Blogs from Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, Portugal, Europe - page 2

I set the alarm for 7am but of course Ken is up at 5:30 waking me up asking me 'what time is it'. Oh my gosh, if it was time to get up the alarm would go off. He later explains that he heard a helicopter, thus we must be close to land. Our arrival was supposed to be 8am so he was worried we overslept. He tosses and turns for the next hour and a half, stealing a good sleep. He is like a kid in a candy store excited about our adventure today. I get up at 7 and he brings me a latte and an almond croissant...trying for redemption! We have arrived in Porta Delgado and it is beautiful. He even called Bobbie and Annie and made sure they were up. He woke ... read more

Hike PR4SMI – Mata do Canario Sete Cidades – Sao Miguel We had a beautiful sunny day on September 4th so planned a day of hiking around Sete Citades. We caught the 8:25AM bus from Ponta Delgada (3.36 euro/person each way) to the village of Sete Cidades. The almost one hour ride on a luxury bus gave us a chance to see the south eastern side of the island. In talking to the information bureau they informed us that we should take the bus to the village at the bottom of the caldeira and we would have to hike UP around the caldeira OR the other option would to take a taxi to the starting location from Ponta Delgada for approximately 25 euro ($31.25). We found out there was a third option. When we got to ... read more

Yesterday we were in the Azores after almost a week at sea. We've had some pretty rough seas almost every day, with Force 7 - 9 winds, so the ship has been bouncing around quite a bit. Of course, this is to be expected since it is the North Atlantic and March. Ponta Delgada, Azores, was beautiful. From the moment we looked out the cabin window in the morning, it was obvious we were in a Portugese port. Every building was black and white. We had a tour in the morning which took us to the west end of the island where we saw the two lakes in the volcanic cauldron at Sete Cidades. Although it was a cloudy day, we were lucky that it was clear enough while we were there that we could admire ... read more

Our first port of call on the second circumnavigation, and a real delight, was the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores . We thought this would be a collection of volcanic rocks in the Atlantic, but it's really quite amazing. The Azores (officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores) is one of two autonomous regions of Portugal (the other being Madeira). The archipelago comprises 9 islands in the North Atlantic Ocean about 1,360 kilometres (850 miles) west of mainland Portugal, about 1,643 km (1,021 miles) west of Lisbon in mainland Portugal about 1,507 kilometres (936 miles) northwest of Morocco, and about 1,925 kilometres (1,196 miles) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada. Its main industries are agriculture, farming, fishing and tourism which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores employs a ... read more