On Saturday, we began our journey to The Azores at Newark Airport. The crew met at our terminal to check in together before our overnight flight, where we encountered our first hurdles. Upon checking in with our airline, half of the class was informed our carry-on bags were overweight, and the fiasco of distributing equipment amongst students with extra room in their carry-on began. The crew was prepared for bag weight limits, but our airline enforced far stricter weight limits due to a full flight. This was a rough start for the crew, but once this was dealt with, we were back on track and on our way to the Azores.
We flew into Lisbon, arriving at 6 AM local time; and boarded our next flight to Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel. We arrived at Ponta Delgada at 8:45 AM local time.
Upon exiting the plane at Ponta Delgada, we immediately experienced poor weather, consisting of extreme wind and scattered rain that continued throughout the day. Today, we learned that the weather here is unpredictable and changes constantly.
At the airport, we met our tour guide, Bento, who drove us to our hotel and accompanied us throughout our day of filming. Upon arriving at the hotel, we stored our bags in a room for the day and immediately headed out for filming. After a quick trip to the grocery store for breakfast, we were on our way.
Our tour guide Bento gave us a guided tour of Ponta Delgada and nearby surrounding villages. Our first stop was Água D’Alto Beach, a sandy beach in Vila Franca do Campo. This is where we collected our first B-Roll footage as a crew.
Next, we visited a lookout point at Villa Franco De Campo overlooking a rocky shoreline. We spread out across the lookout point; with some students shooting drone footage, some hiking up for the vantage point of the sea and the nearby village, and others hiking down to the rocky beach to obtain a perfect shot of the immense surf.
Then we stopped for lunch at The Black Whale, a restaurant in Villa Franco De Campo, where we enjoyed Pastelaria Familiar, an award-winning pastry native to the village. The pastry was created across the street from The Black Whale at a historical nun convent.
After lunch, we explored the history of Villa Franco De Campo with our tour guide. Shortly after that, we visited the Villa Franco De Campo Municipal Museum where we filmed several exhibits about violas; including models of the Viola da Terra and an exhibit about how the viola is made.
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