Our 10:55 PM flight turned into an 11:45 PM flight because the plane that pushed back, behind ours, had a mechanical problem with the engines and had to be towed back to its gate. The 100+ mph tailwind helped the pilots make up for lost time, though.
Around 1 AM (EDT), the flight attendants started dinner service, but were interrupted for about half an hour by turbulence. We ate the rolls, couscous salad, and the hot entrees, but saved the pretzels and cookies for later.
We were very close to the back of the plane, which worked out quite nicely as we were able to use the rear door to deplane quickly. We were off the plane by 4:45 AM (EDT), 8:45 AM local in Ponta Delgada.
Our bags came out fairly quickly, and customs/immigration was efficient and painless, so we were loading luggage into the VW Polo rental before 9:30 AM.
We had an hour or so to wait before we could get into our Airbnb, so we parked in some random spot downtown, intending to walk around. The pay station only accepted coins, which we did not have, and Sabrina wouldn't let me risk getting a parking ticket in our first hour on the island.
I don't think it was much of a risk, given how/where everyone parks here.
Instead, we meandered up the hillside near the Airbnb to the closest-of-three pineapple plantations that are open for visitors. Apparently there are over 6000 pineapple plantations on the island.
After wandering around for a bit and sampling some pineapple liqueur, we went to meet our Airbnb host and got a tour around the apartment.
The view from the corner balconies is wonderful, but mostly it was nice to grab a shower and unpack a bit.
As tempting as it was to take a nap, the best way to get over jet lag and a red-eye is to push through it, so we headed back out (after getting coffee and something to eat at a bakery around the corner).
It was a beautiful day, and we'd been advised to see the volcanic crater lakes whenever the peaks weren't shrouded in clouds, so we aimed for Sete Cidades, just to the west of Ponta Delgada.
Not knowing what to expect, we stopped at a few scenic viewpoints (miradouros) on the way up the volcano. There are viewpoints absolutely everywhere on this island, of varying parking-lot capacities, and they are all marked with signs so you have time to slow down without getting rear-ended.
The roads we were on today were mostly in good shape, and they drive on the right side here, so it hasn't been a steep learning curve like some of the other islands we've visited.
The roads are certainly narrow, windy, and sometimes steep, though, so it definitely involves some sporty driving. Sabrina loves that, fortunately. ;-)
A few clouds rolled in, which was a welcome sun shade; it was only 78F, but it's very humid here and the sun is relentless.
We parked by Lagoa do Canário (Canary Lagoon?), and joined the trickle of people following the trail up the hill to a Miradouro da Grota do Inferno (... Grotto of Hell viewpoint?).
But first, we took a short detour to see Lagoa do Canário. It wasn't particularly impressive, but was lined with huge hydrangeas. The entire island is covered in huge hydrangeas, though.
Along the trail, we got an up-close view (and smell) of the neighboring cows. There are cows everywhere on this island, too. I just looked it up, in fact: the human population of the Azores is somewhere around 240,000... and there are 125,000 cows.
The views from the top of the trail were spectacular, and the weather was perfect.
You can see Lagoa de Santiago in the foreground, and Lagoa Azul in the background. We drove down that road, soon after this.
The small one, on the left, might be Lagoa Rasa, I think?
Obligatory selfie. Who needs a selfie stick when you can just use your arm? People are confused when they ask if I want them to take a photo of us, and the answer is "no, thanks".
Sabrina is thrilled to "be in every photo", as you can see. In the very far background, some guy prepares to launch his drone, shortly.
Beware of cows.
There was another viewpoint, so we stopped again. The lake on the left of the road is Lagoa Verde. (So those two are "blue lake" and "green lake"? They can't all be creative names.)
It was around 3 PM as we passed through the town of Sete Cidades, and we needed another dose of caffeine (and a pastel de nata), so we stopped at a random bar/cafe to fuel up. Total cost: 3€ (about $3.25).
Back on the road, the hydrangeas loom large. In some places, they are tall hedges along both sides.
When we hit the western edge of the island, we turned and looped back around along the northern edge.
The (Google-translated) wikipedia page for the islets suggests that the town/region was named after them. If you look very carefully, you might be able to see the kayakers among the towers.
We'd seen black-sand beaches previously, in Hawaii and Iceland, but I didn't remember the sand being scalding hot; we tried to walk barefoot to the water, to avoid getting our flip flops covered in wet sand, but that turned out to be a mistake. Sabrina gave up halfway and put her shoes back on, while I stupidly ran to a wet part to soothe my burning soles.
Not far up the road, we stopped again at a park to take in views of the ocean. There was a protected sort of pool area, where people were swimming. I was surprised how calm it was, given that it's just the wide-open Atlantic.
Back on the road, it was around 4:30 PM and Sabrina was fading again. She donned her neck pillow and caught a nap while I gently rocked the car back and forth along the scenic route. The CarPlay nav screen resembled this view quite often, today.
Someone was in a rush to get around me at one point, so I turned off the main road towards Capelas when I saw a sign that said "centro" with an arrow. Once in town, I followed some signs toward a miradouro, and ended up at Miradouro da Vigia, which Google Maps identifies as "Lookout viewpoint of Whales of the Chapels".
I climbed the stairs to the top of the lookout, took in the view, then woke Sabrina up so she could come see it too.
Having seen enough of the coast for today, we then headed straight back to the apartment to regroup. It was only about 20 minutes away.
Just as we were returning to Ponta Delgada, we made the executive decision to stop at a grocery store and acquire some meager provisions. The most promising choice was a Continente hypermarket (Portuguese page, again) that happened to be in a mall. By sheer dumb luck, I impulse-decided to follow a group of cars into what turned out to be a parking garage very close to the market.
It was sort of like going to a Target, with more food, on a Friday night, at the mall. In short: it was hectic. It didn't help that we can't read Portuguese and were exhausted; it took a very, very long time for us to figure out what the various options in the yogurt aisle were. They take their dairy very seriously here.
Back at the Airbnb, we unloaded our haul and began consideration of dinner options. Parking downtown looked like it was going to be quite an adventure, when we drove through earlier today, so we opted to navigate on foot for the rest of the evening.
By the time we had identified a few candidates and walked the ~1 mile, it was somehow almost sunset already.
Again, it being Friday night in the capital city, things were a bit crowded. We literally commented on the walk over that it was weird how empty and quiet everything was, until we hit the few blocks of proper "downtown" and found that everyone was doing exactly what we were: looking for dinner.
Our first two choices turned out to be a two-hour wait or completely full, so we ended up at a tapas restaurant that was only a 30 minute wait. I think it was almost 8:30 PM when we sat.
We almost started with the cheese plate, until we saw how large it was at a neighboring table. The waiter did not agree that it was too much cheese for two people, going so far as to add "I do not think it is too much... but I love cheese".
After dinner, we sampled the local pineapple for dessert.
It was 10 PM by the time we returned to the apartment, at which point we had a serious elevator discussion about how confusing it was to have to press "-" and "1" to get to the lower level, and what use the decimal point could possibly have.
Tomorrow, we're sleeping in. The weather forecast includes some rain, but I have no idea how accurate that is, here.
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