30 - So long Azores! We’ll miss you!

As I type, we are sailing along the coast of beautiful Sao Miquel.  This will be our last Azorean island (this trip anyway).  I know I’m a broken record, but these islands are all so amazing and so varied yet so similar in their beauty and wonderful people.

We had an amazing sail from Terceira to Sao Miguel.  We left about noon and sailed through the almost full moon night to arrive just as the sun was rising and the moon setting.  We were within sight of land in time to watch the moon rising up out of the island.  An amazing sight to see this huge orange ball coming out of the volcanic looking island!  My pictures don’t do it any justice at all but trust me, it was gorgeous.

Our marina was located in Ponta Delgado -the capital city- so we spent the first few days exploring the city.  It’s a wonderful combination of old and new.  To quote some fellow sailors who’d visited before us, the city is “sophisticated”.  They have great shops and restaurants that take over the streets with tables after 7pm when all but the main roads are cut off from traffic.   We even happened upon a concert that was being held outside the library building.  While it was in Portuguese, the singers were amazing and we recognized a couple of the songs.

 In addition to checking out the city, we decided to walk about 3 miles each way (didn’t sound that bad when we took off) to a pineapple plantation.  It was more of a garden with greenhouses but it was very pretty and interesting.  We knew we were getting close when the sidewalk decorations changed from nautical (near the marina) and the various other designs throughout town to pineapples.  The place had been an orange plantation until a disease wiped out all of the orange trees on the island around the turn of the century (from what we could remember).  They also served up the best Pina Colada that I’ve ever had.  Chunks of pineapple!!  As we were leaving, we struck up a conversation with Nelson, the store clerk. Upon telling him that we were headed to mainland Portugal, he took the time to write down for us a list of some of his favorite places to visit.  He prefaced his list making with, "do you like to eat?"  - who us???!!!!

The next day, we stayed closer to home and walked around the gardens that surround the office of the President of the Azores (1970’s to present).  They were as you would expect, gorgeous!  From there we had to visit the local brewery.  They brew Especial beer.  It’s a nice light beer.

Next, we rented a car for a couple of days so we could explore the island.  The first day we decided to see the western most point of the island.  Just driving around was spectacular.  Flowers everywhere and the countryside was beautiful.   Our first stop was at the Gorreana tea plantation and factory.  We were given a tour of the factory which wasn’t in operation since we were there on a Sunday (although she said they do tours even when they are working).  The equipment and processes don’t seem to have changed much throughout the years but she did point out some of the new equipment (which is used alongside the old when they have large batches to process).  It’s still very much manual labor intensive.  The ladies still sit at the tables in the morning and separate the different leaves that go into each batch of tea (only the first 3 leaves from the plant – which are hand-picked- are used and each one is used differently).  In the afternoon, these same ladies get the dried tea ready for packaging. 

We then decided to look for lunch and ended up in Ribera Grande and headed for Santa Barbara Beach (Praia de Santa Barbara).  This is the surfing beach for the entire island (probably the entire Azores as we never saw surfing anywhere else) and they have a great restaurant right on the beach where we had steak and grilled tuna sandwiches (the Azores started concentrating on tuna fishing once the whaling industry died and they are very proud of their local beef).  The sandwiches were served on Bolos (a local bread - slightly sweet and looks like an English muffin- that we immediately fell in love with).

Sated from lunch, we drove along the coast to go see the twin lakes.  Pedro’s amazing navigation skills, took us up the back roads (seriously back roads) so that our first view of the lakes was on the top rim.  We then followed the lakes around until we came into the little town that borders them.  It's hard to see in this picture, but the lakes are famous because the larger lake, Lagoa Azul (as the name would translate) is blue and Lagoa Verde (again as the name would translate) is green.  Legend has it that Lagoa Azul was filled from the tears of a poor blue-eyed shepherd boy and Lagoa Verde was likewise filled from the tears of a green-eyed Princess when the two lovers were separated and denied permission to marry.  The engineer (AKA Captain Fun Sucker) agrees with another theory that states the depth and vegetation on the bottom of each lake gives them their perspective colors.   Whatever!!!

We continued along the coast and further west to Ponta da Ferraria.  This is reported to be an area where the hot springs from the volcano flow into the ocean reportedly warming up the ocean.  We found the spot and MaryAnn stuck a toe in the water but apparently, we had arrived at full high tide (too much cold ocean water and not enough hot spring water) because it was way too cold for our taste.

We then continued on westward to catch the sunset at a famous overlook.  While the view was breathtaking, the clouds prevented much of a sunset view.  Still great scenery and we found a nice little restaurant for dinner and a couple of beers.

The next morning, we left the boat at 5:30 am for the 45-minute drive to the eastern shore of the island to try to catch the sunrise.  Ponta du Arnel is an old but still active lighthouse.  To get to the lighthouse, the sign warned that the road had a 35% grade.  That didn’t sound too bad until we actually started down the road.  Yikes!  We make it down with no issues but then had to turn around on the incline.  Still not sure to this day how the car didn’t just flip over but it didn’t (thankfully the wind was blocked).  After all of this, there still wasn’t much of a sunrise but again the views were spectacular.  Convinced, one or both of us were going to have to walk back up, the little car surprised us and putted her way up without a single complaint (it later started sprinkling and we’re sure we would never have made it out if the road had been wet).

Next, we headed to the town of Furnas.  This is heart of the volcano area of the island and where the Bolos (the bread we loved) were invented.  We found a great little restaurant serving breakfast sandwiches on Bolos.  Yummy!

 We then found the hot springs!!!!  We went into the park where they’ve built various pools into and out of which the hot springs flow.  The pools are surrounded by gorgeous gardens and they have a changing room and hot shower to rinse off afterward.  MaryAnn was in complete heaven.  The water is a constant 39℃ (about 99℉).  The combination of cloudy morning, spitting rain and warm water convinced us to spend about 3 hours in the various pools until the rain stopped and the crowds showed up (plus we were getting pretty shriveled).

 In addition to the hot springs, Furnas is also famous for the Codizo das Furnas.  These are a local tradition where they fill pots with food and lower them into the ground so that they food is completely cooked using the volcano’s heat.  One can either bring their own food and pay someone to watch it for you – takes about 6 hours – or find a restaurant.  We chose the latter. Lunch was a variety of meats, sausages and vegetables.  All were delicious – yes, had a somewhat smoky flavor.  We took the long way back home again enjoying the scenery.

Finally, we’d explored both the town and the countryside, hit up the great farmers market and the local grocery store for provisions and officially cleared out of the county.  We are ready for our next adventure.  We’re heading to mainland Portugal and the town of Cascais (coastal town near Lisbon).  We’ll fill you in when we get there.

Until next post!