Sao Miguel - Our Last Azore Island Unfortunately

Europe » Portugal » Azores » São Miguel » Ponta Delgada
September 5th 2012

Published: September 6th 2012

Sao Miguel is the largest and most populated of the nine Azores islands. The marina is in the city of Ponta Delgada which is also where the cruise ships come to therefore they are definitely accustom to tourists. Fortunately for us we have not seen any cruise ships in port as it must be out of season here. We just found out the other night that the cruise ships only stop in November and April ... Read Full Entry

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Bob & Janice Waller

s v Tsamaya

Like so many others we love to travel and we love to sail so cruising makes a lot of sense. Janice has retired from Cornell as a business manager and Bob has retired from South Seneca school district as the high school principal. It's time to sell the house, get rid of whatever doesn't fit on our 40 foot Caliber LRC named Tsamaya (this means Travel Well in Setswana) and set off to see the world. Our reasons for publishing this blog is twofold, first to keep in touch with our friends and family and secondly to share our experiences. If you would like to receive notification when we have added ... full info

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Are We in St. Augustine?

When we first saw these we thought we had gone back to St. Augustine! There are many activities such as these that are obviously set up for tourism here.

Corn for Labor Day!

We had our first corn on the cob here for Labor Day weekend -it was great, just too big for our pans.

Fruts or Vegetables Anyone?

There is lots of agriculture on this island which is obvious from their fresh fruit and vegetable stands.

Need for Mirrors

With all of the curves in the roads here mirrors are very helpful for driving here.

Low Flying Clouds

Going up to the mountains we got into what we call “low lying clouds” which made it harder to see, but it was still beautiful.

Pineapples Grown Here

Greenhouses are used here for the growing of pineapples which are a specialty here on Sao Miguel.

Northern Coast

The northern coastline is more rugged than the south with its rocky shoreline and sharp cliffs.

Market Day

Anyone for red peppers, pineapples, potatoes or bananas? They are in plentiful supply right now – what great choices with plenty of other produce to choose from as well.

Unusual Door Handle

Saying Tsamaya to friends

We were sad to see our friends, Sylvie and Guy leave as they are headed back to the Caribbean so not sure if our paths will cross again – we enjoyed getting to know them better since our first meeting in Flores – best wishes and “Tsamaya”

Water Pitchers

Nice to see the clay water pitchers actually being used here at the public water faucet in the village.

Farm Land & Rolling Hills

Geologically Sao Miguel is one of the older islands and it shows with the rolling hills and large flat land used for agriculture.

Looks Nice

Couldn’t resist the photo of this house on the hillside with its neat plantings.

Large Dairy Farms

Large dairy farms are possible on Sao Miguel with the large flat areas, however, we do see numerous herds of cattle high on the ridges and on the sides of mountains as well.

NY Yankees

We see NY Yankee baseball caps everywhere but they are hard to get photos of as they are being warn. This café had a large collection of hats and quite a few were NY Yankees – this is just one sampling.

Designs on Sidewalks

As we found on all of the islands, the sidewalk stones are made into various patterns, most are unique.

The Palace

This Palace was constructed with only local manpower using 3,500 hand cut basalt stones and with wood from trees that had fallen in the park as a result of storms.

Mischevious?

Boy, doesn’t he look mischievous? Janice was looking for him and suddenly he appeared peering through this window.

View of Garden

A view of the garden looking through a window of the bridge located in the municipal botanical garden.

Feeling Small??

We explored a couple of the botanical gardens located in Ponta Delgada. The Jose Do Canto garden was first started in 1840 but the estate has been handed down through 20 generations of the family. In 1867 this garden was well known with its 3,000 species at that time. We sure felt small amount these giant trees, shrubs and flowers.

Night View

We enjoy taking walks around Porta Delgada at night - fortunately many of the churches and buildings are nicely lite.

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Sao Miguel - Our Last Azore Island Unfortunately

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