The day began cold and cloudy when we arrived at Cortaçor Hotel. Daniel, Louise and I sat and waited to plunge into the 13th anniversary of a Terceiran tradition…taking a Christmas tree to the bottom of the ocean and decorating it with underwater ornaments. In the photo, you can see two divers and the tree in the bottom of the bay. Lucky for me, a guy at the dive club let me borrow all the gear…in pink which everyone seemed to have a comment on. Liam, an Irish fellow sank the tree and we all began our search. Shells, sea-stars, sea-weed, and spark-plugs began filling the tree. Other sea-trash sat as presents under the tree. Later in Angra do Heroismo there was the festa de Concepção Imaculada (feast of immaculate conception) or Mothers Day. There was a holiday parade and the streets were packed. The parade kicked off with santas on motorcycles ripping through the street, and finished with an old St. Nicholas and the Mrs. in a horse drawn wagon.

Sunday we hiked the “Long Ridge” an un-named ridge without trail we’ve been wanting to do for a while. The shotgun blasts and yelling farmers tried to spoil our fun…we pushed on. The ridge gave us spactacular views of the island and eventually the clouds started kicking the sun out of the party.