Day 4

When planning my trip, I decided that I wanted to stay in Europe – to reduce my own risk of getting exposed to and sick from COVID, to reduce the risk of me contributing to the spread of this disease, and to avoid being a tourist in a country that is still fighting a major health crisis, taking up resources that are better spend otherwise. I did however want to go somewhere sunny and with a group, so when I saw group trips being organized to the Azores, I decided this would be this years’ destination. When I noticed the dates of this particular trip fitting my calendar perfectly and that a relatively large number of ‘single’ travellers had signed up, I decided to book. What I did not do is thoroughly investigate the destination – something I usually don’t. However, three weeks before leaving, I chatted online to a colleague and told her that I was going to the Azores and after a while she mentioned that she googled it and it looked amazing. At that point I googled it as well and concluded that this was indeed more than just a backup destination in times of crisis. The blue and green crater lakes of Sete Cidades are one of the iconic images that I got to see first.
Unfortunately, when we got there it was not as sunny as in the pictures online, in fact I even put on my coat as we got on our bikes, which was a good thing as the bus had driven us up to the top of the crater and we were mostly going downhill and going downhill fast. I was really reassured by the quality of Antonio’s bikes as this ride would have been a lot less fun without breaks that I could trust. Also today our ride ended on the shores of the crater lake. I was riding in the front of the group and when we reached a small yet not insignificant body of water, I asked Antonio whether we should cross it. He indicated that our tour indeed continued on the other side, but something seemed fishy. I said I would go across if he could guarantee that it was indeed doable and that he would owe me a beer if I would get wet, although I did not specify exactly how wet I was talking about. So I did get across, I did not fall in, but I could also not say that I was still dry by the time I made it to the other side. Some of the group members followed after which others drove behind Antonio to a dry place to cross nearby. In all fairness, Antonio was willing to get me that beer, but I did get a really nice action photo out of it and given that most damage was done below the knees and that I still had dry shoes with me in the bus, I said it was okay.
After, we took the bus back to Ponta Delgada and visited a pineapple farm. There is apparently something special that they do here when growing pineapples, having to do with burning pineapple foliage in the green houses, but it did not become very clear to me what the purpose of that would be, given that due to COVID there were no tours organized and I have not been able to find out on google. The plantation shop offered a lot of different paraphernalia and when I asked whether some of the items there were made from parts of the pineapple plant, the answer was “no, but most things are 30% off”. It had been announced that there would be pineapple liqueur that we could taste and I had high expectations. In the end I was not too impressed, but I decided to sponsor the local economy anyway by purchasing a bottle as well as a piña colada that was made from mashed pineapple that you could still chew, but that could have done with a richer coconut cream.
News had been trickling in about a volcanic eruption on La Palma, which did make me wonder whether the Canary Islands and the Azores where located on the same fault line and whether this could have consequences for us. Luckily this misfortune was about 1600 km removed from where we were and luckily this did not impact the Azores at all.