Hiking with Shelley and Others

This is a winding story but I am going to try telling it straight. I decided to drive to the village of Faial da Terra to the trailhead at Sanguinho in order to hike to a waterfall about 6 kilometres up in the hills. The place was in all the guides. Ordinarily that would have put me off, but sometimes consensus knows a thing. Also, my friend Nat especially recommended that I go. I like Nat a great deal because she has certain mystic tendencies that remind me of my mystic ex-wife, who I also still like a great deal. I’d been staying alone at Nat’s house in another village on the northeast tip of the Azorean island of São Miguel for two weeks at that point—well, nearly alone: I’d brought my cat. I’d been there for a little over two weeks and so far nothing disappointed. Any disappointments were internal.