We had another lovely breakfast in our historic B&B. We had a fresh fruit salad, passion fruit juice, scrambled eggs with the unique island pepper sauce, wonderful cheeses, meats and at least five different, fresh breads. We don’t know what they do with all the leftover bread, but each day five new loaves appear. Today’s specialty bread was one made in Furnas called bolos livedos. It is a soft, spongy bread that is especially good with Sao Jorge cheese. The sweet bread today had a slight coconut flavor and was great with coffee.
Teresa did not have her helper today but kept coming out of the kitchen to explain how we should plan our day. She had great suggestions and we followed them exactly.
We met the Moody’s at our B&B door and and gave them a tour of the B&B, the place is quite impressive. We walked across San Francisco Square to our rental car and drove to Furnas. Our first stop was at the Caldeiras, a tourist spot where the traditional cozido (stew) of Furnas is cooked. The area smells of sulfur and has multiple geysers, bubbling mud pools and steam rising from multiple fissures.
The ingredients of the stew are placed in a clay pot or a pan, wrapped in what looks like burlap, then lowered into holes and buried. For about six hours, the food is cooked by the heat from the geothermal activity. The holes are labeled with the restaurant it belongs to. We watched one pot being placed into the ground and then covered with dirt. This geothermal area is next to the Furnas Lake. At the head of the lake is a beautiful stone church. Dave went down to the lake to take some pictures and a couple of geese were a bit upset that he was invading their territory and charged him. Quite a spectacle! The area is like Yellowstone but with smaller geysers — no Old Faithful.
We then drove 2kms into the village of Furnas. It is a a pretty tourist town with a botanical garden and hot springs. We parked near a house where a man was painting. We noticed his white paint and had the brilliant idea to ask him for a finger full to dab out a small scrape on our rental car. The car was brand new with no dings and as we drove out of a viewing area the day before, the front scraped. The man was more than willing to help and even gave Dave a rag to wipe off his hand! (The repair job worked!)
Teresa told us to get into town and make a reservation at one of the restaurants serving the cozidos because they only made so many pots a day and when they were gone, they were gone. We decided on Miromar because it had a cute dining room. We made a reservation for 1:00 and had a couple of hours to kill.
We strolled the narrow streets and went through the lobby of the Terra Nostra Hotel to check out the botanical garden. It was a fabulous place. We had an expresso at a small cafe with a sun-drenched patio and leisurely explored the village waiting for our lunch to be ready.
Just before lunch, we went to the Information office to find out about the hot springs. We got very detailed information and realized it would take some time to hit the highlights so decided to go after lunch.
We arrived at Miromar a little early, but there were lots of tables already occupied and enjoying the stew. We had ordered only two plates for the four of us because of the quantity of food. That was a good decision. The platter of food included pork, beef, chicken, ribs, chorizo, blood sausage, potatoes, cabbage and greens. It was really tasty. According to Teresa, they do not use any spices and the flavor comes from the various meats. We also enjoyed a pitcher of red sangria.
After lunch we walked to the hot springs. The Caldeiras were very active and we walked the paths surrounding them.
We also tasted some of the water from a couple fountains. One was horrible but the other not too bad. Again, the scenery surrounding the hot springs was spectacular. We took a different route back to our car, past a beautiful National Park and a boutique hotel where you could bathe in the springs.
From Furnas we drove to a high viewpoint, Pico do Ferro, offering vistas of the Valley of Furnas, with the village on the left and the lagoon ahead. This spot was amazing and the walkway itself was lined with hydrangeas and azaleas. Unbelievable!
We made our way to Gorreana Tea Estate where we toured the factory, watched a video, tasted green and black tea and walked the fields. This area is the only place in Europe where tea is grown. They had to hire some Chinese experts to show them how to grow tea. The estate is large with 40 hectares and produces over 40 tons of tea per year. We purchased some green tea to bring home.
Our last stop on our circuit drive was at a lookout where we saw Lagos do Foga (Lake of Fire). The lake is in a crater and we had been told that it is usually fogged in. When we arrived, we could see it in its entirety. The weather gods were very good to us. When we stopped again to view it from another angle, the clouds/fog had crept in.
We had to head back to Ponta Delgada so that we could return our rental car by 6:30. Luckily, we were about an hour early. We ended up in the wrong underground parking garage; had to walk a long way to the rental car office to find out where we had gone wrong; struggled with paying the fee to get out; had to make a couple U-turns to get us pointed in the right direction; and finally returned the car just a little before 6:30.
We needed a drink!
Lots of people were sitting at a sidewalk cafe near the marina so we stopped for drinks and good people watching. The port avenue was hopping and made for a nice stop.
We had asked Teresa in the morning for a recommendation for a good seafood restaurant for our “Last Supper” in Porta Delgada and she recommended Mariserra which was 2kms from our B&B but probably only 1km from the marina. We decided to make the trek along the water. It was a very nice walk with tons of walkers, runners and bikers. The restaurant was very good. We had cataplana (seafood stew made in a copper pot), barracuda and two fresh grilled fish of the day. All were excellent.
We walked back to our hotel seeing more and more festival stands open. It turns out one of the largest religious festivals will take place starting Friday night and last throughout the weekend. It takes place in the square outside our balcony. Everyday, more and more lights go up on the convent and other buildings around the square and surrounding streets. We are so sorry we are missing it. It involves a statue of Christ (unknown origin) that fell during an earthquake and cracked. The Miracle Statue was miraculously fixed (no crack) and the earthquakes stopped.
We said goodbye to the Moody’s since they decided not to go whale watching.
As we sat on our balcony overlooking the San Francisco Square, all of the lights on the convent came on for a couple of minutes. They were obviously testing them and we were lucky enough to see them. It was as bright as daylight and absolutely stunning. Off to bed for an early alarm.
2025-02-17