The plane lands only briefly after having taken
off. The shortest fl ight of our lives lasts a mere
15 minutes and takes us from San Miguel, the
largest island of the Azores, over to Santa Maria.
About 5,000 people live on this island. Two of
them are Andre and Miguel, who welcome us at
the airport with a Landrover and a minivan. With
us is Luis Melo, who knows the island like no
other. The enthusiastic teacher works in tourism
now and wants to further develop mountain biking
on the Azores.On the way to the hotel my travel partner Jenny
and I learn that there are over 20 trails on the
island. Andre tells us that the Pico Alto is the
highest point with 587m and that we surely won’t
have enough time to see everything. We look at
each other in surprise. We’re not supposed to
have enough time in two days to see everything in
an area that covers 97km²?We assemble our bikes and make our way to
breakfast. We make our fi rst, typical tourist
mistake and order cappuccino. It comes from a
bag and not from the tempting, glistening coffeemachine behind the counter. We have to order
‘pingado’, espresso with a shot of milk, Andre
lets us know. We take a bite of our sandwich
with cheese from the farm across the street as
Luis excitedly rushes over to us. The mailman
is here, Nuno Aguiar, and we’re told we have to
meet him. Nuno doesn’t just deliver the post –
he also brought mountain biking to the island.
Having moved from San Miguel a few years ago,
he began clearing old paths from the sprawling
vegetation with a shovel and pick to be able to
continue pursuing his passion - downhill riding.
Riders still profi t from his efforts to this day,
even though Nuno now has little time left to
take care of the trails.START HIGH, FINISH LOWWe shuttle to the highest point on the island,
the Pico Alto. The further we climb the denser
the vegetation gets until the thick green
completely entraps us. Trails keep crossing the
street and we begin to imagine the potential for
mountain bikers. Once we get to the top we start
immediately - a quick push and we dive into
the jungle-like forest. Luis accelerates away,
boosted by his local knowledge of every stone
and each corner. We need to get used to the softWORDS BY GERHARD CZERNER
PHOTOS BY MARTIN BISSIG
DAN