Just as soon as the author hit the publish button on the last post, the whitecaps started to appear and the seas began to change. Then, the suite attendants came by to tie up all the furniture on the deck and the travelers knew that the balmy days of calm cruising had come to an end. Such circumstances were confirmed when the Captain came on the ship's loudspeaker to inform everyone that we were headed into a nasty blow. He explained that the ship would be throttled back a bit to let the strongest winds ahead of us peter out, before proceeding on to the Azores. This unfortunately meant that the Captain would be scrapping the first intended landing at Horta, on the island of Faial, to avoid the nasty stuff and still be able to make Ponta Delgada, our second stop, on time.
Changes in itinerary are rare but our hero and his fair bride have endured a few on several of the cruises they have completed. These itinerary adjustments are usually weather related but sometimes they involve diplomatic issues that make a stop untenable. It is sad because a traveler can get excited about seeing a new place and then must adjust his/her expectations. Gym did his own research to understand why this coarse and speed change was necessary and found that there was a band of very strong winds blowing from the direction of Newfoundland across the western edge of the Azores. In that band of nastiness, wave height was as high as 7 metres. From experience, our hero knows that it is very difficult to sip a martini in that kind of a storm, so Gym then understood the Captain's thinking in this regard.
The Vista endured, and as the sun came up on May 10th, it rose over Ponta Delgada on São Miguel. It was Saturday and Gym looked out to see that the traffic was light in the capital, as the ship tied up to the dock. Gym and his lovely sidekick were a little bleary-eyed due to the loss of four hours of precious time. They had crossed that many time zones sailing from Miami. After an early breakfast, they were able to make the 7:45 start time of their tour for that day. Gym had wanted to see as much of the place as he could in four hours and that would be accomplished with the help of Marco the driver and Ana the guide.
They began in the city, the largest urban area in the Azores and soon headed up and over the spine of the island to the north coast. Stopping at the Miradouro de Santa Iria viewpoint they were wowed by the view. Then they stopped at the Porto Formosa Tea Factory which has been processing tea continuously since the late 19th Century, surrounded by the incredibly stunning tea plantation around it. Inside is a tea processing museum and one can taste one of three black teas or the green tea. This area on San Miguel has a very unique micro-climate where the only tea plantations exist in all of the E.U. Many other crops thrive here including oranges, pineapples, bananas and every manner of vegetable. The volcanic soils also allow for incredibly lush pasture land that supports a very large dairy industry.
Next the tour would climb off the main highway and up, over the rim of the Furnas volcano. Descending into the caldera, the adventurers would arrive in the Municipality of Furnas, where about 1500 people live. This is still considered a very active volcano that lest blew its top in 1630 and killed 200 people. Gym has always been fascinated by populations that choose to live in these places. Of course in this town, people are attracted by the tourism jobs and you gotta make a living. In Furnas, you can 'take the waters' in some nice warm mineral baths but be careful not to bath in an unfriendly fumerol or geyser that could kill you. Just read the signs that are thankfully in English as well as Portuguese. The other big attraction here is Parque Terre Nostra which is a centuries old Botanical Garden. Mrs. G loved this place very much.
The dynamic duo wanted to have some time to stroll around the city when they returned to the docks but with less than 2 hours left before the ship was to leave, they went for lunch and had a nap. They will need to return someday to check out the beautiful basalt-framed buildings in downtown Ponto Delgada.
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| Here's to the Azores |
Pics to follow.
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