Azores 2026, Portugal

My workation is slowly coming to an end. Today is Thursday, and my flight to Hamburg leaves the day after tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to going home a bit more than usual. The four storms that swept over me and the islands during these eight weeks were somewhat exhausting. Nothing like the desaster that wreaked havoc in Portugal and across the entire Iberian Peninsula, though. For me, it was just a bit of a strain.

In addition, the quality of the food has taken its toll on me in the long run, and I've noticed that I've lost some of my enthusiasm for cooking over these eight weeks. The quality of the ingredients here isn't very high, and that's dampened my enthusiasm for cooking.

But that's just a heads-up, because I want to tell you about a very interesting thing I've observed here during these eight weeks, something I've never seen anywhere else in the world.

One of the first things you notice when driving around the island is miniature wonderland. The whole island looks like a giant toy train set. No trash, not a scrap of paper, not a single plastic cup – nothing! On rare occasions, you might find flotsam in the natural pools or on the rocky beaches. And even then, there's very little.

Despite the island's tropical-looking vegetation - wild, overgrown, and lush - it's incredibly well-maintained. Looking out from the viewpoints, everything appears remarkably organized and tidy. The roads wind right through the vegetation, yet all the verges are trimmed, cleaned, and raked to a width of one to two meters. It's an incredible effort, and I even know who's responsible.

Every community has its own municipal workers who cut, shred, rake, clean, and tidy the roadsides. On almost every stretch of road, almost every day, you'll find sections with small barriers, where the workers are either standing in the road with their mowing equipment or sitting in small green or in rare cases gray tents at the roadside.

These tents are transported on the back of a truck. The truck picks up the workers as it makes its way through the village, and the small green tent sits on the back of the truck. The workers jump up and climb onto the back of the truck, into the small green tent.

Once everyone has been picked up, they drive to their mowing area. Then the small green tent is unloaded, placed somewhere on the side of the road, and the workers work on the road or alternatively sit inside the tent. Every day you’ll find some of these green tents all over the island, if you look for them.

Why do all these workers have such a small green tent? It's because of the rapidly changing weather here. Within half an hour, it rained three times, and three times the sun shone brightly. And the solution is this tent. Mow, quickly into the tent, mow, quickly into the tent, mow, quickly into the tent.

When I drive home from Pont Delgada and happen to be behind one of these trucks, I have to stop again and again. Because in their stop-and-go rhythm, the workers are gradually picked up or dropped off. And that's how a tropical-looking island is transformed into a miniature wonderland. 😂Læs mere