MAY 6th -- PONTA DELGADA (AZORES), PORTUGAL

FYI -- Temperature is:  65°F/18°C 🌦🌦
Day 122 of our World Cruise

We arrive at Ponta Delgada at 8:00 AM and there is a mix-up of some kind and we cannot dock right away.  We're held up for about an hour.

Ponta Delgada is located on São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores (islands). We read that in São Miguel the wind is always blowing and white clouds quickly alternate with brilliant blue skies.  We got the wind, however it was overcast until about early afternoon.
One of the big things to do here is to go Whale Watching.  There are 20 species of whales that come to this area to breed.

Our excursion today is called "A Taste of the Azores" and it is about 4-hours long.  We were supposed to leave at 8:00 AM but we left about 9:00 AM.

Our first stop is the Escalvado viewpoint and we have a photo stop.

Views from Escalvado viewpoint

There are lush green fields everywhere and you see black & white cows grazing in a lot of the fields.  Cheese is one of their exports.

Then we drive to Sete Cidades village for a bathroom break and a wander around the village.
Sete Cidades village is in a volcanic crater.

Clouds hanging along the edge of the crater

Pictures taken around the village

Then we drive to Santiago Lake viewpoint and have a photo stop.  Santiago Lake is a small crater lake.

Beautiful

Then we drive up to Vista do Rei viewpoint to see the Green Lake and the Blue Lake and surrounding areas and on to Pico do Carvao viewpoint...this one was obstructed by clouds and we couldn't see much.

Postcard view

Here is a postcard view of the Blue & Green Lakes.  Because it was cloudy and overcast today, both lakes looks just a muddy-greenish colour.  So, we decided to do this.  Note the blue hydrangeas on the edge of the card.  The roads here are lined or hedged with hydrangeas.  It would be a fabulous site to see in the summer.

From Pico do Carvao...you can see the wisps of cloud

Clouds blocking a lot of the view

Then we drove back to town to the Grand Hotel where we had a wine and cheese tasting of their local wines and local cheeses.
I only tried the white wines which reminded me a lot of Pinot Grigio.
The cheeses were delicious...one was made in the style of Parmesan, but it was not as hard and was lighter tasting.  But all were good.

Then we are back at the ship.
Later in the afternoon, Barry was sitting on the balcony and called me outside to see something.
This is what went by!

At 5:00 PM we went to the Pool Deck, wrapped in our sweaters & jackets, to meet with Jackie, Colleen and Mark.  We sat outside with them for a couple of hours (under the heaters!!) and then went to our cabin.
Room Service....then bed.
We are in Horta (Azores), Portugal tomorrow morning.