Flores

Europe’s easternmost point

Flores is the easternmost European land, almost “lost” in the Atlantic Ocean, together with its little sister Corvo. We booked a flight from Sao Miguel to Flores in the morning, having an entire day to explore the island, and in the late afternoon, we should reach Corvo with a 40-minutes ferry ride. At least, this was the plan.
First of all, the plane made a stop at Faial (not reported on the ticket, like a bus stop more or less…) but this was not such a big deal, only half an hour late on our program, but if there is one thing I learned during ma Azorean adventure is that getting angry for what you can not control is a pure waste of energy. This includes the weather, transportation delays, etc.
So we arrived in Santa Cruz da Flores (the main town of the island) in the morning, and we were willing to rent a car or a scooter to have a tour of the island, leaving our luggage in the airport storage.
But.
It was Saturday, and on Saturday everything was closed inside the airport. No rentals, no tourist offices. And, for sure, no storages for our luggage. Problem no. 2: we had to print our reservation for the ferry. Where?
Flores Airport has the dimensions of a medium market, just to clarify the situation.

So we brought our backpacks and started walking under the sun towards the ferry boarding, hoping to find something there. We were wrong. There wasn’t any kind of human being at the port.
My husband left me at the harbor with the luggage and went to the city center to find information (or help!). He came back with the printed ferry tickets, thanks to the pharmacist that kindly made it for us (as it seemed, it was the only open shop in the city center). So we solved one problem and we could spend the day walking around Santa Cruz da Flores, but we had the other problem: the luggage (two 90l backpacks). We started looking for a hotel or something similar, and in the end, we entered a place that seemed a b&b and asked the girl at the reception if it would be possible to leave our backpacks for some hours, paying something for the service. She was a little bit confused about our request, and at that moment we realized that we were in a souvenir shop, and that wasn’t a reception but a cash desk.
We briefly explained our situation, and she was so much kind to offer to keep our luggage for free (we bought some souvenirs anyway, it was the minimum since she saved our day).
Finally, we were free to have a walk and explore at least the town (no rentals on view). We visited the Museum Whale Factory of Boqueirão, and it was very interesting. This was a whale factory turned into a museum that explains how the whale hunting worked. After that, we had lunch in a small restaurant near the museum and made a dip in the “natural pools” of Santa Cruz. The water was quite cold, but, hey, swim in the ocean is always worthing the chattering teeth. Also here, we found all the facilities to change, a clean toilet, and perfectly maintained stairs and paths to reach the pools.

In the late afternoon, we brought our backpacks back and reached the port to wait for the ferry…. ignoring that a thrilling adventure was waiting for us: a ferry ride with a storm. And the “ferry” was this small boat…