Ruth: We have done the math. We have to slow down or we will run out of roads! We have three islands with winter ferry service and we could cycle around Pico, the largest, in three easy days. We have more than five weeks!
I thought we knew how to travel slowly but this trip is our slowest ever. I’m not sure we can call this a cycle tour when we are only averaging 15 km per day! Oh course there are lots of walking days in the mix also.
The weather forecasts also help us to slow down. We stay in most places for a few days, choosing to cycle to a new spot on a day with a better forecast. Fortunately, so far, the forecasts have been much worse than the reality. The sun makes at least a brief appearance most days and when it really comes out we suddenly need sunscreen.
Today we were dodging a few rain storms and dashing into shelter when we needed to. When the rain stopped we would get back on our bikes to poke around every village we passed through. I find it hard to believe that people lived off the land here, growing grapes and other crops on this beautiful moonscape of lava.