Terceira Island, Azores

Terceira Island: Journey through a Unique Archipelago of the Azores


Facade Expressions
Facade decorated with faces, at the entrance to the Marina of Angra do Heroismo.
endless minifundio
Terceira's impressive minifundio seen from a viewpoint in Serra do Cume
Angra do Heroísmo House
Casario de Angra do Heroismo, seen from a slope of Monte Brasil.
Unusual bullfight
Pseudo bullfighters provoke a bull during the bullfight on the Biscoitos rope, on the north coast of Terceira.
Rope Bullfighting Assistance
A small crowd watches the rope bullfight in Biscoitos.
outdoor corral
A cow in its stone corral, in the green foothills of Serra do Cume.
Ti Manel of the Farm
The picturesque dining room at "Venda do Ti Manel da Quinta"
Band II
Band animates one of the religious ceremonies of the Divino do Espírito Santo, in front of the Empire of Charity of Praia da Vitória.
modern font
Background of an architectural fountain between the Igreja da Misericórdia and the marina in Angra de Heroísmo.
About.
Passersby walk along two of the walks that skirt the Angra do Heroísmo marina.
Minifundio with cattle
One of the cornered patches that can be seen from the top of Serra do Cume to the horizon.
Blessed Angra do Heroismo
Angra do Heroísmo house with two of its largest churches highlighted.
Quinta do Martelo store
Emanuel Almeida, employee of Quinta do Martelo at the counter of the old store on the ground floor of the restaurant "A Venda do Ti Manel da Quinta"
Biscuits Bullfight
Taurus confronts a crowd of participants in the Biscoitos rope bullfight.
The band
The band's musicians animate the ceremony of the Divine Holy Spirit.
House in the last sun
Houses on the north coast of Terceira island.
Mountain View
The impressive minifundio da Terceira, as seen from the top of Serra do Cume.
In Marina
The marina of Angra de Heroísmo, with the blue Misericórdia Cathedral in the background.
under the pine
Angra do Heroísmo esplanade embellished by the city's artistic sidewalk.
Creek Lines
Steep street of Angra do Heroísmo.
It was called the Island of Jesus Christ and has radiated, for a long time, the cult of the Holy Spirit. It houses Angra do Heroísmo, the oldest and most splendid city in the archipelago. These are just two examples. The attributes that make Terceira island unique are endless.

The picturesque Quinta dos Figos is only fifteen minutes away from the world famous Lajes, home to the Terceira Island airport where we had just landed and the famous North American base.

Even so, we installed ourselves in the room in play-and-run mode. We left in a hurry to take a look at the streets of Praia da Vitória and came face to face with one of the many colorful empires that bless and decorate Terceira island.

The exuberant cube stands out from the white houses with the predominant brick-colored tiles.

As a kind of architectural diva, it displays its facades full of Christian arabesques, arches, ogives, columns, steps, a rounded pediment that identifies it. A veritable festival of colors invades the set: blue, yellow, green, red and white.

An Azorean Expression of the Divine

By itself, the structure would leave any admirer stunned, but, to top it off, that Empire of Charity concentrated serious festivities.

The band, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

Band animates one of the religious ceremonies of the Divino do Espírito Santo, in front of the Empire of Charity of Praia da Vitória.

Next door, a local philharmonic band plays pompous fanfare themes. A firefighter dispatches his projectiles one after the other closer to God.

With successive arrhythmic explosions, it deafens us and the believers of the earth, all dressed in the best Sunday clothes.

Some enter and leave the Empire with trays of blessed food, others, hold spears and standards of the Divine.

We play innocent tourists and listen to the heart of the ceremony. Inside, on a white altar raised in terraces and decorated with matching wreaths, rest several gleaming lacy wreaths.

For a short time. With the band already off the cement stand and walking along the road ahead, several participants in the ritual make their way to the staircase wearing these same wreaths before on the trays. Others carry spears. We pursued them determined to register the moment. The band follows us all.

We had already followed another Feast of the Divine Holy Spirit. The first and so far only time in Pirenópolis, in the Brazilian countryside of Goiás. There, Manuel Amâncio da Luz, a hypermotivated Portuguese priest, transformed belief into an incredible cultural expression that the people's faith and enthusiasm still preserve today.

In Praia da Vitória, we saw how everything was happening in the main Portuguese stronghold of Divino Espírito Santo. Until the Emperor and his "subjects" disappeared to the sound of the charanga and left us to our destiny. A photographer from the local press sees us undecided and approaches us.

After a few minutes of technical conversation, the colleague highlights our luck. “It's just that you are not seeing well. Not only did they catch the Divine here today, but in a little while, they'll be able to watch the rope bullfight. More Terceira Island than this is difficult.”

Even if they represented a journey from the sacred to the profane, they were coordinates we were not willing to ignore. From Praia da Vitória, we continue along the north coast of the island, stopping here and there to see marine pools and other particularities of the rugged coastline.

Biscuits: Start of Bulls in the style of Terceira Island

In the middle of the afternoon, around Biscuits, we find the mob installed. Hundreds of cars are parked in a field of overgrown lava that separates the road and the waterfront. We find a still distant corner for our car from where we descend towards the village.

Public in Biscuits, Unique Azores

A small crowd watches the rope bullfight in Biscoitos.

Halfway through, we found the first revelers, who served food and drinks, sometimes picnickers, sometimes at the counter of mobile homes and similar vans, powered by generators and serving enthusiastic customers of everything, from Azorean specialties to the most obvious nails, steaks, snacks and churros.

The further down the road, the more its verges were crowded with people and the places with the best views were disputed. We managed to slip into a newly abandoned space and finally enjoyed the fulcrum of all the attention.

Around a small cove surrounded by lava cliffs, in a grassland above and in the street that separated it from the houses, a bull hesitated between contemplating the madness around it or charging at the pseudo bullfighters who incited it among the crowd.

Biscuits, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

Taurus confronts a crowd of participants in the Biscoitos rope bullfight.

Little by little, we were able to estimate the areas safe from possible lashes, which happen in abundance, such as the wounded and, from time to time, even dead, despite the bull's movements limited by the action of the "shepherds" ” which give you more or less slack depending on the imminence of certain damage.

A rocket announces the removal of the bull and another break in hostilities. We moved from an area still high on the slope to the top of a terrace with a privileged panoramic view over the street where most of the bullfight takes place.

The terrace is shared by families, with a predominance of women and children.

Biscuits, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

Pseudo bullfighters provoke a bull during the bullfight on the Biscoitos rope, on the north coast of Terceira.

Some families are migrants in the USA and in Canada. Even with an eye on our cameras, we have fun listening to how the wonders of their lives on the other side of the Atlantic insinuate to others that were at the origin. “Ah!! But our house over there has nothing to do with the ones over here.

It's much bigger. I would go there! More is earned and, therefore, we can build without worries.” This same Canadian Azorean, who could not contain herself with so much pride in the return her life took, wasted no time in asking us: “are you portraitists?

I really wanted to take some pictures here, with my family. If you want to spend a few days in Cambridge, Ontario, you can also do some good portraits. Everything is very beautiful there.” Rockets and bulls followed one another in that strange bullfighting afternoon. Until the afternoon and the revelry came to a gentle end.

The incredible walled minifundio of Terceira Island

Shortly after dawn, we went up to the Facho viewpoint and admired the houses of Praia da Vitória, the birthplace of Vitorino Nemésio.

From there, we took the old cobbled road that leads to the top of the 545 meters of Serra do Cume, a verdant ridge that rises to the east of the island, windy as windy it could be and revealing a unique scenery.

View of Serra do Cume, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

Terceira's impressive minifundio seen from a viewpoint in Serra do Cume

Below, the vastness to the south and west reveals itself in an incredible yellow-green geometric pattern of fertility and labor. Countless smallholdings demarcated by basalt walls stretch as far as the eye can see, dotted with small agricultural warehouses, corrals and loose cows.

With the exception of the gale from the heights, the day remained at eye level, with an almost clear sky and sunny to match. Aware of the unpredictability of the Azorean meteorology and the abundance and historical and architectural exuberance of Angra do Heroismo, we decided to aim as soon as possible at your stops.

View of Serra do Cume, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

One of the cornered patches that can be seen from the top of Serra do Cume to the horizon.

Angra do Heroísmo: the First City of the Azores

Angra was the first of the Azorean towns to be promoted to a city, in 1534. Shortly thereafter, Pope Paul III chose it as the seat of the diocese of Angra, with authority over the entire archipelago.

At that time, its port already had a decisive role in trade with the East, which is why the transit and anchoring of caravels and gallons was intensified, contributing to the city's prosperity, with emphasis on the ostentatious construction of churches, convents and fortifications military that made it unique.

We admire them and the impressive panorama of the houses from Angrense from the base of the yellow obelisk that projects from Alto da Memória, dedicated to Pedro IV, the triumphant king of the Portuguese Liberal Wars.

House of Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

House of Angra do Heroismo, seen from a slope of Monte Brasil.

As we feared, dark clouds were approaching from the north so we accelerated into the city, down Ladeira de São Francisco until we came across the respectful Praça Velha, the centuries-old heart and soul of the city.

Over time, Angra has had the ability to welcome the afflicted, refugees or exiles of upheavals and the like to take place on the continent.

After being defeated by the Spanish Habsburg army at the Battle of Alcântara, António Prior do Crato decided to prolong his self-proclaimed oppositional reign to that of Philip I of Spain, from Terceira onwards.

Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

Steep street of Angra do Heroísmo.

The History and Stories of Angra do Heroísmo

Not only did it do so from 1580 to 1583, it also gathered around it strong popular resistance and other European adventurers averse to the increasingly stifling Hispanic expansion. The Spaniards were forced to fight him and thus the War of Succession to the Azores spread.

In 1667, at the end of the Restoration War, Afonso VI was exiled to Angra do Heroísmo by Pedro II, his younger brother, who declared him unfit to govern. In 1809, Almeida Garrett and his family took refuge in Angra from the second French invasion.

Garrett only returned to the mainland in 1818. During the Liberal Wars, Pedro, Emperor of the Brazil and the daughter to whom he abdicated the Portuguese throne established the headquarters of the Liberal forces on Terceira and repressed an attack by Pedro's youngest son Miguel and his Miguelista forces at the battle of Praia da Vitória.

It was, in fact, the resistance of the Liberals and this triumph that inspired the nickname “do Heroísmo” in Angra.

After capturing Mouzinho de Albuquerque, Gungunhanha, the “Gaza lion”, died in Angra eleven years after being exiled there.

These are just a few examples, many more to list.

Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

The marina of Angra de Heroísmo, the capital of the island of Terceira, with the blue Misericórdia Cathedral in the background.

The political, religious and military relevance enters our eyes when we admire the Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo.

Furthermore, the azulona da Misericórdia and, on the opposite side of the bay, the imposing walls of the Fort of Monte Brasil, built during the reign of Filipe I of Spain, from then onwards the scene of successive crucial events in Portuguese history. Today, headquarters of the 1st Garrison Regiment.

We walk along the wall that keeps the marina safe from the fury of the Atlantic and return to the blessing of the church.

Soon, we took a peek at Prainha where some trucks they delight in the calm water while a fifty-year-old gymnast determined to maintain his impressive form.

Electoral Missions and the Picturesque Quinta do Martelo

But it doesn't take long before we come across new matches. We lived in a time of elections.

We were tasting some typical cakes from the island when João Pinho de Almeida and other dolled dignitaries from the CDS invade the Athanásio pastry shop and foist us and other customers on leaflets and almost empty party pens.

However, we left Angra to take a look at the Quinta do Martelo, an old property full of rural buildings and work tools that immaculately illustrate its old times and the different production cycles it has gone through: orange, wine and loquat.

We knock on the restaurant's door “The Sale of Ti Manel da Quinta”, for some time in vain. Finally, Emanuel appears. The slender and affable employee of the farm reveals the old grocery store on the ground floor. He installed us in the superior's room, which now serves as a restaurant.

Quinta do Martelo, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

The picturesque dining room at “Venda do Ti Manel da Quinta”

At the table, but with an eye on detail, we see how the mentor Gilberto Vieira preserved and recovered everything, from the door handles to the crockery, according to the times when the farm was operating.

The atmosphere of the place, the most picturesque that we have seen in many trips and the traditional meal served by the no less genuine Emanuel, leave us in awe of Quinta do Martelo.

Quinta do Martelo, Terceira Island, Unique Azores

Emanuel Almeida, employee of Quinta do Martelo at the counter of the old store on the ground floor of the restaurant “A Venda do Ti Manel da Quinta”

A little more with the peculiar Terceira island.

Azores Airlines

www.azoresairlines.pt

SATA

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Visit Azores

visitazores.com

Sistelo, Peneda-Gerês, Portugal

From the "Little Portuguese Tibet" to the Corn Presidia

We leave the cliffs of Srª da Peneda, heading for Arcos de ValdeVez and the villages that an erroneous imaginary dubbed Little Portuguese Tibet. From these terraced villages, we pass by others famous for guarding, as golden and sacred treasures, the ears they harvest. Whimsical, the route reveals the resplendent nature and green fertility of these lands in Peneda-Gerês.
Castro Laboreiro, Portugal  

From Castro de Laboreiro to Raia da Serra Peneda - Gerês

We arrived at (i) the eminence of Galicia, at an altitude of 1000m and even more. Castro Laboreiro and the surrounding villages stand out against the granite monumentality of the mountains and the Planalto da Peneda and Laboreiro. As do its resilient people who, sometimes handed over to Brandas and sometimes to Inverneiras, still call these stunning places home.
Flores Island, Azores

The Atlantic ends of the Azores and Portugal

Where, to the west, even on the map the Americas appear remote, the Ilha das Flores is home to the ultimate Azorean idyllic-dramatic domain and almost four thousand Florians surrendered to the dazzling end-of-the-world that welcomed them.
São Miguel (Azores), Azores

São Miguel Island: Stunning Azores, By Nature

An immaculate biosphere that the Earth's entrails mold and soften is displayed, in São Miguel, in a panoramic format. São Miguel is the largest of the Portuguese islands. And it is a work of art of Nature and Man in the middle of the North Atlantic planted.
Pico Island, Azores

Pico Island: the Azores Volcano with the Atlantic at its Feet

By a mere volcanic whim, the youngest Azorean patch projects itself into the rock and lava apogee of Portuguese territory. The island of Pico is home to its highest and sharpest mountain. But not only. It is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of the Azoreans who tamed this stunning island and surrounding ocean.
Santa Maria, Azores

Santa Maria: the Azores Mother Island

It was the first in the archipelago to emerge from the bottom of the sea, the first to be discovered, the first and only to receive Cristovão Colombo and a Concorde. These are some of the attributes that make Santa Maria special. When we visit it, we find many more.
Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Wildlife, lions
Safari
NP Gorongosa, Mozambique

The Wild Heart of Mozambique shows Signs of Life

Gorongosa was home to one of the most exuberant ecosystems in Africa, but from 1980 to 1992 it succumbed to the Civil War waged between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Greg Carr, Voice Mail's millionaire inventor received a message from the Mozambican ambassador to the UN challenging him to support Mozambique. For the good of the country and humanity, Carr pledged to resurrect the stunning national park that the Portuguese colonial government had created there.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Sculptural Garden, Edward James, Xilitla, Huasteca Potosina, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Cobra dos Pecados
Architecture & Design
Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Edward James' Mexican Delirium

In the rainforest of Xilitla, the restless mind of poet Edward James has twinned an eccentric home garden. Today, Xilitla is lauded as an Eden of the Surreal.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Adventure
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.
Native Americans Parade, Pow Pow, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Ceremonies and Festivities
Albuquerque, USA

When the Drums Sound, the Indians Resist

With more than 500 tribes present, the pow wow "Gathering of the Nations" celebrates the sacred remnants of Native American cultures. But it also reveals the damage inflicted by colonizing civilization.
Vegetables, Little India, Sari Singapore, Singapore
Cities
Little India, Singapore

The Sari Singapore of Little India

There are thousands of inhabitants instead of the 1.3 billion of the mother country, but Little India, a neighborhood in tiny Singapore, does not lack soul. No soul, no smell of Bollywood curry and music.
Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Meal
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

There were 4 ethnic groups in Singapore, each with its own culinary tradition. Added to this was the influence of thousands of immigrants and expatriates on an island with half the area of ​​London. It was the nation with the greatest gastronomic diversity in the Orient.
Culture
Shows

The World on Stage

All over the world, each nation, region or town and even neighborhood has its own culture. When traveling, nothing is more rewarding than admiring, live and in loco, which makes them unique.
Spectator, Melbourne Cricket Ground-Rules footbal, Melbourne, Australia
Sport
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Traveling
Chefchouen to Merzouga, Morocco

Morocco from Top to Bottom

From the aniseed alleys of Chefchaouen to the first dunes of the Sahara, Morocco reveals the sharp contrasts of the first African lands, as Iberia has always seen in this vast Maghreb kingdom.
Ethnic
São Nicolau, Cape Verde

Photography of Nha Terra São Nicolau

The voice of the late Cesária Verde crystallized the feeling of Cape Verdeans who were forced to leave their island. who visits São Nicolau or, wherever it may be, admires images that illustrate it well, understands why its people proudly and forever call it their land.
sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 2)

One Sun, So Many Lights

Most travel photos are taken in sunlight. Sunlight and weather form a capricious interaction. Learn how to predict, detect and use at its best.
At the end of the afternoon
History
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
Victoria, capital, Seychelles islands, Mahé, Capital Life
Islands
Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles

From Francophone “Establishment” to the Creole Capital of Seychelles

The French populated their “Etablissement” with European, African and Indian settlers. Two centuries later, British rivals took over the archipelago and renamed the city in honor of their Queen Victoria. When we visit it, the Seychelles capital remains as multiethnic as it is tiny.
Correspondence verification
Winter White
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
shadow vs light
Literature
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
tarsio, bohol, philippines, out of this world
Nature
Bohol, Philippines

Other-wordly Philippines

The Philippine archipelago spans 300.000 km² of the Pacific Ocean. Part of the Visayas sub-archipelago, Bohol is home to small alien-looking primates and the extraterrestrial hills of the Chocolate Hills.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Natural Parks
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Hiroshima, city surrendered to peace, Japan
UNESCO World Heritage
Hiroshima, Japan

Hiroshima: a City Yielded to Peace

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima succumbed to the explosion of the first atomic bomb used in war. 70 years later, the city fights for the memory of the tragedy and for nuclear weapons to be eradicated by 2020.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

Despite his notoriety in the antipodes, Ian Channell, the New Zealand sorcerer, failed to predict or prevent several earthquakes that struck Christchurch. At the age of 88, after 23 years of contract with the city, he made very controversial statements and ended up fired.
Balo Beach Crete, Greece, Balos Island
Beaches
Balos a Seitan Limani, Crete, Greece

The Bathing Olympus of Chania

It's not just Chania, the centuries-old polis, steeped in Mediterranean history, in the far northeast of Crete that dazzles. Refreshing it and its residents and visitors, Balos, Stavros and Seitan have three of the most exuberant coastlines in Greece.

Via Crucis de Boac, Festival de Moriones, Marinduque, Philippines
Religion
Marinduque, Philippines

When the Romans Invade the Philippines

Even the Eastern Empire didn't get that far. In Holy Week, thousands of centurions seize Marinduque. There, the last days of Longinus, a legionary converted to Christianity, are re-enacted.
Flam Railway composition below a waterfall, Norway.
On Rails
Nesbyen to Flam, Norway

Flam Railway: Sublime Norway from the First to the Last Station

By road and aboard the Flam Railway, on one of the steepest railway routes in the world, we reach Flam and the entrance to the Sognefjord, the largest, deepest and most revered of the Scandinavian fjords. From the starting point to the last station, this monumental Norway that we have unveiled is confirmed.
Creel, Chihuahua, Carlos Venzor, collector, museum
Society
Chihuahua a Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico

On Creel's Way

With Chihuahua behind, we point to the southwest and to even higher lands in the north of Mexico. Next to Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, we visited a Mennonite elder. Around Creel, we lived for the first time with the Rarámuri indigenous community of the Serra de Tarahumara.
Fruit sellers, Swarm, Mozambique
Daily life
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Hippopotamus in Anôr Lagoon, Orango Island, Bijagós, Guinea Bissau
Wildlife
Kéré Island to Orango, Bijagós, Guinea Bissau

In Search of the Lacustrine-Marine and Sacred Bijagós Hippos

They are the most lethal mammals in Africa and, in the Bijagós archipelago, preserved and venerated. Due to our particular admiration, we joined an expedition in their quest. Departing from the island of Kéré and ending up inland from Orango.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.
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