straight out of the stalker video game plus lots of black volcanic stones actually pretty sad at first glance papiko turned out to be an incredibly interesting island there's a lot of this dark black stone in fact the island mainly consists of it and the locals learned to build houses out of it and this combination of black and red looks pretty stylish if you ask me guys look at this book sharing in an ordinary portuguese village with i guess no more than 50 houses this whole island is basically a mountain a mountain with no beaches but the locals managed to come up with something they're natural pools made on the coast they're secluded from big waves and equipped with everything you need some villages have standard open pools as well which is also a great idea seeing as pico is a volcanic island i was expecting to see nothing but black ash here instead locals grow fruit on the island there are bananas oranges and lemons growing here plus the island is actually quite green nevertheless the most important crop on pico is grapes the vineyards here aren't typical either they are protected by unesco the first colonists of the azores were met by a bunch of stones in a climate suitable for grape cultivation they got to work and started making these basalt labyrinths and this is the result [Music] the point of these walls was to protect vines from the strong wind that is so often blowing here plus black stones accumulate heat from the sun which adds warmth to the vines consequently the azores became a home for vineyards from the end of the 15th century even to today [Music] this is the unique landscape of pico which is protected by unesco you can see one of the disadvantages of coming here in wintertime because now it looks just like a basalt tetris game but i'm sure that it all changes during summer when the grapes bloom becoming very scenic interestingly the wine from these fields has been exported to some pretty amazing places not least of which to the sellers of the russian tsar family several people i met on the island told me about this nicolas so i went on a search for this wine and visited a bunch of wine shops but only managed to find it in this very cool cafe the wine is called tsar which as you can hear sounds similar to czar a glass of it is only five euro but the owner has more expensive wine too i pay one house one thousand two hundred euros for one bottle for a special collect for one bottle one bottle of this wine looks like this this friendly cafe owner whose name is rui gave me directions to the winery that produces the aforementioned wine his name is fortunato garcia and this is his small family winery wine from which was supplied to the vatican and czars out of these 34 000 leaders that were exported in 20 years sent pittsburgh which means that czars bought 24 250 liters of our pasado wine it is the biggest importer of our pico pasado wine was the tsar's that's why my dad named zar our wine which i think was a very fortunate name this wine is unique because it's not strengthened with alcohol and still reaches a strength of 18 degrees or more according to fortunato it is the only wine in the world that reaches such numbers by natural fermentation as you can imagine it's not easy to grow these kinds of grapes not every year we have wine why because of the weather conditions so if the weather doesn't help if we don't have enough sugars in the grapes then we don't have not fxr take a look at these this is the production from 2007 here is 2008 the next is 2009 but there was nothing in 2010 because the grapes weren't sweet enough good years do exist too though like 2009 when wine reached an unthinkable 20 degrees it's the exact wine that the cafe owner told us about there are only six bottles left i mean right here there may be more in some private collections its price is 1500 euro okay only 75 of these were made or produced only 75 bottles bottles and that's why i only sold one bottle per person so whoever wanted to buy more than one bottle i always said no i was treated to wine that is not even on sale yet from the season of 2013 and according to fortunato it is the best wine from the last 20 years guys there is roughly 80 euro in this glass right now maybe more i'd really love to tell you about the taste but unfortunately i'm not a wine connoisseur it's funny because i have a lot of friends who understand wine and are experts but i don't know anything and i can only say whether it is good or not this one is good longtime viewers will probably say bro volcanoes wine rocks this looks like the canary islands especially the island of lanzarote i agree that the landscape looks similar to lanzarote with its lava fields and volcanic stones but pico has one thing to its advantage what is it you'll see in a moment pico compared to lanzarote turns out to be a very green island with beautiful landscapes and a palette full of color which i didn't expect at all what's super cool is that you can fly in rent a car and explore the island from top to bottom there's hardly any traffic bali it's comfortable to move around here there's a lot of space interesting places also the people are nice what else do you need pico's population is similar to phayal but the island is three times bigger meaning that there are hardly any tourists in the wintertime i was just driving and relaxing the best part of the route was the trip to the volcano the clouds at the peak of the mountain constantly change forms sometimes making it seem as if the mountain just changes hats sometimes the clouds envelop it all which is a very hypnotic sight the slopes of the mountain look nothing like the apocalypse there are lovely pastures a bunch of plants lots of greenery and it looks beautiful [Music] man the azores really know how to surprise you look at this it feels like i'm in new zealand right now but it's in the middle of the atlantic crazy next to pico there is a road that rises into the mountains at times it gets foggy here and unsurprisingly i got into this foggy weather visibility turns down to zero that's what the mountain looked like nevertheless the scenery was extremely picturesque the best part about it is that you can always drive back to the ocean where the weather is usually good and not foggy you can spend some time here by the water and if you are lucky you'll see the sunset unfold right in front of you this trip helped me reset almost like i met with a therapist and pico in wintertime is something i truly enjoyed pico turned out to be a pleasant surprise most likely thanks to the off-season and the lack of tourists which is very nice also i got really lucky with the weather i was expecting there to be mainly rain but instead as you can see the weather is flawless to me pico is my favorite part of the azores but since we have one more island to explore let's refrain from final remarks i definitely should have kept quiet about the good weather because in the evening some big waves came in and in the morning when i had my flight the weather was really bad the wind was so strong that my 20 kilogram luggage decided to travel on its own so the weather was awful and my flight got cancelled this is quite typical for local winters so the airline was ready for it they changed my flight booked a hotel for me and the next morning after a ferry trip to fayall i was on a plane to my final destination nothing can describe the local weather better than getting off the plane in the rain and leaving the airport under clear blue skies this island is called flores it's the westernmost island of the archipelago and one of the smallest ones it's home to only 3 700 people and as of late locals can't give birth here and have to fly to fayal or sao miguel to give you a better understanding of how tiny this island really is the runway here goes through the streets of the island's capital splitting it into two parts and in order to get from one side to the other you practically have to go around the airport it's very unusual the town's name is derived from lush vegetation that blossoms all over it i'd love to continue the story but the sun is out which is a rare case here so i've gotta go [Music] i haven't seen a single car on my way to my destination flores is quite distant from the central part of the archipelago and tourists leave it deserted especially in the winter which is a shame this island is like jurassic park with fantastic landscapes and largely untouched nature [Music] [Music] first i went to the main attraction of flores this is a cascade of waterfalls called ribera de ferrero that can be accessed by a nero trail paved with stones i have no idea when it was made or who made it but this road that runs through a dense azores forest looks like it came out of a fairy tale [Music] [Music] it feels like i'm one of those portuguese explorers who just arrived this is insane like a pandora of sorts there are no people here except for me some local warden and that's it just wild nature these waterfalls this lake it's just wow turns out it was not even a warden but a local who was cutting grass here so it's safe to say that i was there all alone it was absolutely unreal in case you haven't noticed i came to the azores with a new drone meet kamikaze it's a racing drone that reaches 150 kilometers an hour in less than two seconds this thing is wild and really hard to control it's my third month of training with it and i've only scratched the surface with it it's really scary to fly it but everyone who flies these fpv drones dreams of doing a dive with it when you go up and then dive down vertically it would be perfect to do a dive above a waterfall i will now attempt this for the first time near the cascade of those waterfalls i am super worried but hopefully it turns out well wish me luck guys [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] i don't know if you see this but my hands are shaking that was terrifying i hope it turned out well [Music] while exploring flores i often wondered that since the island is so beautiful in winter what it must be like during summer [Music] it's a pity that i haven't seen all the azores islands but out of what i've seen flores is definitely my type of island it's hard to get here there aren't many people and the sights are shockingly beautiful plus i can't get rid of the feeling that i am somewhere at the edge of the world and speaking of the island's end i found that too during the nine days of this trip i managed to visit four out of nine islands in the archipelago the plan was to visit five but the weather put a kibosh on it but i don't have any regrets maybe it's for the best so i can come back again someday dezor's greenery is really astonishing actually left already and i'm at the lisbon airport i'm gonna show it to you this is what it looks like this is a cafe next to the airport the reason i'm here is because the weather on the azores got bad again and i had to switch my flight to be able to leave the azores while i could so i'm filming my reflections not at a viewpoint with an amazing landscape but at the airport next to these plastic flowers sorry not once did i regret visiting the azores in wintertime the islands were so green beautiful and most importantly there were practically no people although there was one drawback to the whole magnificent trip the weather was really unpredictable but i can't complain since i still got lucky with it however luck has a tendency to run out so it's up to you whether to choose winter or summer summers on the azores must be beautiful but winters are also so nice personally i truly enjoyed this trip i don't remember the last time when i had a chance to really rest my soul like i did here driving and enjoying the beautiful scenery left and right it's such an awesome place there were quite a few times i thought about how sad it is that there are fewer and fewer unexplored places left on my list of visited countries which are all so remarkably beautiful discovering and exploring them is my favorite part of traveling i hope you all try to explore more and find your own hidden gems it is truly unbelievable travel guys it's still worth it see you later [Music]

Channel: Anton somewhere

Views: 149,066

Rating: 4.9091516 out of 5

Keywords: anton, ptushkin, Azores, Faial, Pico, San Miguel, islands, Flores, Volcanoes, What to see Azores, Azores Tea, Azores Pineapples, Portugal, Where Azores, Azores Wine, Tsar, Czar Pico, Czar vine, Azores weather, Azores temperature, Azores climate, Azores in winter, FPV, terra nostra, Azores Islands, terra nostra park, Sao Miguel

Id: -z7_Dq_aGoA

Length: 53min 9sec (3189 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021