While in Ponta Delgado in the Azores, we met and got to know
our tour guide, Hugo. We spent most of the day with him, and because the island
of Sao Miguel is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, we saw sites related to
it. One stop was near a particularly rough,
rocky area where the ocean crashed against the boulders resulting in explosions
of white water at least 200 feet high. The
water was initially a deep blue; one would describe it as azure. When it hit
the rocky coast it quickly became startlingly white. Powerful waves against the stoic coast.
Hugo remarked on the “energy” of the waves as they crashed
against the coast. He said that he was
born and raised on Ponta Delgado and at 58 years old still was amazed at this phenomenon. He said he could watch these waves crash
against these rocks every day of his life.
Hugo said that he moved away from the island for a short
time in his late teens. He said that he
began to lose himself and who he was. He
quickly realized that he needed to be by the ocean, the sea. Hugo said that the ocean was part of
him. It was in his nose as he smelled
the salt and the clean air; he breathed it and he became it. The ocean was part of him.
