Advertisement
Published: September 6th 2012
Sunset Over the Water
Nothing like sunsets while as sea. This one we saw while sailing from Terceira to Sao Miguel.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 when they travel between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean – lucky for us! The town itself has numerous historic buildings dating back to the late 1500’s. Most of the churches we have seen are in the architectural style referred to by the guidebooks as “Portuguese Simple/Manueline”, but there is nothing simple about these churches. They are primarily constructed of locally obtained and carved basalt (lava rock). Very little marble is used and in the majority the internal carvings are wood with gold leaf or plaster overcoats.
One afternoon we were fortunate to spend the afternoon and evening with Carol and Jim from SV Nepenthe as Carol organized the places to visit – it was nice having someone else do the leg work with us following
The Same Sunset
Believe it or not, this is the same sunset just a few minutes later – the color change was amazing. her lead (thanks Carol!) After having dinner together at a local restaurant we took in a concert that was being held at the marina featuring Luis Bettencourt. All of the words were in Portuguese, but the music was enjoyable as it spanned a wide range of musical genre. We actually ran into Bettencourt shopping a few days later and in talking to him he apologized that it was all in Portuguese, but we told him it didn’t matter as the music itself was enjoyable. The next day friends of ours, Sylvie and Guy from Takari invited us to go with them to a nearby town as they were having a festival. We of course took them up on this generous offer. They suggested we leave at noon to explore some of the island first as the festival didn’t start until 6PM. Unfortunately it was a cloudy /rainy day (it’s not that it really rains it just seems that the clouds are very low) therefore we didn’t see much as we started up into the mountains so turned around and had a leisurely afternoon exploring towns closer to the sea where it was clearer. Even though there is a language difference
Gate to the City of Ponta Delgada
The city gates built in the 18th century originally next to the old port were moved to its current location more centrally located in the downtown square. They look quite impressive both during the day and at night. with Sylvie’s and Guy’s first language being French, we had a great time! We are always impressed with people that can understand and speak English well enough to even tell jokes – we had lots of fun together with them. We made it to the village of Vila Franca do Campo in plenty of time to get a good place to view the processional. This is a religious based festival which is quite somber. It includes bands, firemen, members of the church, scouts, sea scouts and other groups following behind the religious statute that is carried throughout the streets of the village. Before and after the procession there is a carnival atmosphere complete with cotton candy, popcorn, beer tents, balloons, hot dog and hamburg stands. These festivals start in the evenings around 6PM and run into the night even though they are typically on a “work” night. Fortunately for the kids the schools are on holiday until the beginning of September so they are up late as well.
We rented a car for a couple of days to do some more exploring. The first day was quite cloudy and overcast so decided to go to the north side of
The Emigrants
This monument is dedicated to those that have emigrated from the Azores to other parts of the world. Many have settled in the US (Boston, MA and San Jose CA mainly) and Canada. the island and visit a ceramic factory in Riberia Grande, however, when we got there we found it was a show room of their products and not a factory tour. The town itself is quite interesting so even though it was raining on and off we walked around.
One area that is well photographed and seen on many post cards is the 8 arch bridge that was built in 1800’s. We visited a few more churches in this town. We still are in awe of the wood carvings, sculptures, paintings and architectural details we see in the various churches and convents. The basic structure of the churches is quite simple, however the carved flourishes that are added to the entrance ways and windows makes these buildings quite spectacular.
One of the simple pleasures we have discovered in Portugal is the local habit of stopping for a coffee. Janice was never a coffee drinker before, but is definitely enjoying sitting in a café taking a little time and watching the world go by. It is noticeable that there is no “coffee to go” meaning no empty coffee cup litter but definitely people taking time for a break and
The Daily Market
The market here is in a covered building and open every day except Sunday. The edges are lined with shops which include meat & fish markets. What a treat to have fresh produce available daily. What a change from Flores where you had to wait for the ship every 2 weeks to come in. being social. What a unique concept!
The north coast is wilder than the south with a rocky coastline and waves large enough to make surfers happy. Sao Miguel is one of the older islands (emerging from the ocean approximately 4,000,000 years ago) and therefore erosion has had its effect creating a much more gentle landscape over much of the island. There are still signs that of its volcanic past with fajas and caldeiras. This has led to the development of larger farms and more mechanization than we have seen on the other islands. We passed numerous drying racks filled with tobacco, fields of sweet corn, and grazing land with large herds of cows being milked with portable milking machines. We enjoy just driving around the islands with no definite place to go, exploring roads that look interesting and usually take us to some beautiful sights.
The second day with the car was just as rainy/misty (or may be even more!) but we still went exploring. This time to another ceramics factory in Lagoa on the south coast. We were able to walk around in the factory getting the chance to see how they produce the wide variety of
Anyone for Eel?
The fish market had many fish that we are familiar with for sale, but here they also eat eel. We will keep to seeing them when we scuba dive! products we saw in the showroom. We even bought a small bowl here and a few tiles that we will make into coasters. We are always careful with buying things (40 foot sounds big but it fills fast) but when we know they will be useful, then it is usually a sale!
We continued on to the town of Furnas which is known for its hot water springs. We visited a number of the sites where there were steaming vents and boiling mud pools. One of the paths we walked had water puddles with steam bubbling up through them – quite strange to see! Throughout the town there were a number of these sites; in fact many of the restaurants in this area actually cook their food using the thermal heat from the ground. They bring pots of food (a large variety of meats and vegetables in 1 large pot) and they are buried in the ground to cook. We did have our lunch out in this town and Bob ordered the “boiled meat” meal. To quote Bob, “now I can say I tried it”. He said the meat was OK, but even with that he wasn’t sure he
Enjoying Time with Jim & Carol
We enjoyed spending the afternoon and evening with Carol and Jim on Nepenthe. They have already left here for Spain – hopefully our paths will cross again! could identify what they were! As far as the vegetables “high school cafeteria food is top notch cuisine compared to the stuff”. Janice was glad she ordered the tuna.
After walking around the town we headed up through the mountains to the north side of the island again to get to the tea plantations. There are 2 located on the island that you can visit. The first one we went to was just closing so didn’t see much there, but at the 2
nd one we had a great tour, Porto Formoso. They produce 3 types of tea. The fact that really surprised us was that they are all from the same plant! When they harvest they cut off the top few leaves of the plant (much like trimming a hedge) the top, new leaf produces the orange pekoe variety , the 2
nd leaf down produces pekoe tea and the 3
rd leaf makes up what is called broken leaf tea. Orange pekoe is the strongest flavored tea with broken tea being the mildest. The tour ends with a stop at their café, a beautiful old building carefully restored, where they serve you a cup of broken leaf tea – what
Classics?
Are we getting old or what? Went to a classic car show and they even had a 1965 Ford and a VW bug – how can they be classics when we remember when they were in new! The black car on the bottom left is a hearse – going out in style. an excellent way to end!
Even though the weather was not cooperative we still were able to see quite a bit and enjoyed both days. We heard that there is a good bus system here so took a trip by bus to the start of a hike earlier this week. In order to not delay posting this blog entry, will update you about the hiking trip (which was magnificent) and anything else we do while on Sao Miguel in the next blog entry.
By the way, Bob saw a specialist when we got to Sao Miguel. He is very impressed with the medical care here. The Dr. prescribed some medication and it seems to be doing the job. Thanks for all the concern.
We are currently watching the weather closely, especially with the hurricane activity. Hopefully will be able to cross to the mainland of Portugal soon. Those of you in the US – hope you had a very pleasant Labor Day holiday weekend
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0596s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
