Gabi On The Go: Out & About with Blanche

Out & About is the tour that our friend Blanche does for visitors of Fogo Island, mostly for guests from the Fogo Inn.

Today she was kind enough to take us on a tour for hours, showing us this beautiful place and talking about the people and their traditions.

There are 11 communities in the island, and today we got to visit five of them: Seldom, Fogo, Joe Batt's Arm, Deep Bay and Shaol Bay.

Blanche is the 7th generation on the island and raised her two sons - Craig, my friend, and Colin - here as well.

Our first stop was the Brimstone Head in the community of Fogo.

What a view from up there!

FROM http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-Brimstone-Head-Fogo-near-Fogo-NF-6999

A hike up a dramatic landscape of rock with steep terrain on either side dropping to the aquamarine shoreline, Brimstone head walk/hike leaves the campground for some of the most stunnning vistas on Fogo Island.

The girls had a great time picking wild blueberries.

The weather was not the greatest, but that didn't stop us from get up on the rock and enjoying this amazing scenery.

Some people believe that the Brimstone Head is one of the four corners of the earth, because they also believe that the earth is flat.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies

Modern flat Earth societies consist of individuals who believe that the Earth is flat rather than an oblate spheroid. Such groups date from the middle of the 20th century; some adherents are serious and some are not. Those who are serious are often motivated by pseudoscience or religious literalism.

In the modern era, through the use of social media, flat Earth theories have been increasingly espoused by individuals unaffiliated with larger groups.

FROM CBC.CA:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/museum-of-the-flat-earth-opens-on-fogo-island-1.3590896

Uncle Ed and Uncle Craig were incredibly nice taking care of our little girls all day.

They absolutely love their uncles.

Me. Happy.

More blueberries, blackberries and partridge berries.

Pine cones.

Lots of residents of Fogo Island use wood to heat their houses.

They are already stocking up for the intense winter to come.

We stoped at Nicole's for lunch, a cute restaurant in the community of Joe Batt's Arm.

I had a traditional dish called Fish in Brewis, which is basically cod fish with potatoes and hard break soaked in water.

It was delicious and filling.

Cheers with a local Newfie beer: Quidi vidi 1892.

In the afternoon we visited more of the community of Joe Batt's Arm.

That's a well known community because it is where the Fogo Inn is located, but we'll leave that for tomorrow.

CHURCHES

Here is an Anglican Church in Joe Batt's Arm.

Every community has its church and its religion: Anglican, United Church, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Jeovah's Witnesses, or Gospel Hall.

In the old days, people's religion would determine which community they would live in and even what school their children would attend on the island.

Another great stop on Blanche's tour was the Wood Shop, created initially to build all the furniture for the Fogo Inn.

Before the hotel opened its doors, many designers from all over the world were invited to come to Fogo Island and research traditions and design pieces of furnitures.

Today, the shop is opened to the public with incredible pieces of art, and hires dozens of local people.

We also visited a couple of art studios.

Here is the Winston and Linda Osmond art shop at Shoal Bay.

Beautiful art.

Actually, this place is a magnet for artists.

This building would be just an ordinary building in the community of Deep Bay, but it is now a touristic attraction because it is the building that inspired the architecture of the Fogo Inn.

You can see the similarities of the tilts.