Hurricaned in Horta

It could have been a lot worse. High winds rattled the protective shutters on our windows and the non-stop roaring made sleep fitful. Looking over the rooftops of the line of houses downhill between us and the marina we could see the fury of water and wind but it did not reach us directly.
Some of the fury could still be seen this morning on the Westerly side near us where some roads had been washed away and some structures severely damaged.
Communication with Flores, our next stop, is down so we are not sure we will be able to go there. [UPDATE- our Flores host says conditions are ok.]

We changed our mind about moving to the Hotel Do Canal and just had breakfast there because the cafes are closed.
This will be a day of reading and vegetating. For a while we took advantage of the hotel lobby.

If all goes well, we hope that, before we leave tomorrow at 3PM for Flores Island, we will be able to do the hike around the volcano rim that was fogged out yesterday.
We have made arrangements with a taxi to take us there, allow 2 1/2 hours for a hike around the rim and then take us to the airport.

Roof tile debris.

These are the Potato Rocks, so called due to their resemblance.

This photo (On display in a restaurant) shows the mini cone on top of Mt. Pico

View from bed. No Mt. Pico today.

When we got back to our room after getting meal and taxi vouchers from the airline,cocktails at Peter's bar and dinner at Taberna do Pim, NO WATER IN THE HOUSE! due to some neighborhood waterpipe problem. So a few liters of water delivered by our host will have to sustain us until departure. No showers.
FLASH!! one hour later, our host just told us "The water is back!"

FINAL MORNING
We did the hardest part of the Volcano rim (Caldeira) hike this morning in perfect conditions, except for Danny's grumpiness at having to push himself.

That's the crater of an old volcano behind us.

'

The trail around the rim of the crater is 4 miles long. We did the most difficult part (up and down), a steep kilometer of rock and soil shown rising ahead of Emma.

Another view of the crater with the shadow of a reluctant hiker.

Emma drinks it all in.

Emma at a high point of the trail as intermitent fog rolls in.

Hiker-extraordinaire surveys volcano crater.

On to the airport and the flight to Flores.

BONUS
To compensate for the one-day hurricane delay Azores Airlines paid for another night at our bed and breakfast and gave us vouchers for dinner, breakfast, and lunch. The dinner voucher was not accepted at Taberno do Pim but Peter's bar accepted the breakfast voucher and the airport restaurant accepted the lunch voucher before our flight to Flores.

There is a free lunch!

END