Ponta Delgada, Part Five

 February 3, 2024

And on the ninth day we arose and there was sun in a cloudless blue sky and all was right with the world!

Truly remarkable what sunshine can do to improve your attitude and to make a dark and damp city look like a jewel. The place was already jumping with folks at 8 am, some sitting in cafes which we didn’t know existed until they placed tables and chairs outside. Others were walking to work with smiles, something we have not seen during our visit. The walking area around the marina was really busy with lots of people queuing up to get on whale watching boats. We saw five boats heading out of the harbor in calm seas and no wind for their three hour excursion. We sat down at our usual cafe and since we have been going there for a week, they knew our order and brought it to us immediately; so nice to be regulars!

We decided to take advantage of the day and booked another car for a trip to Lagoa do Fogo. Our first driver was busy so he sent another and it was wonderful since Carlos was fluent in English and we learned so much more about this island. Our timing was darn near perfect, great weather to see the black beaches of the North, the surfing areas, the picture perfect little villages and more churches that I could count. We headed up the mountain, second highest on the island at 3,000 feet, towards Fog Lake. Along the way we saw lots of vents still sending steam into the air from the volcano beneath us. The island gets 45% of its electricity by harnessing the energy of these steam vents to drive turbines which generate the electricity. We reached the lookout point and lo and behold we could actually see the lake, which was quite impressive. It is the only caldron lake fed by natural springs on the island; all the others rely on rain, which as you know is quite reliable here. By the time he took us to another higher vantage point the fog was rolling in and in just five minutes it went from perfect visibility to no visibility. Like I said, timing is everything!

That night we met a friend and his partner for dinner. We met him first eight years ago on a cruise and we have stayed in touch with him mainly via Cindy who corresponded in French, his first language, and Cindy is always trying to improve her skills. Quite by happenstance he was scheduled to stop here during a four-month round the world adventure so we arranged to get together at a restaurant we enjoy. When we first met I introduced him to a Sidecar Cocktail, which he enjoyed immensely and many times over the past eight years we have sent pictures of one or the other of us enjoying the drink and the memories. We arrived at the restaurant early to see if the bartender knew how to make the drink. He said he did and we reviewed the preparation and told him to serve two of them as soon as our guests arrived, which he did, much to the surprise and delight of our friend. 

FUN FACTS:

The Archipelago of the Azores gets its name from a mistaken identity! The Portuguese sailors who landed here thought they saw many Azor birds, however they were really Kites.

On almost every island I’ve visited, gasoline is really, really expensive. However in the Azores gas is subsidized by the government so it is actually cheaper than in Lisbon.

The government still subsidizes families with children. Therefore there is a small town that used to make its money fishing but when that couldn’t pay the bills, they had kids, lots of them. The average sized family in that town is twelve!

Cars cost about the same here as on the mainland due to the much lower tax structure for residents of the Azores.

Any Azorian can fly to any of the other islands for only 60 Euros round trip. Again another subsidy that came into play when the intra ferry system stopped.