November 16th, 2015 ... we are time travelling again, the adventure continues!
Today we are heading out in a Land Rover on a full day tour of the island of San Miguel.
Our driver/ guide Francesco picked up us early this morning at our hotel.
The jeep can seat eight, today we only had to share it with a young, fun British couple.
So jump in and come along for the ride ...
I wasn't quite sure why we needed a jeep for a drive around the Island, it soon became obvious as we left behind the town of Ponte Delgada.
The terrain in some of the areas that Francesco took us was a little rough and even water covered lined with towering bamboo plants, Japanese Red Cedars and various other plants and trees.
A cedar sawmill in the rugged, rural countryside ....
The older homes were built from stone blocks carved from black lava.
We drove high along the coastline and then down to the ocean. The Azores are volcanic in origin.
I was hanging on for dear life here ... we're going where? My fear of heights kicked in ... this is the view from my window seat, can you see the winding road going round and round, down and down ... all I could think of was what goes down must come back up!
Our first stop was Ferraria ... where we walked on black, solidified lava from the many volcanic eruptions over the years. Ferraria is home to the thermal baths which are heated by steam from deep within the earth.
The wind was so strong this morning I felt like the "Flying Nun" standing on top of the volcano ... here I am ready for take off!
From here we travelled to Sete Cidades where we enjoyed a coffee and quick visit of the Neo-Gothic 19h century S. Nicholau Church. Here we saw Norfolk Pines that were over a 100 years old.
We were on are way to view the "Twin Lakes " ... "Lagoa Azul" and "Lagoa Verde" from the rim of the volcano. These lakes are the water filled "Caldeiras" and are the subject of many beautiful landscape photographs. Unfortunately, due to the weather I was not able to capture it's beauty!
The mist and fog only got thicker and heavier as we climbed so it was not a good day to view the famous Blue and Green lakes from above.
... and to give you an idea of the beautiful view ... I'm posting a couple photos found on the Internet.
Photo credit -fripito
Photo credit Celina Tours
Then we were off to Santa Cruz, Lagoa (Tony's hometown) for a traditional lunch of fresh cheese with a spicy sauce, blood pudding with pineapple, steak topped with eggs, roasted potatoes, mackerel, French fries and a dessert of our choice ... it was passion fruit pudding for me.
We had hoped to get back to this little restaurant another day to try some of their fresh fish options that we viewed as we entered but time was not on our side this trip.
On our tour we learned that all the Churches on the island are virtually identical because they were all designed by the same architect.
We've had a busy morning and still have the afternoon for more exploring ...
I'll be writing about the rest of our day in another post!
The island is covered with hydrangeas, I can only imagine how colourful they are when it is summer!
Check back soon for the rest of our tour!
