Our first port--Ponta Delgado, Azores

It has been estimated that there are 17.5 quadrillion gallons of water in the Atlantic.  The Azores rest in the middle of that, halfway between Europe and America with just about nothing between for a thousand miles.  It took 6 sea days to reach the Azores from Florida.  Ponta Delgada is the largest city of Sao Miguel and all of the Azores’ nine volcanic islands.  Ponta Delgada is an old Portuguese settlement.  There are stories that the Vikings, Irish and Arabs landed here centuries before the Portuguese settled here in 1450.

Port of Ponta Delgada, Azores

We have been to this port once before in 2011.  We so enjoyed the tour we had with Gary Travassos of Azorean Tours that we booked it again with a small group of Cruise Critic Roll call members.

Our hope was that the weather would be better this time as it rained most of the day on our 2011 tour and Gary had to adapt his tour accordingly.  We awoke with the forecast of the day being chance of rain!  And it did!  Once we hooked up with Gary, he immediately modified his tour to work around the weather.  It can be raining on one side of the island and have blue skies on the other side.  We had to once again skip going to see Sete Cidades Crater Lake.  (one half is blue water; the other half is green).  It is a highlight of the island but was completed clouded over.  On a future cruise, we will just have to try again.

We'll get there someday!

Our first stop was at Ribeira Grande city with a view of the city garden and river. It was raining and it was hard to keep the water droplets off the camera lens.

But because of all the rain, the island is lush and green and beautiful!

Since it was raining pretty hard by this time, we made a stop at the Gorreana Tea Factory, which was founded in 1883.  Gary took us on a tour of the factory and explained how the tea is harvested, dried, and manufactured using equipment that looks like it has been there since 1883. 

Tea field

Next stop was the overlook of the town of Furnas, which has thermal hot springs and boiling mud pits.  The lake above the town offered a beautiful view. 

We found a waterfall!

The hot steam in the ground is used by the local people to cook meat and vegetables.  We were able to watch the removal of the food from one of the ovens.  It is like having a crock pot in the ground.

Gary arranged for us to stop at a local restaurant for a lunch of bread, local cheeses, and wine.  It was all delicious. 

Gary offering Terry a drink from the well

Water coming out of this one was extremely HOT

As we were enjoying our lunch outside on the patio of the restaurant, we saw a parade of men, women, and children carrying banners and a crown.  This is part of a religious celebration where families will have the crown in their house for a week, and then come Sunday, the crown is transported to another family’s home, where it stays for a week until the next  Sunday….and so on.

One of the main agricultural items is dairy.  There were lots of cows in the fields along the hillsides.  We even encountered a herd of cattle walking on the road.

Milk from the cows provides the base for the local cheeses.  However, the method of transporting the milk seems to be rather primitive for the year 2014!

Next was a drive up the mountain of "Barrosa"  to see the Fire Lake, which was beautiful!   Going down from the Fire Lake Mountain to Lagoa town on the south coast, we passed through several small villages before reaching Ponta Delgada and returning to the ship. 

Our cruise critic group and guide Gary  minus Joyce, who was taking the photo!

The local media and hordes of local people were at the pier to bid goodbye to the largest ship that has ever docked in Ponta Delgada.  They requested the captain blow our ship’s horn upon leaving as they wanted to hear the horns play the theme from “The Love Boat” TV show, which is unique to this ship in the Princess fleet.  Once again, the Azores provided us with a wonderful day.

Next up will be three sea days before we reach our next port of Southampton, UK.