Ponta Delgato, Azores

Ponta Delgata, Sao Miguel, Azores
Once again, we did a private taxi tour of the island and it was terrific. We were told that someone would be holding a sign with our name on it as we left the ship. Horrors, no person, no sign. Fortunately, I saw the 'boss' Ricardo who was wearing a name tag. He said that I had not confirmed the booking - my stomach sank but for just a few minutes. He immediately had his assistant call a driver who had worked for him before and we were off to tour the island with Helder - pronounced Elder. The Azores are part of Portugal and the islanders speak Portugese, English, some Spanish, French and Italian. We constantly feel chagrined at our lack of being fluent in at least ONE language.
We asked lots of questions about the islands as we drove from the city to the Lake of Fires, dodged cows in the road along the way. When I add my pictures, you'll see what I mean. Cows are everywhere with milk being one of the main exports. The scenery was magnificent as we went from the coast to the mountains on well paved roads. Interestingly, we have yet to be anywhere where drivers honk their horns, yell at others or demonstrate road rage at any level. We stopped along the way for Kodak moments and were in awe of the vistas at Fire Lake. We then drove through a small town with a river running through it, more photos, and on to the Seven Cities ( a misnomer since we only saw villages) and to a national park where there were 7 lakes. Lots of narrow 2 lane roads where we often were the only car. We made fun of all the tour buses that we saw since they could not, for the most part, see all that we were seeing. One of the real highlights of the day was the Twin Lake - one blue reflecting the sky and one green surrounded by trees and reflecting the greenery. There was a narrow road between the two which, at one time were one lake. We then drove to a small village where Helder saw his grandfather standing outside (we think he called him from the Twin Lakes and told him he was coming there). Took a few pictures of him with his elderly relatives to send via email and we then made our way back to the ship.
On the dock was a lively school band playing for us and some actors on stilts dancing to the music. And so our lovely day ended. We hadn't even stopped for lunch, but never fear - there is always food on a cruise ship. We ate fruit from our fruit basket, showered and changed for our almost nightly Captain's Club Cocktail party and then went to dinner. The eight of us at our dining table have meshed well and there is always lots of laughter and sharing of stories. We rotate seats every night so we've all gotten to know everyone at the table. The assistant waiter entertained us by making each of the ladies a beautiful rose from a small paper cocktail napkin!
Off to the show which tonight was a Cirque de Soleil type which we had seen before and are not great fans of....but a nice ending to a very nice day.


Pictures of the 'sleeper' of this trip.  We had no idea how beautiful the Azores are