Before yesterday’s excursion, a fellow hiker said, “You will love this walk. Everything is green and blue.” She had taken the trail before, so she knew.

But nothing could have prepared me for the particular shades of green and blue, for the commingling of ocean, sky and grass, for the pastoral setting, the lone cows grazing.

There was so much green and so much blue, and when you walked out to the Pico Vermelho viewpoint, it was as if you were walking into the ocean on a gigantic earthen gangplank. Only you didn’t enter the sea; you marveled at it.