Reiseblogg: Ponta Delgada, Azores January 6

January 6th, and our first stop was Ponta Delgada, situated on Sao Miguel Island (with its140.000 residents) in the the Azores. The Azores are a remote Portuguese, volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.

2 years ago we were supposed to visit this volcanic Island, but then the weather was so bad that we went to Spain (La Coruna) instead. But this time we could enter. We have felt the Ocean becoming smoother since yesterday, and the temperature now is 17C.

We did not really have a plan when we left the ship, we thought we might just wander a little around in the city. Then we met taxi driver Jose Joao Ferreira (jjftaxitour@gmail.com) driver who asked if we would like to go around the island. He offered us to see the tea plantation, liquor factory++ but we did not fancy anything until he suggested visiting a volcano with hot springs. Of course we had to do that, and off we went to Laguna des Fumas.

Our first stop was to a beach with black sand, which made a beautiful contrast to the waves. The sand is fine, and it must be even more fantastic to visit when the weather is better.

Our next stop was to buy bananas, and I have to say I never had a more tasteful banana in my life. The soil here must be very fertile, as it is green grass everywhere and you can see that even the cows have a good life. The island produce pineapples, bananas and probably every fruit they like.

Visiting Lagunas des Fumas was amazing. The ground is bubbling, the water is coming up along with lots of smoke. Adam with his toy Peppa Pig were specially excited to see all the muddy puddles, and was really tempted to let his mascot jump.

It was really interesting, but the smell….was like Iceland for those of you who are familiar with that…

At one point Daniel, who held his nose most of the time, looked at me and said: «I will never ever ask to see a volcano again. I had no idea it smells like this».

Another local speciality is to cook food slowly in the ground. Meat and vegetables are placed down to be boiled for about 6 hours, and then be transported to local restaurants. And it tastes delicious as we were to find out around lunch time.

The architecture here is cute, and there are lots of churches, and we also visited one.. Majority here are Chatolics, and for some reason all the churches seem to be painted black and white.