Azores, Portugal

The night before our first port, they had a Welcome to Europe party complete with a balloon drop. Fun, fun, fun!!

Our first port was the city of Ponta Delgado, on the island of Sao Miguel, the largest island of nine islands known as the Azores, part of Portugal. 

The ship docked just a five minute walk from downtown. We got off in the morning and wandered around. I bought a magnet for the fridge, and Kevin had a tasty Portuguese stout beer called Super Boch. 

In the afternoon, we had booked an excursion for a scenic drive around the island. 

View of downtown from the ship. They have a swimming pool and ocean beach next to the pier.

Our ship, Voyager of the Seas 

Our first stop was the Vista do Rei lookout where we had a great view of Sete Cidades, two lakes in the cone of an extinct volcano. These lakes are known for the far one being blue, and the front one being green. Here's a picture from the web of what they should look like.

Here is what we saw. The back lake is not as blue due to algae that has invaded the lake. They are working on eradicating it. Still a very beautiful view!

The view from the other side gave us a peak at the ocean.

Azaleas were growing all over the island. There were also many hydrangea bushes all along the roads. They bloom in July.

Do you see the bumblebee??

We stopped at another lookout to view the ocean and many cones of ancient volcanoes. It looked like it might rain all afternoon, but it never did. The climate here is tropical with highs fluctuating between 50 and 80 degrees year round. Lots of rain keeps it very lush and green.

Our next stop was a pineapple plantation that has been in operation since 1850. The pineapples have to be grown in greenhouses because its not warm enough. They are mainly sold locally or imported to Europe. We tried some pineapple liquor. Neither one of us loved it.

Our last stop was a botanical garden. The tree is an Australian fig tree. Our guide, Manuela said it was 160 years old.

The baby ducks were so cute!

We now have two more days at sea before we reach Spain. Today there was a flash mob performance which was so entertaining. They had only 2 practices, and did a fantastic job! 

We also went to Dancing with the Stripes. This is a dance competition where officers are paired with passengers. Today was the final. The dancing abilities were quite good, and we had a lot of laughs as well!