Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal

May 4

Fog and rain were the words of the day today. We docked in Porta Delgado, a city on the island of Sao Miguel, which is part of the Azores archipelago, which is part of Portugal. That’s a mouthful! The Azores include nine separate volcanic islands, of which Sao Miguel is the largest. There are about 140,000 people on this island, of whom 45,000 live in Ponta Delgado. These islands have been inhabited for only 650 years or so. There are still 26 active volcanoes, but none were too active today, for which I am thankful.

It was raining as we arrived, and the skies were gray. They remained that way, with rain or mist, most of the day.

We’ve been very lucky with weather thus far on this trip, so it’s hard to complain about one rainy, foggy day. This is the climate of these islands; there is so much humidity so often that it affects the infrastructure. At the same time, at least this island is very green with lots of flowers everywhere. Right now azaleas are in bloom, and we saw them everywhere. Hydrangeas are just beginning to bloom.

I had a tour that started with a long drive to the Sete Cidades region, which is dominated by a five-mile-wide volcanic caldera. Within the caldera are two lakes, one blue and one green. Or so they tell me. We stopped and walked to the overlook, at which we could see absolutely nothing because of the fog. The middle picture below shows my view of the lakes. We did see a large abandoned luxury hotel overlooking the crater; it has been purchased by a group of Chinese investors.

We left the overlook to drive down to the village of Sete Cidades, stopping along the way on a bridge between the two lakes. The water on both sides was gray, so most of us didn’t even get out of the bus there.

At the village we were given time to walk around but there isn’t much to see. It is tiny—maybe 900 residents. It is so small that it has no police or health services. The guide said he thought they had recently started getting mail service. The village has its own charm—well-kept homes, decorative street signs, cows in the back yard (no picture of the latter, alas). There is an 18^th century church, the St. Nichalou Church. The restroom in the one coffee shop had a beautifully tiled sink anteroom. I also saw an old church and what looked like a former home in ruins.

Driving back to Ponta Delgado, we heard about the economy of the Azores. It is based on agriculture, fishing, and tourism. We also heard about its legal status as a part of Portugal and some other information but I tuned out most of it. We went to a hotel across from the port for local wine and cheese. Because I’d been seasick the last couple of evenings, I avoided the wine but the cheese was fine. Not wanting to stand around until the group was ready to leave, I left the tour and made my way across the street back to the ship. The town center boasts pavement with a lovely design (reminiscent of Lisbon) and a tiled wall down to the port terminal.

It had stopped raining and the fog had lifted but it rolled back in a couple hours later. I decided not to go back out this evening.

I may be at my limit of seeing new places and learning about them, which is right on time. Tomorrow is our last port (a different Azorean island), and then we head for home. Or Florida at least. Nevertheless, when tonight we got instructions for luggage handling on disembarkation, it made me sad.