More Spelunking and Exploring
The Weather Channel was spot on … it was windy today … but not crazy windy; it was quite pleasant. The wind blew in some haze. Visibility was at least several miles, but less than 15 miles — we couldn’t see São Jorge.
After lunch at home we headed to Gruta das Torres, the longest known lava tube caves in Portugal. Exploration of these caves are only by guided tour. After a 10 minute video about the geologic formation of the Azores and the caves, the tour was about an hour. Our guide was very knowledgeable, she explained a lot about the geological and biological aspects of the caves. Probably the most interesting fact we learned is that, sound does not echo in the caves (if you’ve been on at the cave tours, you know what we’re talking about). The volcanic rocks are so porous that they absorb most of the sound. It is very interesting. At the end or bottom of the tour we also all turned our flashlights off to experience total darkness.
We took advantage of having a car and decided to drive around to the other side of the island. The other side of the island is a little bit different than where we are. We ended our tour at the town of Lajes, which is another larger port city. After walking around town for a little bit and having some coffee, we took the more direct route up over the center of the island back to our house.
This is the opposite side of Mount Pico from where we are staying. These are vineyards they are planted with walls like a maze, in order to protect the vines from the ocean breeze.
We’re not sure if we’ve mentioned it, but hydrangea is definitely the flower of the Azores. They are everywhere. In fact, they are planted along all of the roads as hedges. They are all in bloom right now and they are beautiful.
We cooked dinner at home again tonight. We made a ground beef patty with a caramelized onion cream sauce. Boiled potatoes and fresh bread from the bakery rounded out meal. Of course we had more sangria and a little extra white wine. We each had a lot of melon for lunch so we don’t feel too guilty about not having vegetables.
These islands are the most volcanic place we’ve ever been. Lava rocks of all kinds are used to make the rock walls and other structures. We’re not sure what we imagined, but everywhere one looks is lava. It’s pretty cool.
We enjoyed most of the morning doing very little. We didn’t look exactly like the cats, but pretty close …
We did take a short walk into town to pick up a car we will use today, tomorrow, and to get back to the airport on Friday. It was a much better deal than they were offering at the airport when we arrived.
After lunch at home we headed to Gruta das Torres, the longest known lava tube caves in Portugal. Exploration of these caves are only by guided tour. After a 10 minute video about the geologic formation of the Azores and the caves, the tour was about an hour. Our guide was very knowledgeable, she explained a lot about the geological and biological aspects of the caves. Probably the most interesting fact we learned is that, sound does not echo in the caves (if you’ve been on at the cave tours, you know what we’re talking about). The volcanic rocks are so porous that they absorb most of the sound. It is very interesting. At the end or bottom of the tour we also all turned our flashlights off to experience total darkness.
We took advantage of having a car and decided to drive around to the other side of the island. The other side of the island is a little bit different than where we are. We ended our tour at the town of Lajes, which is another larger port city. After walking around town for a little bit and having some coffee, we took the more direct route up over the center of the island back to our house.
This is the opposite side of Mount Pico from where we are staying. These are vineyards they are planted with walls like a maze, in order to protect the vines from the ocean breeze.
We’re not sure if we’ve mentioned it, but hydrangea is definitely the flower of the Azores. They are everywhere. In fact, they are planted along all of the roads as hedges. They are all in bloom right now and they are beautiful.
We cooked dinner at home again tonight. We made a ground beef patty with a caramelized onion cream sauce. Boiled potatoes and fresh bread from the bakery rounded out meal. Of course we had more sangria and a little extra white wine. We each had a lot of melon for lunch so we don’t feel too guilty about not having vegetables.
These islands are the most volcanic place we’ve ever been. Lava rocks of all kinds are used to make the rock walls and other structures. We’re not sure what we imagined, but everywhere one looks is lava. It’s pretty cool.
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