April 20, 2024 Ponta Delgata, Azores

Today the ship arrived at 8 a.m. in Ponta Delgada, Azores. She was moored until 5 p.m. This was our first land since leaving Fort Lauderdale a week ago. We watched as the ship navigated through the breakwater and into the harbour as we walked around the Deck 11 jogging track. We wanted to be sure we got our steps started after an easier day yesterday. The morning temperature was 13°C. On temperature signs in the early afternoon the temperature was 21°C.

We ate a light breakfast in the Lido Market buffet before returning to our stateroom to collect our wallets; phones, which contain the electronic tour tickets; jackets and backpack with full water bottles.

Our shore excursion gathered in the World Stage with people taking other island excursions. The large screen showed the departure time for each of the five tours leaving around 9 a.m. The process was slightly different than our last cruise. When the tour was called the passengers left the World Stage by second floor port side exit to be met by staff handing out the tour stickers, rather than that being done earlier. Then it was down the stairs to deck A to exit right on to the pier. Instead of tapping your keycard to depart, you looked into the facial recognition screen for an OK. Once off the ship, we proceeded through the terminal to our waiting bus. Daniel was the guide and Simon was the driver. We were underway for the 3.75 tour on time. There were about 50 people on the bus, just a few empty seats.

Daniel, our guide, gave us some details about the Azores. Azores are an archipelago of 9 inhabited volcanic islands spread over an area larger than western Europe. Ponta Delgada is located on the largest island, San Miguel. Its population is 65,000 and the island’s other 55,000 residents are scattered around the island. The Azores became an autonomous region in 1976 when the Portuguese dictatorship ended with the Carnation Revolution. The price of regular gasoline is 1.435 Euros per litre. The minimum monthly wage is 760 Euros, however an air traffic controller at an Azores airport can make up to 6,500 Euros per month. Education is free for children aged 4 to 18.

Daniel explained the factors involved in the mild climate of the islands. There is usually a high pressure area above the Azores and a low pressure area above Greenland causing the circular movement of air and water in the Northern Atlantic, causing the warm Gulf Stream air to reach the Azores.

Azores main industry is dairy. There are more cows than people. The cows stay outdoors all year, they are even milked in the field. 48% of Portugal’s milk is produced here. As we passed green fields, some with cows grazing, we noticed stone walls separating fields. The stone is volcanic rock, which is showered on to the island during an explosion volcanic eruption. Fishing is the second industry. They catch tuna by line rather than with nets to keep the fishery sustainable. The tuna is processed at canning factories on the island.

The area is subject to earthquakes due to its proximity to several moving Teutonic plates, including the North American plate and the African plate’s activities. There is an earthquake on average every 40 years on one of the islands. The last major volcano eruption was in 1563 which totally covered the Ponta Delgada town. The new buildings were built on top of the ones the lava covered.

The island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1415 and settled within five decades, well before Christopher Columbus’ first voyage across the Atlantic. The Azores flag has an interesting story. The Portuguese fishermen thought the birds flying around the islands were goshawks, but they were buzzards. The Portuguese word for goshawks is close to Açores so they became the islands of birds. The Azores flag has a white and navy blue background, a bird and nine stars to represent the nine inhabited islands.

The tour highlights were taking a 20 minute drive to the north coast to visit the island’s oldest city, Ribeira Grande; visiting Pico da Barrosa Mountain and Fire Lake (Lagoa da Fogo) and a pineapple plantation.

We had a walking tour of the baroque old town of Ribeira Grande, its centuries old central church, Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Estrela has been ongoing renovation for several years and will be reopened on May 14th. The town climbs up a hill to where the church is located. The views from the church and nearby streets are lovely. Ribeira Grande’s buildings are built from volcanic basalt stone. Climbing down the church steps, we walked to the town hall then over to the stone above the deep ravine with its stream below containing waterfalls and the municipal gardens with bright red benches. Across the ravine was the yellow theatre. Returning to the other side of the ravine a block away was Misericórddia founded in 1592 The current church, Igreja do Espirito Santo, with its late baroque facade, was built between 1748 and 1773. It was a short five minute walk back to the bus. On the road to Pico da Barrosa Mountain and Lagoa da Fogo we passed a Geothermal power plant which uses the energy of the volcano, as they do in Iceland.

Lagoa da Fogo is about 1,000 meters above sea level. It is a caldera fresh water lake. We were dropped off at the parking lot then walked about 200 meters to the main viewpoint to see the lake. On the way to the pineapple plantation there was a short stop for a different view of the lake.

The Dutch merchants from Flanders made investments near Ponta Delgada in the mid 1450s. It became a trading center for goods from Africa and the Americas. The first large agricultural production was oranges grown and sold to Europeans in the 1800s and early 1900s, however the wooden crates used for shipping the oranges brought bugs which infected the orange trees within a decade and that industry died. Spain took over orange production with their Valencia oranges. Today pineapples and tea bushes grow on the San Miguel island.

At the A. Arruda pineapple plantation, the different stages of pineapple growing was explained. The planation is dozens of greenhouses painted white during the summer to shade the plants, but as the days become shorter the paint is scrapped off the glass panels for more weak light. It takes 30 months to grow a pineapple. The starter material is placed in warm soil in the greenhouse and watered carefully. These bulbs grow shoots which are split and replanted and start to flower. During the process for 10 nights the plants are subjected to smoke for banana leaves to trick themselves into forming a flower and then fruit as a survival mechanism, so all of the pineapple plants in the greenhouse will produce their one fruit at the same time to send to market. There was a gift shop with pineapple theme products including Pineapple jam, Pineapple Chutney, Pineapple Mustard and Pineapple Liqueur. By the entrance was one of the oldest species of plants in the world - a Cycas tree. It lived on earth before palm trees. We also saw specimens of it at the Jardim António Borges in the afternoon. The bus took us back to the ship. Everyone showed their keycards to the security officer before the bus passed through the pier gates.

We decided that this 21°C day should be used to explore the town, especially the Jardim António Borges which I missed on our previous visit. We got a map of the old town and using landmarks like the Old Gates which used to stand close to the water, but were moved a few hundred meter inland. Nearby was the town hall, we picked a route which was confirmed by a helpful policeman. The garden has hundreds of trees, some labelled. It contains specimens of rare plants and caves of lava rock. We could hear a rooster crowing as we entered, then on the first path, we encountered a white duck and nine fuzzy yellow ducklings that were not startled by us. There were lava rocks within the park and some flowering plants. We found a rubber tree and several Cycas trees of varying ages showing their seed packets. The walk to the far end of the garden was a slight uphill climb, hardly noticeable. Returning on a different path downhill, we saw the rooster and another in the company of a hen a two tiny dark grey and white chicks that could only be seen when they moved. The rooster with yellow feathers crowed again while we were watching him. As we returned to the paved path four dark ducks darted out of the undergrowth and took advantage of the toddler throwing popcorn to the chickens. Before we left the park, I realized that I had lost my ship’s key card, sometime in the last hour. I had used my cycling GPS, but had no idea where the card could be.

We took a different route back to the ship, we could see the water sometimes and passed the old library and new archives building which I had seen on the last visit. We wove our way back to the waterfront and back to the ship. At the security station the security officer escorted us to the ship’s gangway and spoke to the staff member there that said I could go up the gangway, since they were using the facial recognition program. There was no problem. I went to Guest Services on the way to the stateroom and within five minutes had a new key card. Our walk was just over 4.5 km.

Once we deposited our jackets and backpack in the stateroom we climbed up to the Lido pool on Deck 9 where the Gelato station can be found with twelve different flavours and they make milkshakes too. Ice cream in the Lido buffet is part of the fare, but gelato is an extra cost. Our way of using the extra cruise credits on our account. Back at our room we took turns downloading the Saturday newspaper to our phones.

The captain’s announcement was at 4:20 p.m. There is a storm coming and the captain will try to keep out of its way. He will have to cruise at 23 knots and the sea could get rough after midnight. There were about 500 people not back from ship’s excursions, but due back in the next half hour. All Aboard was 4:30 p.m. and sail away at 5 p.m. It was a few minutes after 5 p.m. when we departed. There are about 1,120 nautical miles to get to Brest, France to arrive at 10 a.m. in 65 hours.

There was no ballroom dancing this evening. We lingered with our dinner group, three of whom were on the late busses and had to rush to dinner. The entertainer this evening was mentalist Santiago Michel, which we kipped in favour of writing down our day’s adventure.

Total steps today were 19,283.