The Backstory

For some years Pam and I had looked for an opportunity to visit the Azores.  (see Appendix #1)  Some of our interest was mild curiosity based on living in the  New Bedford area with its rich Azorean heritage.  (see Appendix #2)  A more tangible interest was footed in Norweb family history.  Harry's Grandfather Norweb played a mjor role in procuring a US airbase in the Azores during World War II.  (Appendix #3)

In June, we read about a trip to the Azores organized by the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the New Bedford Chamber of Commerce.  The trip was already fully subscribed, but fortunately some slots where added and we got two of them.  

This evening, we had a chance to meet our fellow travelers at the Whaling Museum and listen to a presentation by a representative of the Azores.  It was fun and informative, but not a confidence builder with regard to our leadership team - a triumvirate of the travel agent, a representative from the Chamber of Commerce and a representative from the Whaling Museum.

Where are the Azores?

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about 1,500 km (930 mi) west of Lisbon, Portugal.  

From Boston...

COORDINATES + TOTAL DISTANCE

Boston, US	71.0603 N 42.3583 W
Ponta Delgada, PO	25.6667 N 37.7333 W
Miles:	2391.82
Kilometers:	3849.16
Bearing:	SE

A Good Start

Everyone was at the rendezvous point (New Bedford Whaling Museum) early enabling us to depart for Boston 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

In addition to our group the bus is giving a ride to several members of Azorean teams here for the Whaleboat Races held in New Bedford this past week.

We arrive in Ponta Delgada - Wednesday, September 11

This was our first flight on SATA Airline. We pushed back from the gate early, the aircraft was clean and free of disturbing noises and we landed 20 minutes early.  We would fly it again without hesitation.

It was a short night on a noisy airplane so sleep was a casualty.  There was nothing wrong with the aircraft nor were our fellow passengers being inconsiderate.  In a flight lasting only 4.5 hours there are a certain number of announcements and activities that need to occur.  Many passengers opted to have the dinner being served, sacrificing the opportunity to sleep.  While doing so, they talked. 

We landed in pre-dawn light with rain spitting at us.  Clearing customs and immigration was uneventful.  We were intrigued that there was no customs declaration form to submit. 

Outside the terminal one of our local handlers tried to have everyone pose for a group picture.  There was a steady drizzle coming down on us at that point.  The lack of enthusiasm and subsequent participation in the photo spoke volumes on the merit of the idea.

It was a short drive to the Hotel Marina Atlantico where, no surprise, our rooms would not be ready until early afternoon.  This came as a bit of a shock to many of our fellow travelers.  Odd, and an exemplar of the poor controlling of expectations by our leadership time.  In any event, Pam & I stuck our suitcases in the bag room and headed out for breakfast and to explore.  

After a simple but nice breakfast at a sidewalk cafe, we wandered along the waterfront of Ponta Delgada heading west, then returned east staying one or two streets back from the shore.  We visited several churches and generally admired the architecture of this small, historical city.  Here are a few pictures to provide a feel for the city.

 

We were able to check in at the hotel about 1:00 PM.  We got to our room, unpacked, took a welcome nap then headed out to get a few soft drinks, crackers, etc. for our room.  

Cleaned up and refreshed, we went to Restaurante Sao Pedro for dinner.  Pam had found the restaurant online and I had made a reservation by e-mail several weeks ago.  We were not disappointed with our choice.  The restaurant was a five minute walk from the hotel.  We had a most excellent dinner, enjoying the experience so much we made a reservation to return on our last evening here.

We are now back at the hotel.  I am finishing this entry that I started before we left for dinner.  All that I want to do is to get this posting published and go to bed!

Midsection of Sao Miguel - Thursday, September 12

After a good night's sleep, we began our day with breakfast in the hotel.  At 9:00 AM, we were on the bus to begin our tour.

 

 (reminder:  an image can be enlarged by double-clicking on it; clicking back-arrow to return to blog)

TOUR DESCRIPTION:  
In the morning, you will depart from Ponta Delgada and head north to Ribeira Grande.  There you will explore the 2nd settlement of the island.  Our next stop you will visit one of Europe’s oldest tea plantation.  A tour of the plantation will show how the tea is cut, then dried, and then processed.  Continue to the Furnas Valley; there you can stop to have the famous “cozido” for lunch.  Afterwards you will be able to walk the village of Furnas and see the different geysers that are in the town.  As we start heading back to Ponta Delgada we make stops in the Vila Franca do Campo and Lagoa.  You should arrive back in Ponta Delgada around 6 PM.

TOUR EXPERIENCE:
The first difference that comes to mind comparing the description with the experience is that we did the tour in reverse order and with extra stops, returning at 7:00 PM.

The first stop was near Lagao at a ceramics factory.  Pam and I having been to such places on other trips, we were hopeful that we would not be looking back on this stop as the high point of the day.  

For more information on Ceramica Vieira, click on any of the three pictures above.  This will take you to a website.  The information will appear in Portuguese, but there is the option for an translation into English. Also, further down in this entry and probably in future entries you will see a word or name underlined and in a text color other than black.  Clicking on the word or phrase will take you to a website with more information on the subject.

Thankfully, more interesting things lay ahead on the tour, although the second stop was a bust.  Having had horses, watching "the last blacksmith on the island" make a horseshoe was less than enthralling although it was a nice change of pace to not have to write a check for having a horse receive the shoe.

Things got more interesting when the blacksmith had volunteers try an old remedy for a case of shingles.  The blacksmith seared wheat with a red-hot poker, then had the volunteers apply the resulting pasty residue to their wrist.  Since neither volunteer had shingles, the most they could report was a not-unpleasant sensation on their skin.  Whatever the sensation for them, for the rest of us the smell was most unpleasant.  The volunteers were strongly encouraged to wash the paste off before the bus doors closed.

We stopped again a short distance later at Vila Franco Do Campo to look at an island with a nature swimming pool formed into it.  This is apparently a popular local attraction in the summer with boats ferrying swimmers to the site. Today being overcast with the threat of rain, it did not look inviting.

Okay, so maybe this blog entry hasn't been exactly a page-turner so far, but we were just getting started on the day.

We headed inland and started climbing. The corn fields, corn being almost exclusively grown to feed the island's 75,000 dairy cows, gave way to pastures at higher elevations where the cows grazed.  Dairy products, particularly cheese, milk and butter, are major exports of the Azores.

What we were ascending on the bus was the side of an active volcano.  Our next stop was inside the crater of the volcano where our lunch was being cooked by burying it in the ground.

The ground around the places where water and steam percolate to the surface was understandably warm to the touch.  Our guide explained that below the surface the earth is hot.  Appropriately, we were in the a town named Furnas, its pronunciation very close to "furnace".

To prepare a traditional Azorean cozido, beef, chicken, sausage, cabbage and other ingredients are put into a kettle that is lowered into a hole.  A lid is put over the hole and then covered with dirt.  After about seven hours the kettle is extracted from the ground, the food inside it fully cooked.

After seeing our dinner kettle extracted, we returned to the bus for a short ride to a restaurant where we enjoyed serving ourselves from an intimidatingly large platter of food.  About the time our table of eight had made a respectable dent in the pile of food, a second platter arrived.  No one left the table hungry. 

 Our next stop was Terra Nostra Botanical Garden.  It included a swimming area with "medicinal" mineral waters from hot springs.  Some of our group, including Pam, went off for a swim while the rest of us explored the gardens. 

After leaving Terra Nostra Botanical Garden, we visited the hot springs in the center for Furnas. 

Driving north up out of the crater, we stopped at the rim to look at the lake formed in it.  The guide said there are actually three areas inside the crater that they call lakes, but two of them are permanently dry.  When is a lake not a lake any more?  I chose not to ponder that question.

At about 5:45 we arrived at our last destination of the day.  It was the only remaining tea plantation in Europe - Cha Gorreana.  

Teas is still processed using machinery originally installed int he late 1800's.  

One machine although far from new, was certainly build in the 20th century.  Can you guess what it is?  (The answer is at the bottom of this posting.)

Onto the bus one last time, driving along the north coast to Ribeira Grande where we crossed the island to Ponta Delgada arriving at the hotel about 7:00 PM. The weather had been mixed with a few periods of light rain, but it had not hampered what was an informative, enjoyable day.

- - - - -

We dropped our things in our room and went across the street to a waterfront restaurant - 100 Espinhas.  Given the lunch we had, we exercised moderation in what we ordered and enjoyed what we had selected. We then returned to the hotel for the night.

And the answer to the question about the machine at the tea plantation is... a tea bag maker.