That’s it. I slept poorly, feeling my face getting swollen.
Yes, when I woke up I looked like a hamster. There is no question. I have an
infection and will have to go to the dentist today. Crap! That means foregoing
the luxury tourist thing, because they are leaving at 9 am. And I so wanted to
go to the caldera of Sete Cidades, and the geothermal power plants L
The hotel gave me the address of a clinic on the other side
of town, and since I am too cheap to take a cab I only got there about 9:45.
The nice receptionist took my info, and told me the doctor would see me in a
short while. Fifteen minutes later I was called in, and I met my doctor, a
middle-age woman who spoke perfect English (like many Azoreans, she immigrated
to the US when she was a
kid, got her degree in Boston ,
and then chose to come back to practice in paradise), and who listened very
sympathetically to my plight. She took a brief look and told me that, yes, I have
an infection, and that until the infection is controlled by strong antibiotics
and anti-inflammatories there is not much more she can tell me. If it is an
opportunistic infection then the antibiotics should clear it and I should be
able to hold until I see my dentist in Mexico . Otherwise she hopes I can
get the thing looked at in Germany
(definitely not Morocco );
clearly she doesn’t know of my past experiences with German dentists (described
in gory, bloody detail in my letters from 1988).
So she wrote me a prescription for Clavamox (875 mg, which
is a dose that should be just about right for a horse) and Iboprufen (600 mg),
plus an emergency pack of Rosilan (30 mg) corticosteroids just in case I need
help during my trip to Morocco .
She also gave me a medicated mouthwash from the samples she had in her
examination room. Total cost: $50 for the consultation and $20 for the meds at
a nearby pharmacy.
Feeling that now I was pretty much healed, I started
bemoaning the fact that this untimely visit to the dentist had robbed me of the
opportunity of seeing the caldera of Sete Cidades. I was commiserating in this
way when, what do I see? An outfit of scooter rentals! A few minutes later I
drove out of there in my very own scooter ($40 per 24 hours) heading out of
town toward Sete Cidades volcano.
It was a fabulous ride. First I took the road less
travelled, around the south side of the island, with fabulous looks of marine
cliffs and quaint white-washed towns. Then I started the climb to the soma of
the volcano, where I had a sweeping panorama of the caldera, the ring-fracture
volcanoes, and the lake that occupies the center of the caldera. I was a good
3,000 ft above the level of the lake, so the view was like that a soaring eagle
would have. Fortunately I came up the road less travelled, so none of the
tourist buses were there to ruin my view.
I rode into the caldera, to the village of Sete Cidades
Eventually I headed out of the caldera and reached the north
shore, once again reveling on the smooth ride, the beautiful coast, and the
incredible scenery. But then I started getting sleepy (was it siesta time?), so
I stopped at one of the bus stop kiosks, parked the scooter out of the way, and
proceeded to have a very nice siesta sitting against the warm sides of the
kiosk.
I finally came back to the hotel, and at 7 pm rejoined my
group for dinner. We walked a good 20 minutes to Solar de Graça, which looked
more like a car garage than a restaurant, but which turned out to be a 60-year
old “eatery” that offered a typical Azorean buffet and entertainment. The
available menu included rice with fish, a bread pudding with tomatoes, bacalao
with spinach, breaded young macarels (not oily at all), and diverse dishes with
pork and bacon. The desserts included flan, maracuja pudding, apple pie, and a
bean pie that was surprisingly tasty. This hearty dinner was followed by a show
of traditional Azorean music and dance by a local group. It was pretty
energetic dancing, as Albertina and myself were able to find out when we were
invited to the dance floor. I think we did alright for mere beginners.
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