4-28 – Ponta Delgada

Last port!  Hard to believe, but then again we only have 3, and we still have a week left on the ship.  Ponta Delgada is a nice diversion from being at sea for 4 straight days.  It’s a nice morning – fog over the island, but we’re hoping that will clear up as we head out to Furnas for hiking and lunch today. We’re off the ship pretty early – but not early enough to beat a couple from Team Red to the rental car place!  That’s why they’re in first place.  LOL. 

We are early enough however to stand in line and wait 20 minutes before they even open up. But that’s ok we just shoot the breeze and give ideas to Team Red – and then the cute couple from Team Purple who show up later (they are actually traveling the world – quit their jobs and took off – good for them!).  Finally ensconced in our car, we head out to Furnas - on the new super highway road that Alice doesn’t even know exists (I’ve already overridden her directions which were sending us up North through Ribiera Grande then back into Furnas. NOT!  We’re heading that way afterward, but no – we’re going the way we know for now!

The cloud/fog cover comes and goes, but overall the temperature is nice and no real rain to speak of – we’ve been so lucky with weather this trip.  After about ½ hour we arrive in the village of Furnas. There are a couple of restaurants we want to check out for lunch, so we find them first, then try to find the Parque Terra Nova which is the start of a hike back down to the lake and the sulpher springs.  Of course, Alice doesn’t know about the park, but we do have a street name which we plug in.  We get there – and new can’t see any park – so we pull into a parking space and sort of reconnoiter.  We end up driving around the town a bit more in a huge circle – winding our way through ever narrowing lanes (this is really reminiscent of Requir in Alsace when we almost got stuck on our first European driving adventure all those years ago!).  These streets are so narrow there are signs indicating that you are supposed to park your car up on the sidewalk!!! But finally, we come out of the “funnel” of streets and end up making the same circuit as we had before – passing this gorgeous linear park and abandoned hotel/conference center with indoor pool.  So – we know where we are and we decide to just go back to the lake and walk around. As we’re heading out of town though, we see a sign for the parque.

A quick u-turn later, following the signs, we end up exactly where we had parked 20 minutes ago to reconnoiter!  How funny is that! So off we go – left at the blue tile wall mural depicting the island, past the petrol station and up the little lane with a few houses.  Its  just beautiful – just a narrow little lane that climbs and climbs and climbs up into the farmland. Soon, we’re walking along pastures filled with cows, clucking chickens and little smoke houses,  enjoying the exercise and the day.   The walk takes us up over some hills and down to the lake – but unfortunately, as we near the path that turns off the main lane to take us into the hills – we see they are actually logging right next to the path.  Huge pine trees are being cut down and falling perilously close to the path.  Abort, abort! Darn! 

Back down the lane we head, past the little houses and petrol station, back to the car, where we just drive down to the lake and hike a bit more.  The lake is beautiful and the path around it very picturesque.   Lots of tall, tall trees line the wide trail, which climbs up and around the perimeter of the lake.  We pass another trail heading up through the forest with a carved wooden statue of a woodsman (? Or a logger? Something!), then continue on for another 15 or 20 minutes watching the lake scenery change around us.

After a while we head back into town – but are a little too early for lunch.  So we take the opportunity to scope out all our restaurant choices.  There are 4 we have read about, all on the main road through town.  Caldeiras and Vulcoes (C&V), Sunshine Café, Morono and Tony’s.  We wander past all of them looking at menus, and trying to determine if they will be open.  Sunshine doesn’t look promising – it is shuttered up tight.  But Morono’s is open and people are sitting on the patio, drinking beer and coffee (2 separate tables, not together!). Tony’s opens at 12 and C& V opens at 11:45.  We inquire in Morono’s when they will be serving food – but that’s not until 12:30 and we don’t want to wait that long.  So, we head back to C&V – where they tell us it won’t be until noon before the restaurant opens.  Ok – we’ll just go explore the little park at the end of the street with the hot springs. 

All the tour buses are dropping people there- and lo and behold – there are the Cruise Critic tour buses with Randy, Bev, Prim and Ron!  Small island!  They’ve had a lovely time exploring the island- went to Lago Fuego, then to Furnas – now they are heading to lunch (which we found out later was Colzido for an extra 20 Euros each).  We wave to the bus as they leave and walk around the cool little park with the hot (stinky) steam enveloping us.

Finally – lunch time!  Back up the hill to C&Vs where we have the place to ourselves.  It’s a lovely restaurant on the 2^nd floor overlooking the hills surrounding the Furnas valley.  We wanted to try Colzidos, which is the meal locals actually cook in the hot springs – they put everything in a pot and bury it in the hot ground, let it cook for hours, then pull it all out and serve it from the clay pot.  But – it has to be ordered 24 hours in advance. We had tried to contact the restaurants by email to do this – but no one ever responded, so we had to choose other items.  Since the island is famous for its cheese (there are cows everywhere!), we decided on a cheese plate that came with locally made jam.  Then we wanted to share a mixed sausage plate (because Ed LOVES these sausages here) and finally decided to have the Basalto, which was described as crispy pork with black sauce.  Ok – what the heck – it was only 8 Euros – so we figured we’d be good. 

The cheese plate was excellent – along with the jam – very tasty – not too sweet and a sticky thick consistency.  Wine and beer were also delightful (and bargains at 2 and 1.50 respectively).  But OMG the pork!  When the plate came to the table we were sure the waitress had delivered the wrong meal. This thing was huge – piled high with French fries and salad, but also so much pork – we really could have just split that one plate and been done.   Talk about delicious too. Whatever that black sauce was (and it wasn’t really black!) it was fabulously creaming, fragrant and delicious.  The sausage plate was nothing to sneeze at either with great local chorizo and probably blood sausage that had a pate consistency – so I was spreading it on the bread.   Yummy – and way too much to eat. But oh so very good.

We saunter out the door, and back to our cute little Micra car – then head north through gorgeous little winding roads that lead to the other side of the island.  Unfortunately we are past the hyacinth blooming season, so all the lovely bushes on the side of the road have the dead and withered blooms. But the azaleas are just starting, so it is still a pretty and colorful drive. We are heading to the Continente grocery store we always hit on the way back to the ship.  It’s huge and has a great selection of items we stock up on – like sausage for the cabin, beer, wine, etc.  We take the long way into town – getting off the highway and following the signs into Centro.  We end up on a road we’ve not been before – narrow and cobblestone running straight through these tall stone walls with gardens and pastures on either side. It’s awesome and totally medieval! This dumps us out on the main road through town – which puts us at the back entrance of the grocery store.

Shopping complete (although they don’t have my favorite Vinho Verde there – odd, this is traditionally where I buy it every time), we pack up our bags, hop in the car and head back to Ponta Delgada.  Dump the car, head back to the pier and stop at Doris & Bar for beer, wine and internet access.  They don’t have any Vinho Verde either – what’s up with that?  So I end up with Vinho Branca, which was actually quite good.  The internet is much slower than usual (proliferation of old people on IPads)  of , but we get a couple of emails done then head back aboard.  And see another place that was not open when we left (and not there when we last stopped at the port a year or so ago) that has wi-fi too – and cheaper beer and wine!  Darn. Next time!

Back on board, we hang out and watch from our balcony as the island slips away as we sail.  Three more sea days until Southampton, wow, this has gone by so fast.