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São Miguel Island:
The city of Ponta
Delgada, then a farewell to the Azores
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The previous page
is a record of Bruce's all-day (group) tour of the island.
This page shows how Geoff spent his day exploring the
port city of Ponta
Delgada by himself and later, after the group's return,
how we bade an early evening farewell to the Azores and
began our long crossing to Northern Spain.
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Azorean pineapples are apparently renowned
for their exceptional sweetness, distinctive flavour and
small size. They are typically grown in greenhouses on
this island, where they benefit from the volcanic soil
and temperate climate. They are often hand-harvested,
resulting in a premium fruit known for their quality.
Because they are not grown in huge quantities, few are
exported.
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Bananas are also grown
locally... |
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...as are oranges and
lemons. |
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Boxed wines at bargain
prices! |
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Back on the ship, Geoff
had a light lunch in "The Club", followed by a
nap! |
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At
5:30pm, after Bruce had arrived back from his tour, we both
said goodbye to our two local guides, Bruno and Bento, who
were leaving the ship. After our week together, we had become
quite used to having them on hand to guide us and to answer
all our questions. We thanked them and wished them well
and at 6:00pm, the Island Sky set sail for the 836 nautical
mile voyage to Northern Spain.
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The morning clouds
had lifted to give us a wonderfully sunny evening as we
watched the port of Ponta Delgada fade into the distance. |
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We were all invited
on deck to toast the end of our wonderful visit to the islands,
with a glass or liqueur acquired for us during our visit
to the wine tasting event in São Mateus on Pico Island. |
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Azorian cheeses were
also served. |
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Corporate chef Darren
was on hand to explain what we were eating. |
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Bruce doesn't really
enjoy liqueurs, but managed to have a few sips to toast
our departure. He did enjoy the cheeses, however. |
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As the coast of the
Azores
faded into the distance, it was a good time to quietly reflect
on our experiences. We hadn't heard a lot about the islands
before we visited and neither had most people, we suspected.
We thought the islands would be tiny specks of land, under-developed
and almost forgotten. To our surprise, we discovered a diverse
group of islands that were bigger than expected, much more
developed than we expected and with a rich cultural heritage.
Perhaps we shouldn't have been too surprised by that. They
are, after all, European islands (albeit the most westerly
outpost of Europe), but they are also Portuguese islands,
with strong links to the mainland. We we lucky enough to
set foot on seven of the nine major Azorean islands. The
two we missed were Santa
Maria and Corvo,
although we did sail very close to the latter and got excellent
views of it. As one of our guides said, "we deliberately
don't let you visit all of our islands, because that means
you will have to come again". We had heard the same
when we visited Cape Verde in November 2022, but we liked
the sentiment. |
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As we were leaving Portugal
for the last time on this trip, the theme for tonight's
dinner was obvious! |
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We both chose the Goat's Cheese Wrap with
Toasted Walnut, Honey and Prosciutto Dates with Garden
Greens and Balsmamic Reduction as our starters. Delicious!
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The Local Seabream and
Mussels, served with Milho
Frito (fried cornmeal), Green Vegetables and Molho de
Churrasco (Portuguese BBQ sauce) was equally delicious. |
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For dessert, another Portuguese
speciality, Leite de Creme (similar to Cream Brûlée)
completed the meal. |
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As the sun set, we admired
the beautiful colours in the sky as our thoughts turned
to the next couple of days at sea. |
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