Islands in the Atlantic- We Visit the Azores and Tenerife

We awoke the next morning to calm cruising seas, but an inexplicable situation.

The old fort, Ponta Delgada

Getting the morning cruise info update on the television, Capt. Larry noticed that the ship’s course was 282° or WNW. Our next port, Bermuda, would be in a southeasterly direction. Thinking that the ship’s info wasn’t updated or was incorrectly displayed for some reason, he ignored this anomaly until he glanced out the window and realized that the sun was rising on the ship’s aft (in the east).

At the harbor

Conclusion: we were headed west away from Bermuda. We talked about this at breakfast, but Jane had a not-totally-convinced look on her face, until the captain came on and announced that we had a medical emergency and were returning to the Delaware Bay area to rendezvous with a Coast Guard helicopter for a medical evacuation.

The city gate and main square

Then, about an hour after the evacuation, the captain announces that we are changing our itinerary. A storm was brewing over the Bermuda area with winds forecast to reach over 50 knots! No one needs to be in tropical storm force winds on a cruise ship, so the new plan was to press on to the Azores for our planned two-day stop, then head to the Canary Islands with a stop on Tenerife, before getting back on schedule in Lisbon.

Carlos Muchado Museum

The only problem is that this would mean we had 5 sea-days facing us (break out the bingo cards)!

Between reading, working on the blog, and eating, we passed the time rather easily.

Sete Cidades twin crater lakes

Jane and Sheila spent their time with spa treatments, cheesy-ship shopping, and some craft classes, and we celebrated Keith’s birthday on the first day of spring. But, five days of being cooped up onboard a ship is a really long time. It was too cold and windy for us to walk out on the decks, and exercising with the ‘fitness buffs’ in the gym did not appeal.

São Miguel countryside

So even though it was a ‘formal night,’ we were certainly glad when our last sea day arrived. The Azores would be a new destination for us. This Portuguese collection of 9 islands form an archipelago with a population of approximately 235,000 inhabitants of which 135,000 live on the largest island of São Miguel—the island we would be visiting.

That's a really BIG Norfolk Pine

The captain announced that we would be docked at the Ponta Delgada docks at 0800.

After docking the next morning, we waited until the shore excursion passengers and the early birds had disembarked before making our way to the exit.

A big mess of roots!

A shuttle bus drove us a short way to an old fort where we were deposited just as the sun was really starting to break out. It looked like it was going to be a great day. From the fort, we walked to the triple-arched Portas da Cidade, the old main gate that led to the town square and was anchored by the Gothic-style Church of St. Sebastian. With a current population of 69,000, Ponta Delgada is the largest city and capital of the Azores archipelago.

Greenhouse for pineapples

The city is a gateway to the crater lakes of Sete Cidades, to the northwest. After viewing the church’s interior, we walked through the beautiful brown and white town square, and stopped at a sidewalk café for coffee and a sampling of some local pastries. Moving on, we came to a square with a horse-drawn carriage that was apparently for hire. The public library and a small park were adjacent to the square, and we stopped for a brief respite.

A Azorean greenhouse pineapple

We passed the Carlos Machado Museum which offers diverse artifacts of Azorean culture and a glimpse into the customs and traditions of island life. We ventured into the museum, but did not stay long as it was time to get something to eat (something we surely didn’t want to miss!). Walking back to the waterfront, we found an outdoor café where we feasted on boiled shrimp, steamed mussels, and beer.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

It was probably the best meal we had eaten since we left Miami. Back onboard, we had a low-keyed evening to rest up and recharge.

The next morning we were up early for our booked excursion to the Sete Cidades Crater Lakes.

Santa Cruz's auditorium

We met Keith and Sheila after breakfast and boarded our bus that would take us on our excursion. After seeing some important landmarks in Ponta Delgada, we entered the verdant, rolling hills of the countryside. What first struck us was the number of cows we saw grazing in small pastures demarcated by neat lava-rock fences. Our guide told us that milk was the number one Azorean export and that 70% of Portugal’s milk comes from the Azores.

Las Teresitas Beach

The dairy pastures produced a very idyllic view. Our first stop was the Sete Cidades Crater Lakes. The two lakes are located in the center of a massive volcanic crater three miles across; each formed by separate, and juxtaposed volcanic craters that are connected at the very top. Reflecting the color of the sky, one lake is blue and the other is green due to the vegetation it contains. The volcano last erupted around 500 A.D., but is now dormant.

The Anaga Mountains

The lakes and surrounding countryside were absolutely beautiful. Our guide informed us that there were 9 crater lakes on the island, but these were the largest. We continued to ride through the countryside with a couple of more stops for photos. Back in Ponta Delgado, we saw more landmarks before stopping at the António Borges Botanical Gardens. The gardens featured mostly trees and shrubs and few flowers, but we did see the biggest Norfolk pine we had ever seen.

Steep Anaga peaks

The tree was huge and Jane and Sheila together could only stretch about one-half of its circumference. We came across another tree similar to one we’ve seen in Key West with a massive root system. Our last stop was to the Arruda pineapple plantation. Introduced in the mid-1800’s to replace blight-stricken orange trees, Azorean pineapples are cultivated entirely differently than anyplace else in the world.

Church in La Laguna

These pineapples are grown in greenhouses under carefully maintained conditions right up to harvest. We saw the greenhouses with different growing phases in each before Jane and Sheila led us to the plantation’s gift store (naturally). While the growing process was interesting, Keith and Capt. Larry wondered just how profitable greenhouse growing would be, but the gift store prices provided a definite clue!

Really old Dragon Tree

Back onboard we had lunch while the ship got underway for our next port, before retiring for an afternoon siesta. We had a good time in the Azores.

Sailing all night and another sea day put us at our port of call, Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Tenerife Island in Spain’s Canary Islands. With 904,000 inhabitants, the island is the most populous of the 7 Canary Islands and also Spain’s most populated. With approximately 5 million tourist visits each year, Tenerife is one of Spain’s most important tourist destinations. Born of volcanic activity, the rugged terrain of present-day Tenerife was formed by the fusion of three islands from volcanic activity from Mt. Teide, Spain’s highest peak (12,198 ft.), about 3 million years ago.

Church in La Laguna

Up early, we arrived at the Tenerife docks while we were having breakfast, and met Keith and Sheila in the auditorium at 0800 for our morning shore excursion. Boarding our bus, we headed out for our first stop, Las Teresitas beach. Our guide told us this was a popular beach because of its proximity to Santa Cruz. She bragged about the ‘white’ sand (which was brown) and noted that it had been hauled in from the Sahara Desert. So now we can say that we have touched sand from the Sahara! Our tour focused on the southwestern portion of the island. This area is very arid and receives very little moisture compared to the northwestern areas. This moisture is due to condensation of humidity carried by the trade winds which approach the island from the north, northeast. But the Anaga Mountains we would be driving through were fantastic.

Monastery in La Laguna

Volcanic in origin, these mountains are very steep, rugged, and young, and the mountain road through them was narrow, filled with hairpins, and barely accommodated our bus, let alone any oncoming traffic. When we met oncoming traffic, both vehicles stopped and negotiated the pass. We had some spectacular view of the peak and valleys as we wound our way to the top. As we ascended to higher elevations, the vegetation changed from desert-like cacti and sparse shrubs to grasses and flowering plants as more moisture was present.

La Laguna street scene

Near the top, there was enough moisture to support densely populated laurel forests with a widely diverse variety of species and abundant undergrowth. We stopped near the top for a break and a scenic view, but the mist prevented any scenic views. Descending out of the mountains, we came to the valley municipality of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the first capital of Tenerife under Spanish rule. This quaint university town was a real pleasure to see. Our guide took us to some of the local landmarks, and then turned us loose for some free time. We stopped at some shops, before heading back to board the bus. Our tour finished with a ride through La Laguna and parts of Santa Cruz. We departed Tenerife soon after we were back onboard. We hope to visit this beautiful island again.