Ponta Delgada. In the rain.

Today, it rained and I got intoxicated. Those are not related. Or maybe they are. I’m not sure. As I’ve mentioned, I’m intoxicated.

With our canoeing cancelled and our car returned, we made the logical choice of sticking around Ponta Delgada until our gin experience today. We tried to visit the Mercado da Graça again, with slightly more success this time but since the market building is under construction and since it’s not a weekend or a popular day for cruise ships, there really was not very much to see. We were wanting to find a coffee shop we had heard about but it was too early for that so we headed back up to Igreja do Colégio. It was also too early for that. Well, eventually it wasn’t too early for that so we ducked inside this strange little church that had the most intense wood carvings I’ve ever seen in a church. There was also some of the lovely blue tiles that the Azores are known for and I think it’s been my first good sighting so that was exciting!

Then, we headed up to the botanical gardens that we missed on Monday. They were much smaller than I expected and had a very tropical and unmanicured feel to them, which is new for us in a botanical garden. There were several really incredibly fig trees with the most elaborate roots that were exposed. From there, it was on to the coffee shop for some lunch - EDP got his traditional vacation pizza and I had an ENORMOUS sandwich with a fried egg on top that was delicious and huge. We took some hot chocolate and dessert to go and headed back to the hotel until it was time to head off to our gin experience. By then, the wind was really picking up but the rain was holding off.

We had a bit of quiet time before heading out again - the hotel managed to get the wine out of my sweater so I didn’t look like a weird abstract painting (yay!) and when we headed out, the rain was just starting. It was really starting to come down when we arrived at our gin experience and we were in this adorable little outbuilding where we could hear the rain outside and made for quite the cozy afternoon.

Ali, our gin expert, guided us through the history of gin, explaining how bathtub gin came to be, how regulation led way for London Dry gin and then the revival of gin in the last few years when a lone woman whisky distiller spent some time playing around and created Hendricks gin, which took the world (London) by storm when they had a promotion involving free drinks in exchange for a cucumber that went viral. Over the course of his history lesson, we got to try the gin he produces along with a London Dry gin and then a bathtub gin for EDP and a lovely rhubarb gin for me. We also got to make friends with the local cat, who was a fan of our cheese puffs and insisted on having his share. We wrapped up with a restaurant recommendation from Ali and made our way over to an amazing seafood restaurant where EDP had an enormous skillet of limpets followed by some sort of seafood stew and I had an enormous amount of cod in a clay tray. It was a really large and delicious meal, accompanied by crazy crashing waves just outside the restaurant. It was still pouring when we got our cab back to the hotel. We’re not entirely sure of the name of the restaurant, its something I’ll have to dig in to but man, was it good. Even if I couldn’t eat 3/4 of what was on the menu.

Anyway. Between the 3 gins and the wine at dinner (what?!), I was already pretty toasty warm despite the rain. But upon our return to the hotel, I discovered a cake & bottle of champagne waiting for us. Because it’s my birthday. Part of why I was so desperate to get away is because I spent my last two birthdays in hard lockdown because of COVID. And while we weren’t facing another lockdown this time around, I needed to feel like the world was normal again. So here we are. With champagne and a peanut butter mousse cake that is delicious. I’m stuffed and have had enough liquor today to make a milestone birthday not seem quite so daunting. The rain is still coming down and we expect it’ll still be rough tomorrow, which isn’t great since we’re flying and there were flights delayed today but we’ll see.

Anyway. Is the rain the world’s way of letting me know it’s grieving my youth with me? I think we can all agree that is very likely.

Sete Cidades

Today was our last day of hiking on São Miguel, heading up to Sete Cidades, a small village on the west side of the island. Sete Cidades is in a volcano crater, along with two lakes - one blue and one green. While you can hike around both lakes, we opted for a shorter hike around just Lagoa Verde since even that shorter hike was expected to be 10km, not to mention that what I read said it could be difficult to complete the hike around both lakes due to paths being gone. So we headed off to park the car in the village and start the walk.

Up until now, we’ve had quite nice weather. It’s been sunny and warm but there’s a storm coming in and it seems like it may be starting to settle in already. Our drive was generally fine until we got up into the mountains more, when we encountered some mist. We had hoped it was fog that would burn off but it seems like it’s probably cloud cover. Which, sadly, made it difficult to see just how blue Lagoa Azul is but Lagoa Verde was still quite a vivid green in places. It was cold & windy down at the lake level so I was glad I had long sleeves. EDP nearly lost his hat once or twice but soon enough, we were over the bridge and starting to make our way up into the mountain, where the wind died down and the air warmed up.

For the first chunk, we were just on the road but soon enough, we on a trail, high up over the lake that followed along the side of the lake. We saw some crazy wild rhubarb growing and some of the hydrangeas the Azores is known for were starting to bloom. I again had my screenshots from the walking guidebook and we were doing so well until we hit a road we weren’t supposed to hit. And then began our saga of trying to figure out where the heck we were supposed to be. According to the guidebook, there should have been a fork in the path and we should have stayed right. It would have kept us along the edge of the lake but below the road that we were now facing. We went back and forth several times. We found what looked like might be a path. EDP braved heading down it but said it was just getting more overgrown and couldn’t possibly be the right path. After a few more minutes of stewing, we finally decided whatever path was there in 2019 was gone and we’d have to just wing it.

The road took us up to the infamous abandoned hotel. Back in the 80s, before international tourism was really a thing for the Azores, a luxury hotel was built up at the top of the mountain at the edge of Lagoa Verde. It was quite large and far more hotel than the location needed and so it went bankrupt within 18 months of opening. And now it’s just this creepy abandoned building. We approached it from one of the two roads that get near it, with that road being between us and the lake. Now…. Remember that mist I was mentioning? Well, we had climbed high enough that we were in that mist. By an abandoned hotel. And now it was cold & windy again plus misty so with the big trees that were in front of the hotel’s original entrance, it was raining. Just in front of the entrance. If you went a bit to the left to one of the parking lots, it was fine. If you went a bit to the right to the other parking lot, it was fine. But right in front of the abandoned hotel, it was cold & windy & wet. Which turns out is how it usually is up there (something like 200 days a year…) so you can see why the hotel went bankrupt. For us, it made the decision to not explore further an easy one. We picked up a path that we thought would take us back to the route we needed to be on and started our descent back into the crater.

Once we were out of the mist, we had beautiful views of the two lakes. The vivid blue of Lagoa Azul still evaded us but you could see some of the colour difference between the two lakes. We wound our way back down, finding where we are pretty sure the route we were supposed to be on joined back to the wider trail - overgrown at this end, too. And, while we were on the road, there was a section that had been blocked off due to the very edge of the road going down the mountainside in a little landslide so I think even if we had fought our way on the overgrown path, we would have eventually been blocked and had to backtrack. And that would have been SUPER frustrating so despite not being able to do the hike as expected, we did get the bonus of the abandoned hotel!

Once back in town, we stopped for a quick lunch on our first patio of the trip on the coldest & windiest day of the trip for some sandwiches. We had thought we’d sit for a while and read our books but it was just too windy. The only other plan for the day was a natural hot springs in the ocean but if you go too close to high tide, it’s not very warm. But high tide was at noon with low tide around 6 so we figured if we could plan to be there around 4, it would be warm but not too warm and still give us plenty of time to return to Ponta Delgada to return the car. Alas, the wind made sitting on the patio a less than enjoyable experience so eventually we decided to just head on over.

The descent down to the hot springs was terrifying. The road was steep and narrow and right at the edge of the mountain and terrifying. A portion of it had been buried in a rockslide a few years ago but most of the repairs were done so we were able to drive right down to the parking lot where there is a man-made thermal pool that no one goes in, preferring the natural pool just a few further steps away. We arrived around the same time as a tour group, whose bus had to let them off at the top of the road down since the bus wouldn’t have been able to make the turns. And the cold & the wind were back the minute we got out of the car. We didn’t really know what to expect so we grabbed our swimsuits and towels and figured we’d see. We saw a lot of waves crashing crazily and the water level in the natural hot springs way too high for it to be even remotely safe to go in. It was quite beautiful with the black rocks and the crashing waves but not our day to test out the waters. We wandered around a bit along the shore before eventually heading back to the car with our unused swimsuits for the drive back to Ponta Delgada.

While EDP was filling up the car, I took the opportunity to look at myself in a mirror, which was a bad idea. As I was advised by people I consider my friends, I looked like a tomato and or maybe like I had been in a tornado. I guess since they didn’t save the Snapchat photo, that means they truly are my friends? They weren’t wrong. In fact, a tomato after a tornado wouldn’t have been an unfair description. I’m telling you - it was WINDY. But after we dropped the car off, a shower fixed me right up!

And it was a good thing I cleaned myself up because we had the loveliest dinner at a restaurant that is run entirely by just one man. He does everything - all the prep, all the cooking, all the serving. It’s just him. We were the first to arrive for the evening so it was quite quiet early on and we enjoyed some lovely cheese & toast before mains of a pastry-wrapped fish for me and filet mignon for EDP. Quite tasty, let me tell you. I, of course, had to get dessert, which was a lovely chocolate cake. Such a good meal and a unique dining experience!

Tomorrow is going to end up being quite a relaxed day. Our canoeing trip is officially off - even if they had been able to make the morning work out, all tours are cancelled tomorrow now because of the weather. But, we do still have our gin experience in the afternoon, which will be a lovely way to spend a chunk of the day.

Ribeira Grande

Day 2 of hiking! Today I got smart and grabbed screenshots from the hiking guidebook so that we knew where we were supposed to be going!

We headed out this morning, arriving at a parking area for our hike around 9. Today’s hike was Cascada Salto del Cabrito - reported to be a 7.5km circular trail with a mere 230 metre gain in elevation. In the end, it was just shy of 7.25km but the elevation gain was closer to 280 meters. We started near two streams, both of which the guidebook told us would need to be forded. Yup. Forded. I don’t ford a lot of things but hey, you only take your first post-pandemic trip in honour of your 40th birthday once, right? Well, early birthday present to me - bridges had been built over both streams since the guidebook was last updated! The first stream would have been totally fine but the second stream… Well, it was nice there was a bridge though it was a bit sway-y and low with the rope railing for my taste. EDP was not allowed on the bridge at the same time as me and I definitely had a false start before I whimpered my way across. Then, it was pretty much smooth sailing. The ascents today were much more gradual than yesterday and we were primarily on roads through the country side. We saw lots of cute little geckos, sunning themselves on the stone walls before we made it to Caldeiras, a little village with a thermal spa (appeared to be closed) and a small restaurant (definitely closed.) We continued on out of town, seeing lots of little fumaroles (where volcanic gases are vented from the ground) and then following a pipeline running from an old hydro station before heading to the waterfall we were en route to see. I didn’t quite appreciate that we’d be on a narrow, metal grate just over the pipeline, suspended over a gorge, followed by an incredibly steep metal stairway to lead us into the gorge but I guess every day has its surprises!

Our timing for arriving at the waterfall was excellent - there were only a few people and they were wrapping up so we had uninterrupted viewing for a few minutes before the place started teeming with people. One thing I have learned about the Azores is that whatever you are hiking to also has a parking lot you can drive you. And most people choose to drive. Most people probably know about the metal grate over the suspended pipeline with it’s accompanying steep stairs. Anyway. We only had a short distance to go to get back to the car but it involved an unfortunately steep climb up the road. So many steep climbs…

From the car, it was a short little jaunt over to our first of two planned hot springs visits. Today’s was Caldeira Velha. I believe you can walk over as part of this hike but it would have extended the hike by quite a bit and involved jumping a gate at a power station, which didn’t sound like the smartest idea. With no lockers, we left almost everything in the car, save for our bathing suits & towels, getting admission with the 1:00 cohort. That left us enough time for a little snack (someone had coffee, someone else had ice cream) before heading in. The hot springs had 4 different pools, though we really only could find 3. We started in one that was a bit cooler and quite empty to start, letting the warm water soak into our tired bodies. Then, it was into a warmer pool - I think it was in the high 30s? Also quite lovely to soak in. Then, we ventured off to try to find the final pool, getting up to it and discovering it was cold. We did not go in.

It was then time to move on to the Praia de Santa Bárbara beach in Ribeira Grande where the plan was to have a drink/lunch overlooking the black beach. We found the beach with relatively little problem since there was parking very close by but there were no cafes. There were definitely buildings that used to be cafes. But no longer. So we watched the waves crashing in for a few minutes from the edge of the boardwalk before deciding it was time to move on. I was really looking forward to that drink, too.

We then moved on to the Gorreana tea plantation where we saw how they grow and process their tea before trying several lovely samples, purchasing some to bring home, and enjoying a passionfruit tart and an orange cake.

That should have been us done for the day but sadly, the tour company we had booked a Lagoa das Furnas canoeing morning with had emailed earlier to see if we were able to switch from the morning trip to the afternoon trip. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to work due to our gin masterclass booked for late afternoon so we figured we had lots of time since our drinks in Ribeira Grande didn’t work out so we would head to Furnas while we still had the car and see the area, even if we couldn’t canoe the lake. So off we went. It would have been quite interesting to canoe out to the middle of the lake, which is in a crater but we satisfied ourselves with walking around, seeing the fumaroles and where they cook the famous cozido das Furnas, a stew that is cooked right in the ground by the volcanic heat. We didn’t stay around long enough to try it, wanting instead to get back to Ponta Delgada.

On the way back, we got stuck in one of the infamous Azorean traffic jams. It wasn’t too bad, mostly the traffic was on the other side of the road but there’s always one that has to break away from the pack and hang out on the wrong side of the road. Of course, I’m talking about a herd of cows. It was being shuffled along by a farmer so it didn’t take long at all for us to pass through but it was still funny to see.

Back in Ponta Delgada, we found ourselves a bottle of chilled green wine, the balcony, something to read, and basked in the sunshine until it was time to head off to dinner. Sadly, while our appetiser was very tasty - duck and mushroom croquettes because you can take the girl out of Belgium but you’ll have to pry her croquettes from her cold, dead hands - the main course was uncomfortable, at least for me, since I had a glass of red wine spilled on me. On my light grey sweater. On my dress. On my suede shoes (grey, not blue…) And there wasn’t a lot that could be done in the restaurant so that was less than fun. Also less than fun - the woman who knocked the glass over didn’t even have the decency to apologize and the restaurant staff couldn’t be bothered to bring water or a cloth while I tried to sponge out as much of the wine as I could. Nope, it was bathroom paper towels and EDP’s water for me! If it hadn’t been for the croquettes and the recommendation for a good coffee place from the gentleman at the table beside us, the evening would have been quite disappointing. At this point, I’ve been able to get most of the wine out of my shoes (the laces may be toast) and I think turning the shower on the dress is leaving that stain-free but the sweater is questionable. And it’s the only sweater I brought. Sigh. The hotel is going to do what they can, which is all I can ask, but maybe I’ll end up starting a new fashion trend?

Lagoa Do Fogo

PSA: 575 metres of elevation gain is a lot of elevation gain.

This morning, we got an early start, heading to breakfast as soon as the dining room opened. I was delighted to see my new friend, the bolo levado, and made another new friend in a raspberry orange juice that was more smoothie than juice. With a big hike ahead of us today that would take us past lunch, we headed over to the Mercado da Graça, which was just a few minutes from the hotel, to get some fruit for the hike. Sadly, it was closed. Turns out, today is Freedom Day, which is the day celebrating the Carnation Revolution in 1974 that ended a dictatorship. So the market wasn’t open. Back to the hotel we went to get packed up and ready to go. Soon, we were in line to pick up our rental car and heading off to find our starting point for the day. We have a cute little electric Yaris, which took us an unreasonable amount of time to figure out was actually running because it was so quiet.

We were heading towards Lagoa do Fogo, a lake that apparently has multiple viewpoints, given the number of signs we saw for it on the highway. We absolutely took an exit that was far too early for where we needed to be but eventually, found the right spot and got the car parked. Then we started walking uphill.

This hike was taking us up to - you guessed it - Lagoa do Fogo,, which sits in a crater of a volcano that last erupted in 1563 and now is a nature reserve. According to our “Walking on the Azores” guidebook, we could expect the 15.5km hike to take us about 5 hours and have a total ascent of 650m. The route starts on a concrete road which felt practically vertical and wasn’t anything too exciting but after a couple of kilometres, you get to the trailhead and leave the road behind. We had a beautiful, not-too-hot day which was great because the elevation gain was in spurts where you’d go up these pretty steep inclines and then get a bit of a break before another steep incline. Once we were on the trail, it was mostly wooded and often shady, which made the incline much more pleasant. When we felt like we had been climbing forever, the incline levelled off and we were walking along a water channel. The channel was full enough that there were a few places it was spilling over the top and little bridges had been constructed to get you over the running water. Then, it was into a valley with lots of little channels running all over it before climbing the last little bit of elevation and reaching the lake.

The lake was beautiful. There were very few people at the top of the trail and no one on the lake, at all. I’m not sure where the lookouts were but I had read that it wasn’t uncommon for the view to be obscured by mist so I think they were quite high up. There was no mist in sight today, though - just a couple of fluffy clouds. Our guidebook had said the hike was a loop but the trail markers were showing us heading back in the same direction we came. I didn’t have the guidebook and we weren’t really keen on the idea of winging it and finding out a trail had been closed or something along those lines so we headed back the way we came. We saw relatively few people on our way up to the lake so I was surprised at how many people we saw as we were heading back down, especially since the day had gotten quite warm and it was starting to get quite late in the afternoon. In the end, we finished up just before 3, for a total time of about 4 hours. And we ended up climbing 576 metres. It was a lot. You should see the exercise ring on my watch zoom around and lap itself over and over again.

On our way back, we decided we’d stop at a pineapple plantation. Once again, our navigation went awry and we first landed at a car rental place. It wasn’t very exciting. We did find the right spot soon after where we saw the cutest little pineapples. Pineapples take TWO YEARS to grow. No wonder they try to kill you with their thorny little spikes! It was fun to see the greenhouses full of tiny pineapples.

Our last stop for the day was our Azorean wine and cheese experience. When we start planning a trip, the first thing I do is look for food tours. And after some debate, we landed on the Azorean Wine and Cheese experience with Hungry Whales. They did have the kind of tour we typically take - wandering through the streets of the city but with COVID, we thought this was a better option. And it was a delight!

The experience took place at a local B&B - and it ended up being just EDP, myself and one other traveller. Our guide for the evening was excellent, sharing all sorts of local history with us. We had such a lovely evening, trying several different Azorean wines, including a small glass of port and a mint aperitif, which I thought was very reminiscent of the dentist in all the best ways (I like the dentist, okay - they always tell me how wonderful my teeth are!) These were paired with delicious cheeses and some excellent jams. The cheeses were far superior to the ones we tried yesterday. I should have kept better track of what the cheeses were so that we could try to come across them again in our travels but alas, I was too busy enjoying everything. Our evening included a tour of the garden, where we saw bananas and citrus growing. It was a delightful end to a busy day.

Ponta Delgada

It feels so good to be travelling again. And I say that as someone who got about 3 hours of sleep last night - on an airplane.

We left Toronto last night around 9pm and with a 6-ish hour flight just and a 4 hour time difference, we landed in Ponta Delgada this morning at about 6:30. It was a bit drizzly so they had busses to transport us from the tarmac to the airport, which was very nice but it definitely took longer for the bus to fill up and get us to the terminal than it would have for us to walk. We waited in a very short customs line, where a toddler had a complete meltdown because she didn’t believe her mother that we weren’t in Toronto anymore - and kid, I feel ya, I would be having a complete meltdown, too, if I thought we hadn’t left Canada. But soon we had our bags and had been dropped off at our hotel. Of course, it was far too early to check in but we were able to do some quick reshuffling to repack the travel backpack for the day and we headed off to see Ponta Delgada. I had a self-guided walking tour from one of the guidebooks to hit the highlights of this charming little city.

We started off in the main town square, Praça Gonçalo Velho Cabral, with it’s 3 arches which formed the original city gates. The square used to be the harbour, before it was built up in the 1940s. Just up a bit from there was the Parish Church of São Sebastião, where we got turned around for the first time on the walking tour, going to the wrong side of the church. We found our way eventually, seeing the old customs house, the town hall (formerly the home of a very wealthy family and the home of the oldest bel in the Azores), the old post office, and towards Forte de São Brás at the end of the harbour. Then, it was into Praça 5 de Outubro, with some very interesting trees (pollarded trees, according to the walking tour) and one very interesting tree, a 140+ year old imported tree from Australia. The square had a monastery, a convent and a church along its sides, and since it was early on Sunday morning, the largest crowds we had seen so far (like 8 people…) Then it was along the back of the square to see a few government buildings en route to the Carlos Machado Museum, which is connected to the Igreja do Colégio, a church built by the Jesuits that was used as a warehouse after they were expelled. We got turned around again and bumbled around a bit before finding the Teatro Michaelense. the theatre in town. The last remaining stop on the walking tour was close to our hotel so we stopped back at the first square we had visited to sit in a small cafe for a bit, having a late breakfast. We both opted for the “local platter” which had a bit of jam, butter, fresh pineapple, two kinds of cheese (one of which was really just a bland cottage cheese…) and two kinds of bread (one of which was almost cake-like and the other was bolo levado which was like a sweet English muffin and my new favourite bread product.) It wasn’t bad for a first meal, especially since selection was low on a Sunday morning.

It was still too early to expect our hotel room to be available so we walked along the water, marvelling at the giant cruise ship in the harbour and being somewhat amused by the small swimming area where you could swim in the ocean, if you so chose. EDP is waffling on this - on one hand, he’d like to give it a try but on the other, it’s really rather close to where all the ships, etc. are so you gotta wonder how clean the water is. After that, we figured that hanging out at the hotel’s outdoor patio seemed like a good plan so we got some drinks (first glass of Azorean wine!) and let the sun warm us and come very close to lulling one of us to sleep (3 hours!!) until the lovely front desk clerk came out to tell us she had a room for us. After collecting our bags, we headed up to our room with a view of the bay - which I’m delighted we opted for over the ocean view since the cruise ships dock directly in front of our hotel. After a bit of a refresh, we headed back out to see some gardens before dinner but alas, they were closing as we got there. So it was off to dinner!

The restaurant EDP had found, São Pedro, was really close to our hotel and he thought there was a patio. But when we got there - no patio. It doesn’t open until later in the season. So we had our first indoor dining experience in a long time. And it was delicious. I had tuna with a sweet potato mash and it easily the best tuna I’ve ever had and will be one of those meals I am still talking about in years. I also had my second glass of Azorean wine, this time a green wine, which is like a white wine but with a little bit of sparkle to it. Of course, there was also dessert - how could it be travel without dessert! It was such a lovely dinner - and really set a high bar for the rest of our eating here!

Tomorrow, we start our hiking! We’ve got three days in a row of hiking planned with tomorrow’s being the most strenuous. After Norway, though, I feel like I can conquer anything!

The Azores

Well, it’s been a couple of real nail biter weeks around here - but I’m delighted to say that we’re leaving the country.

We cautiously rebooked our trip to the Azores in the middle of March - expanding the trip out by a few days and adding a second island into the mix. A little after that, I started planning the itinerary and booking anything that had a good cancellation policy. EDP kept his eyes on the numbers. I put my Ativan and my passport (still valid!) in the guest room. EDP added a box of COVID tests. I started searching for somewhere to get our departing COVID tests done for a reasonable price. EDP suggested we shouldn’t expect eating indoors to be safe. I put us into self-imposed isolation 2 weeks before we were supposed to leave. EDP asked me if I had heard about the volcano on Sao Jorge. I resigned myself to having to cancel NOT because of COVID but because of a stupid volcano erupting (the volcano is not stupid.)

But it didn’t. And we didn’t get COVID. We did get negative PCR tests from Life Labs (hey, Life Labs - if you’re reading this, PLEASE reword the start of the section on what to do if you get a positive test result because while I understand in my head that you aren’t going to put test results in an email, when you’re scrolling your results at 5am and you see “COVID test result is positive” in bold red letters, you have a mild heart attack. Just either add the “If your” also in red & bold or reword the whole sentence. Please?) We packed up the dog and EDP’s vegetable seedlings for their vacation and then packed up ourselves and went to an airport to GET ON AN AIRPLANE TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.

And now we’re gloriously on our way to the Azores - specifically, to São Miguel for 4 days and Terceira for 3 with 3 days for travelling. We have an overnight flight that gets us in to Ponta Delgada very early on tomorrow morning, staying at the Grand Hotel Açores Atlântico with a bay view and a car rental for a couple of days so that we can:

• Wander around Ponta Delgada, exploring this lovely little city

• Hike up to Lagoa do Fogo

• Experience local wines & cheeses with the Hungry Whales company

• Hike the Salto Do Cabrito trail

• Visit the Caldeira Velha hot springs

• Visit the Cha Gorreana tea plantation

• Hike the Lagoa das Sete Cidades hike

• Visits the Ponta da Ferraria hot springs

• Canoe Lagoa das Furnas with Picos de Aventura

• Take a Gin Masterclass at the Solar Branco Eco Estate

Then we move on to Terceira, taking a lazy day to travel over to Angra do Heroísmo, staying at the Terceira Mar Hotel with an ocean view while we:

• Hike Monte Brasil

• Visit the Museu do Angra do Heroísmo and the Jardin Duque de Terceira

• Go on a whale & dolphin watching tour with Ocean Emotion

• Go out to Algar do Carvão & the Gruta do Natal

• Rent a car for a day to tour around the island

And then we have a final travel day to get home! We’re gone for about 10 days and are sticking to almost entirely outdoor activities. We’ll keep our masks on, though there’s no requirement for masks in the Azores at this point - their numbers are quite a bit lower than ours and numbers have been slowly decreasing so we’re hopeful everything is fine, but we do have that box of COVID tests, just in case.