Lagoa das Furnas and Cozido

The memories are a bit behind now. Re-wind to the 16th: We arrive at our first European port-of-call: Punta Delgado on the island of San Miguel in the Azores islands. So, while we were still in the Atlantic, we had at last set foot on Portuguese territory.

We were quite excited and tried to hook-up with some of our fellow-travellers who were renting a tour taxi. But it didn't work out so we walked into town and admired the architecture and toured a local church.

But this wasn't adventure, exactly. We kept bumping into Skip and Lynn (whom we knew from the ship) in town, so the four of us agreed to rent a car and follow our noses. Now this is more like it.

The nice lady renting the car suggested we go to Lagoa das Furnas, in the opposite direction of most of the tour buses. So away we went on a narrow, winding road, trying to read the international road signs and Portuguese place names. It was glorious, green and beautiful.

The villages were crammed up against the road. We were afraid of taking the legs off of some of the natives who were sitting on their doorsteps, dangling their legs out onto the road. Space is at a premium in Europe.

We were mildly anxious (it's not an adventure, otherwise) about finding the right turnoff to the Lake. But there was nothing untoward. We arrived at the lake, not quite sure what to expect.

We found a park at the north side of the lake set against what was the steep walls (several hundred feet I would guess) of a caldera. Next to the parking lot was a long concrete structure housing baths or something. The steam was rising out of the ground at several places. The lake's (or is it a lagoon?) name begins to make sense. So we pose in front of one of the bubbling springs.

We had noticed some mounds of dirt near us with stakes and numbers on them earlier. Suddenly someone got excited: "They're digging up a mound!" So we rushed over and watched:

So it turns out a local restaurant was slow cooking in the earth itself. We dashed back to the car to follow the van into the town of Furnas so we could try this Azorean delicacy. Alas, we were too slow and lost the van. We came to a t-intersection in the town and had to make a choice. Against my advice we turned right and fairly soon the town started to disappear. Just as we were about to turn around we saw a sign that reminded us of the markings on the van. Sure enough the restaurant is just up a side road attached to a national park.

So we sit down to a feast of beef, chicken, pork, three kinds of sausages and lots of vegetables with a mighty fine Portuguese wine.

Of course all of this is on Wikipedia, but it was complete news to us. When we checked the ship's brochure later there was no mention of the Hot Springs or Cozido. So we were very pleased with ourselves, avoiding the road well-travelled (touristically speaking) and discovering something the more conventional travellers would never have found. There were more adventures that day but this was the highlight. We'll close with a view from the caldera rim looking toward Logoa das Furnas.