I had such a great sleep last night. I think it was because of the ocean air. Unfortunately I did wake up to the sound of rain. Once Dennis and Pauline came back from her sister’s house, we had a big breakfast.
This morning the girls decided to explore the community of Fogo which is on the northwest shore of Fogo Island. We first stopped at a lookout where you can see the entire community. What is hilarious is that Pauline has never been here.
The next stop was Lookout Quilts and Things. This shop sells locally made items including socks, mittens and quilts. As we walked in, the owner said to Pauline “You must be Bride Sheppard’s daughter”. This is a phrase we heard many times today. They have such beautiful items that we all ended up buying something. We made a few more stops before heading back to the house for lunch where Dennis fried up some mackerel and cod tongues.
Fogo Island Inn is a luxury twenty-nine room hotel in Joe Batt’s Arm. And by luxury I mean that rooms start at over $2000 CAD / night and upwards of $6000 CAD / night. Guests have included Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Letterman and The Obamas. The hotel is part of Shorefast which is a Canadian charity whose mission is to help build economic and cultural resilience on Fogo Island. The vision of the inn and charity was created by Zita Cobb who was born on Fogo Island. She wanted to showcase and preserve the hospitality, art and culture of Fogo Island. So when I learned that they offer free tours, I made sure to sign us up.
The tour was for 2:30pm, but we went early. To get to the inn, you either walk up a very long driveway or you grab the shuttle bus. Of course we took the shuttle bus and the driver happened to be a lady that Pauline knew. We had about fifteen minutes before our tour stared, so we were allowed to sit in the lobby.
Our tour guide Grace came over and explained what we would see today. We would be allowed to see any common areas as long as there were no people in there. Unfortunately since the inn was fully booked, we would not be able to see any of the guest rooms.
We started up on the fourth floor which has the rooftop hot tubs and sauna along with many of the guest rooms. As we worked our way down the stairwells, we noticed the unique wallpaper. Grace explained that it was custom and that each one told a story. For example one told the story of cod jigging. The last two areas we got to see was The Library and The Cinema. During the tour, Grace gave us a lot of information about the inn. I think what made the tour extra special was that we had Pauline with us. Between her and Grace, they told us all about life on Fogo Island. And of course, Grace knows Pauline’s mom.
Pauline, Gloria (Pauline’s sister), Nana and myself went to The Storehouse for supper tonight. This restaurant is affiliated with the Fogo Island Inn. The food was excellent especially the Partridge Berry tart.
We ended our day with an Island Harbour sunset.
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