Day 9 Azores and Sea Day

We finally got to see dry land yesterday as we stopped at the city of Ponta Delgado on one of the Azores Islands. It was a beautiful island with about 500 years of history. When the Portuguese discovered it in the early 1500's it was uninhabited. The islands are relatively young as they were formed by volcanic eruptions starting about 8 million years ago.

Here is our view of the port from our ship. We booked a 4 hour bus tour with a guide that took us around the Island of San Miguel that included stops at a beautiful town, Fire Lake, a Mountain top and a Pineapple farm. Our first stop was at the town of Ribeira, which was a wonderful little town. We took a stroll through the downtown which featured a nice church and bandstand.

From there we started up the mountain to Fire Lake. It is used for the drinking water on the island and is a lake that was formed in the cone of a volcano.

We also discovered that the parking lot is a well known lover's lane on the island. Or perhaps they have water balloon fights up here.

We proceeded from there to the top of the mountain, but due to zero visibility, there will be no pictures. On the way back to the port, we stopped at a pineapple farm and spent 30 minutes learning much more about pineapples than I ever thought I wanted to know. They have their own variety of pineapple which they claim is the best. (No surprise)

After we got dropped off at the boat, we went for a stroll around the promenade at the port and found a Christmas Ornament for the tree. We also visited a grocery store that had some lovely pastries as well as a very lumpy looking soft drink.

We chose not to bring any Kima home with us. It was a great day and it was nice to get our feet on good old terra firma. Today has been fairly quiet. Angie went for her morning walk and I went to hit a few putts on the grass on the top level.

The grass wasn't very smooth and every putt broke towards Portugal. We had a light lunch after with the highlight being the chocolate fountain which we both took advantage of.

Angie's Best: Passed immigration test on the boat this morning. Angie's Worst: Temperature is getting cooler. Currently about 15 degrees. Mike's Best: Town of Ribeira on the Azores Mike's Worst: The self proclaimed world's smartest women with the loudest voice in the world sitting two rows behind us on the bus. She also had a walker and made us wait at every stop.