#SaudadeSaturday: Ponta dos Rosais

Instead of doing a #FlashbackFriday for my blog, I decided to do #SaudadeSaturday. I started working on this particular post during my first few days on São Jorge, and was in the process of expanding on it this week with pictures and footage from near the end of my time there so I could post it today.

I never finished. As some of your may know by now, yesterday I lost my Padrinho Fernandinho. Not only could I not finish this post, I was considering quitting this blog business altogether. However, so many people have told me how much they enjoy this blog, and so I'm going to try an stick it out.

Here's a look at where I spent the summer I was 12 with my grandparents. It was one of the happiest times of my life, and one I look back on even now with fondness.

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São Jorge is a long, skinny island in the middle of nowhere. Rosais, my village, is the westernmost settlement on the island. It snakes along a long winding road. At the end of that road is the neighborhood of Ponta dos Rosais, which is exactly what it sounds like: the point, or end, of the village. The furthest end of the furthest village at the end of the island in the middle of nowhere. It's always felt like ends of the earth to me. You can't get any more away from it all than here. 

My mom grew up on the Ponta, and while my Padrinho Fernandino now lives in the center of the village with his second wife, the Ponta is what I think of when I think of my Azorean home away from home. Now, I'm going to share it with you!