Ponta Delgada Photos

		Sete Cidades (Lago Verde and Azul) VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Hiking the Trail VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Corn stalks blown down in the storm in a field along the trail

Ela’s around the world!!!

Hydrangea on the trail

		Views from the road VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		Mosteiros VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ponta Delgada Harbor

9/28 Ponta Delgada

We arrive on time at the main city dock (yay! much easier walk into town than at the old cargo dock) and we’re off and in line at the rental car counter by 9:00.  Finally get our cute little Micra and we hit the road by 9:45.  We’re retracing our last visit – and trying to hike the trail up from Lago Verde to Vista do Rei (the view of Kings).  The last time we were here, there had been so much rain we couldn’t make it very far up the trail…we’re hoping we’ll be more successful today (even though a huge storm blew threw the day before we arrived with 30-40 foot seas and lots of wind and rain – we later heard from the Captain that they actually lost some containers in the harbor due to the high seas! Yikes – glad we are here today – and not trying to get in yesterday!).

After leaving the confines of the city, we quickly find ourselves on the beautiful little roads that lead to Sete Cidades – where Lago Verde and Lago Azul are located.  I’d forgotten how beautiful this island is – the sweeping views over the ocean, the beautiful hydrangeas that line virtually every road, bringing color and stark contrast to the black and white stone fences that also line many of the roads.  The road gently twists and turns, taking us ever higher through fog and clouds, toward the rim of the crater.

The weather is a little iffy – it looks like it could rain any minute, and the wind is whipping around.  It’s pretty chilly up here as well. But, as we rise over the rim and head down into the crater, it’s cloudy, but dry. No rain, just a cold wind, which is fine by us – we’d rather be cold than hot on our hike.

We park in the little turn out at the end of the bridge and begin our hike.  The trail is fairly dry (except for some odd “quick sand” like patches that threatened to suck our shoes right off) and it’s a great hike up the side of the crater.  The vegetation is thick and lush, and there are “fields” of Ginger Lilies.  They are gorgeous yellow flowers that grow in long spikes – and are all over the sides of the paths.  The pictures (when we post them) don’t do the sight justice.  They are so beautiful.

Further up the trail, we get glimpses of Lago Verde on one side and lush farm land on the other.  After about an hour, we turn onto the very steep farm trail that leads up to Vista do Rei.  It’s gorgeous and quiet here, the sun finally shining, the cows moo-ing through the valley.  We climb for a little while on very loose gravel and decide we’d prefer not to slide down this trail too far – so we turn back.  Going down is definitely not faster than going up on that trail!  You have to really watch your footing with the gravel and the ruts in the road.

We manage to navigate the trail without incident (phew) and make our way back down to “sea level” again to reclaim our car.  Since we’ve already been to Furnas and the western side of the island, we decide to just take our time and take the little road that circumnavigates the island on the eastern side.

It’s a beautiful drive, with more scenic vistas and cute little towns, some perched on the hillside, some on the coast. We take a detour and drive down into Mosteiros – a quaint little village right on the coast.  The surf comes in here hard and fast, and there are natural pools and water spouts in coral/rock formations.  It’s very pretty and quite the change from the serene mountain and valley area from which we’ve just come.

We continue our leisurely drive, ending up in Ribiera Grande – a large city on the north side of Sao Miguel.  We find the grocery store we visited on our last trip, and stocked up for the long T-A sea days ahead.  We even  bought 4 bottles of Vinho Verde that we handed over to the “alcohol” police on the ship so that we could take it home with us.  Yay!  Looking forward to that when we get home next week!

We arrive back in Ponta Delgada fairly early, but with nothing left to do, we turn the car in and head back to the ship.  Grab a late lunch, and then head back out to the pier for a drink and free internet (as most of you know – since that was where we uploaded the first part of the blog)!

Back aboard – we hang out on the balcony and watch the last of the passengers finally make their way to the ship – then off we go for our 6 sea day sail to Cape Canaveral.