Ponta Delgada in the Fog

Azores, Sao Miguel

Silver Spirit made the trip to Ponta Delgada, only a few hundred miles from Horta, overnight.  Michael and I had signed up for an excursion to two lakes in a volcanic crater, the only excursion we made on this part of our cruise.   

Ponta Delgado is a larger, more modern city than Horta, without as much charm.   Our Range Rover convoy drove through the city to the northern end of the island.  We were supposed to look at and drive around the green lake and the blue lake in the volcano crater.   In light drizzle and fog, we saw only grey clouds in front of us at the prime viewpoint.  We drove over narrow, sandy roads with clouds on either side.  Had it been clear, we would have seen the ground drop away on either side; one side was ocean, the other the volcano crater.  We were traveling along an unseen volcanic rim.   

We stopped for, what I thought was much too long at a tiny town by the Blue Lake.  I took lots of fog pictures.  We did not actually see a lake until much later.

Toward the end of the tour, the clouds lifted somewhat at the lower elevations and we did actually see part of the Blue Lake.  As soon as we began to climb out of the caldera, the fog closed in again.

View From the Scenic Overlook

Driving Along the Volcano Rim

Church at Sete Cidades,Town in Volcano Crater

Blue and White Portuguese Tiles, Church Interior

Gladiola in Churchyard

Many of the Houses in Sete Cidades had Tile Icons Over their Front Doors

Michael and Me at a Park on Blue Lake

The Fog Starts to Lift as we Start Back to Ponta Delgada

Graffiti as Street Art on a Building in Ponta Delgada

Street in the Old Town of Ponta Delgada

Historic Plaza in Ponta Delgada

The guides did their best to entertain us tourists even taking us on a drive through the city on our way back to the pier.  While the tour was not a complete bust, I saw more of the scenery on Google Earth than from the Range Rover.  The short stay at Ponta Delgada was long enough to not see all of the sights.