Sao Miguel

Our azorian scouting trip ends in beutiful Sao Miguel. Although we think that Pico has everything we need location wise to make our movie, it was important for us to visit Sao Miguel as it is the largest and most modern Island in the azores. We will probably be obtaining actors and crew from this island and may have to spend some time over here.

Of course, we also had some time to take a look around and enjoy some of the island's natural beauty.

We had great luck in obtaining a terrific guide who showed us, in the short amount of time that we had, a large portion of the island. Most of our time was spent on the southern side of the island in an area called seite ciedads (my spell check doesn't work in portuguese, so please excuse my horrible spelling). Seite Ciedads, which I believe translates to seven fountains, is the place where Sao Miguel has its famous two lakes that touch and as you can see from the picture, one of the lakes is green and the other is blue. It's quite a site to behold. Our excellent guide, Joao, showed us many lakes that were not only beutiful, but also impressive in the way that the portuguese people have preserved them from litter and unnecessary tourist buildings.

We did not have enough time to see their famous Furnas, but he did show us an area where the water was boiling and people had found an area where the mixture of cold stream water and boiling volcanic water mixed to make a warm watering hole. Both Anderson and I were very jealous of the people inside as we didn't have the time to go inside ourselves.

We leave Sao Miguel unsatisfied as we did not give ourselves enough time to really get a good feeling for the island of, but we are content with the knowledge that we will return and give the island the adequate time that it deserves.

Obrigado Sao Miguel!

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Bonus Photos

No new and exciting adventures the past couple of days, just boring planning and location pictures and logistics to be taken, so for this blog I leave you with some pictures that I like that have not been posted yet.

Enjoy.

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Sao Jorge

We came to Sao Jorge and I did not expect much. I left the island with a love for it equal to Pico.

My godfather Moses was born on the island, so he was happy to take us there to show us around. His brother picked us up and showed us as much as any man possibly could in the limited amount of time that we had to spend there.

I had previously thought that the view of Pico was amazing from Faial, I was wrong, the word amazing belongs to Sao Jorge. The picturesque Pico unveiled herself from the clouds today to show that she still had some tricks up her sleeve. Every picture that we took turned out great and still you feel as though we were doing a disservice to her elegance as she is much more beutiful when observed in person.

Moses' brother Angelo was a terrific guide as he knew all the right places. He also knew all the right people as everywhere we went on the island opened up their homes to us. There are over 9000 people on this island and I would be surprised if there was someone living here that he didn't know.

We prolonged our trip as much as we could and we leave with a fond memory of the beuty of Sao Jorge, the friendliness of its people and the generosity of Angelo.

I will scour the script to find a way to crowbar this island into the movie one way or another.

Obrigado Sao Jorge.

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Climbing Pico

We finally climbed Pico!

Last night was clear so we decided to give it a go. We awoke at 5am and were climbing by 5:45, we were a little nervous because clouds had started to form by the time we started, but we made it up with no trouble and even though we could not see any of the other Islands, it was still beutiful up top.

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Fial

We arrived in the city of Horta In the island of Fial today. My aunt's cuzin Antonieta lives on the island and showed us around a little bit. Although, I don't think that we will film much here if anything, there is a beautiful view of Pico from this island that will prove to be useful.

And of course, as with any hard day's work of scouting, we must finish with a beer. Today's beer has been furnished by the island's own beer, Melo Abreau inside the world famous tavern, Peter's.

Salute

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A lake and a castle

My uncle Leonides and my godfather Moses took us around the island to help us find some more locations. The first place that we went was a lake near the center of the island that fit my memory and the script perfectly.

Afterwards we headed to the south of the island, where Leonides was born. We saw some nice towns over there, then continued our trek to find the main location for the film.

In the movie, the place where the main character stays in is supposed to be a modest old abandoned town. This has proven to be difficult to find. The main problem being that although we see many modest abandoned old houses, we also see a newer house right next door. This makes it easier very difficult for the audience to believe that someone could live there anonymously.

This brings me to the second to last picture. Although, the house pictured is far from modest, it fits almost all other criteria for our film. I had seen the house a few days earlier when we were fishing near Sao Mateos and had not thought much of it. But, as we were driving back from our trek around the island we passed by Sao Mateos and the house came to mind. I asked my uncle to take me to that house and we looked around. We loved it.

We will continue our search for alternative locations, but for the time being, that house is our leading candidate.

The last picture comes from the end of our journey and as anyone who has ever held a camera in their hand before would tell you, you never let a sunset go to waste.

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Yesterday we drove around the island to get a feel for what the various sides are like. We stopped and visited our German friends again and had a great time playing music into the night.

Today we went up to see the house that my mother was raised in, then went to visit an old friend of hers who makes various liquers.

We plan on hiking Pico mountain tomorrow morning.

First picture is of my mothers old house in Santa Luzia.

Second picture is of my mother's old friend, who used to live next door to her.

Third picture is of me and my little friend (one of the Robbins daughters)

Fourth picture is of the German director's beutiful and talented wife (she plays the violin with great skill) with her other daughter.

Fifth picture is of a couple of kittens that were playing at the distillery.

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