“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you.”
This quote came up on my Goodreads quote of the day today. How apropos.
So, yesterday Lee went diving and I went walking around Ponta Delgada. Not the prettiest town we’ve stayed in. Very much the monetary area of the island - lots of banks, finance minister, a working seaport, and the national guard. Took some pictures, but nothing overwhelming. It’s been cloudy everyday we’ve been here, but I am sunburned (yes, I understand UV waves). Lucky for me, cortisone is a wonderful drug and my knee is handling the cobblestones fine.
After a rather boring night - let’s face it, we are not rabid partiers anymore - we started out by going to the last of the three lakes formed by collapsed calderas. Today, Lagoa do Fogo. I’m not sure if it means fog - but when you see the pictures you’ll understand that it probably does. Beautiful place - smallest of the lakes. Stopped a few times on the way up to take pictures. Sao Miguel has some of the most stunning roadside stops you will find: picnic tables, bathrooms (water closets), and stunning views. Had to try to take pictures of them.
Then, we hit the fog. Really, these are clouds that you drive into as you ascend the volcano. All these ‘highways’ are two lane roads that twist and turn around and through the mountains. So, we got up to the view points for the lake and took lots of pictures - some with, some without fog. I’ll post one or two.
Next, we headed down the backside of the mountain to Porto Formoso, where the two tea plantations in Europe exist. On our way we encountered a marked waterfall, so we decided to stop and see what it looked like. It was quite lovely and a nice stop…everyone else thought so too. Tried to take a picture of the waterfall but couldn’t get this one woman and her teenagers to move out of the way. They went right up to the base (first, that’s a dumb idea - water is known to loosen rocks and hit people!), and then just stood there in the middle where no one could possibly take a picture without them in it. I finally took my picture and will photoshop them out!
Our next stop WAS the tea plantation - only one has a tour. We both took several pictures. It smelled great as they were drying out the leaves at 150 degrees fahrenheit. Then you could taste their basic orange pekoe and pekoe teas. They had others for purchase. And the self-guided tour was actually very informational. I learned a thing or two about tea and how it’s processed.
We then headed to Ribiera Grande for lunch. It’s the other big city (relative term) on this island, and also a port city. We parked and went to put our coins in for a parking tag, and an older gentleman, who spoke no English but still got his message across, told us that we didn’t have to pay on Saturday. Then, he asked us to follow him and took us around the corner to his house. This made me a bit nervous, but he just wanted to show us his place and the artwork that he and his wife did. Their place is called “Atelier das Camelias” (House of Camellias). Every room was decorated with their artwork - he paints and she makes these incredible miniatures. Then he shared a drink of their homemade brandy with us (which kicked our asses - definitely needed food after that).
After leaving their house, we found a little restaurant - Largo East Prividen - and for just under 30 euros, we had a cheese and bread appetizer, each of us had fish fillets with mango sauce, potatoes, broccoli and a coke. And believe me - the food was outstanding. I wish I could tell you all how to get there, but we happened upon it as we meandered through the streets and I might never be able to get there again. But it was worth the trip!
So, we are now back in the room, it is 6:15 pm and the Portugal/Croatia Game for the UEFA Euro Cup 2016 starts at 7 pm. We bought munchies as we doubt we can find a seat in the bar downstairs to watch the game. So, even though we are in a Portuguese province, we both would like to see Croatia win…probably a good idea to stay up in the room for this one.
Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Until later.
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