First Landfall- Sao Miguel, Azores

 

 

After seven days of sailing calm seas and clear skies, we reached our first port of call, the port of Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel island. This is the largest island of the Azores archipelego, about 35 miles long east to west, and about 5 miles to 10 miles north to south. The circumference is roughly 100 miles around. It's about the same size as Cape Cod if you simply forgot everything north of Chatham. The archipelago is located in the Atlantic ocean about 900 miles west of Lisbon, Portugal.

We arrived in port early Saturday morning, and were cleared to disembark around 8:30 am. Waiting patiently for us were representatives of the Beautiful  Islands car rental company, along with a shiny new Toyota hybrid for our touring pleasure. We signed the contracts, made our payment and were handed the keys- ready to go exploring. We got their name off a place-mat in a New Bedford MA eatery, with high recommendations from the restaurant owner. We made arrangements before leaving, and everything fell into place.

  

Ponta Delgada has a couple nice harbors for recreational boating and commercial shipping, as well as a swimming platform for saltwater bathing (hearty souls).

  

 

 

Lovely overviews are everywhere. It's very reminiscent of both Ireland and Hawaii.

   

I think there may be more cows than people on the island. An yes, the cheese is wonderful!

 

This lovely cobblestone road lead through stands of very stately Sycamore trees with trunk diameters of over 6'. We were told that all of the trees on the island are non-native, and have been introduced to the island over the years. The greenery is just lush, and because of the moist temperate climate, and rich volcanic soil, vegetation grows in abundance

 

The road led to an area full of geothermal vents, and offered a variety of bathing opportunities for the more adventurous. I kept busy with photographing the remains of some of the very old buildings that were in varying states of abandonment and reconstruction.

 

 

 

We'd like to spend more time walking in the smaller towns and villages. While they are modest, there are often very nice touches people have added to their properties over the years, and many fine details that caught my eye.

 

  

One of the few very faded wall murals I came across

A shot from the ship traveling along the southern shore.

As we left the island behind us, the clouds opened and let the sun peak through a bit.

We look forward to returning to the Azores for an extended trip in the next year or two. The plan will be to fly in (direct) from Boston, about five hours, rent a car again and do some island hopping via the ferries that link the nine islands. We'll need to research lodging, but it does seem that even though tourism is at it's very early stages here, there is an awful lot to see and what there is is pretty accessible to a couple old codgers!