Ponta Delgado, San Miguel, Azores, April 22, 2008

We couldn't just go straight home without stopping to see this lovely island. Sata Air flies directly to Boston through the Azores so I arranged to have a 9 hour layover. I had rented a car and came prepared with a map. What I wasn't prepared for was the beauty of this island out in the middle of the Atlantic, one of about 8 that belong to Portugal. Ponta Delgado is the capital and about 3 miles from the airport. The island can be covered in a day or two but ideally a few days to savor would have been better. We saw few, if any, hotels and no tourists. It is lush green with a riot of flowers everywhere. Hydrangeas of many different colors grow wild. The eastern side of the island contains the collapsed volcano that gave birth to San Miguel .We walked around the bubbling hot springs and vents. There were large cooking pots in several of them. The locals use the vents to cook their stews- nature's crock pot. There seemed to just be a slower pace to life here. It reminded me of Ireland 25 years ago. We watched as a farmer hitched his horse to the milk wagon to bring his jugs to market. He must have thought we were crazy as we kept snapping his picture. As we were driving we came upon a herd of cows moseying along. There were hundreds of them blocking the road. I honestly think there are more cows here than people. We found ourselves thinking that this was like the garden of Eden. One of our favorite stops on a trip which was so diverse.