Portugal, Part 4: Ponta Delgada (San Miguel Island, Azores)
In the morning, it was time to fly off to Ponta Delgada, on the island of San Miguel in the Azures. If you can remember back to the first post in this series, that was where the Travelers’ Century Club conference was being held. I survived the bleakness of Terminal 2 at Lisbon, which the low cost airlines fly out of, and the cramped quarters of RyanAir. When I exited the secure area on arrival, I immediately saw a TCC member I knew and we ended up sharing a taxi into town. (He was at an Air B&B, while I was at the conference hotel.) It was too early to check in, so I left my bags and took a walk around the area. I got some coffee and a pastry,then set off to try to find malassadas (fried dough with powdered sugar, popular at festivals in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and also widely available in some parts of Hawaii.) Alas, they are only available during Carnival. I mostly walked along the ocean, with a quick browse at a few stores. The hotel called me to let me know my room was available and it turned out to be quite nice, with an excellent view of the water.
I took advantage of an opportunity to catch up on sleep a bit. Several TCC attendees met downstairs at the bar and we had a pleasant evening of drinks and dinner. (Cindy arrived too late to join us. She texted me and we set up a time to meet for breakfast, which was included at the hotel.)
Since the conference didn’t start until early evening, Cindy and I had broked a Whaling Heritage tour for the afternoon. We were picked up at the hotel and driven to the offices of the company (which also does whale watching, though those tours are often canceled due to weather.) We were shown a few videos about whaling in the Azores, which was primarily done for processing of whale products, especially oil and spermaceti.
We got to handle harpoons, which makes for an amusing picture.
Then we went outside to see a whaleboat.
Finally, we were taken to a lookout hut where spotters scan the water for whales and radio the whale watching guides. I saw a sailboat and some birds, but no whales, alas.
Overall, I thought the tour was both entertaining and informative.
They dropped us back at the hotel and we checked in for the conference. There was a welcome reception, followed by a buffet dinner. Unfortunately the rooms where each of those were held had terrible acoustics. It should have been enjoyable to mingle and talk with people, but both rooms were painfully loud. In addition, while the food was okay, the buffet was set up in an awkward arrangement. For example, the plates were not at one end of the buffet, but sort of in the middle. And they were slow to replace things that ran out, like lettuce, which I tend to think of as a key element of salad.
We went into the conference room, which, fortunately, had decent acoustics - at least as long as people used the microphones. There was a short presentation about TCC history to celebrate the organization’s 70th anniversary. They also gave out forms for people to nominate locations for the 2026 conference.
Friday featured a full day tour. We started off going towards a scenic overlook.
Then we moved on towards an area along the coast which was pretty much where we’d gone for the whaling history tour the day before. That was followed by going to the Furnas Valley, to see some fumaroles (vents which release volcanic gases, which people use for cooking). Unfortunately, just as we got to the end of the path, it started raining, so we turned around right away and went back to the buses. By the way, the path was full of tree roots.
We went to the town of Furnas and looked at a bunch of fumaroles.
After that we went to a restaurant to eat Cozido das Calderas, a meat and vegetable stew cooked in the fumaroles. Not really my sort of thing, since sulfur is not really my favorite food flavoring. After lunch, we set out to tour the Terra Nostra Garden. This started with the summer home of Thomas Hickling, built in 1775. A few years later he became the U.S. Consul to the island of San Miguel. Later on the house was converted to a hotel. There’s a thermal pool in front of the house. Personally, I’m not a fan of orange-brown water and I was not inclined to get my bathing suit stained by the unattractive water.
I am, however, a fan of topiary. Here, have an orangutan.
Or, perhaps, you’d prefer a visit to Australia? (Not that I’m actually sure what animal this is supposed to be.)
I think these are water lilies, but as a person who can just barely tell a rosebush from a weeping willow, who knows?
It inevitably began raining again while we were waiting to get picked up by the buses. Our final stop was at the Gorreana Tea Plantation. By the time we got there, it was absolutely pouring. We pretty much ran to the store, which had nothing much of interest for me. I did taste a tea sample, but their tea was not really much to my taste.
We went back to the hotel, where we had a free evening. Various TCC chapters held dinners. I knew a little over half the people at the D.C. Chapter dinner, which was held at the restaurant in the adjacent hotel. The food was pretty good value, with three courses (soup or salad, pasta or fish, and dessert) plus a glass of wine for EUR 20. Overall, it was a good time.
Saturday started with a keynote presentation by Pauline Frommer, focused on ways to save money when traveling. I’d heard her speak before and I don’t think she said much that I didn’t already know. There was an interesting talk by Craig Forest, who had been involved with filming for The Amazing Race (and other programs). I stopped watching the show years ago, but I did find his presentation interesting. He also had several film clips from Marrakesh, which has been on my list of places to go to for a while.
That was followed by another buffet lunch, after which there was a walking tour of Ponta Delgado. To nobody’s surprise, there are lots of churches, many of which were not open.
There was also a stop for cheese tasting (which I ignored).
I can look at fancy silver, but I don’t really need any of that either. (And I think that store was closed anyway.)
Further along, we saw the city hall. And another church.
These magnificent gates lead to the Fort, which now has a maritime museum.
There’s also a monument to emigrants.
The biggest highlight in that area had to do with two convents. We were able to go into the elaborate interiors, which had red carpets, ornately decorated altars, and (yes!) azulejos.
We were supposed to go to a nearby botanical garden, but it started raining. We found somewhere to get coffee - and, more importantly, have a “comfort stop,” before returning to the hotel. We had dinner that evening at Solar de Graca, which featured a buffet with okay food, followed by a folk music and dance show.
Sunday involved several member presentations. Topics included tips for booking airline travel, a pretty thorough talk on Pacific Islands, a talk about Indonesia, and three people talking about difficult destinations. The latter proved just how crazy some TCC members can be. No, I am not planning to go to Mogadishu. Nor do I have any desire to go anywhere I can’t legally get a permit for.
There was the inevitable buffet lunch. There was an afternoon tour to the Sete Cidades (Seven Cities) but, since I had an early evening flight and all of the other tours had run late, I decided it was best to skip that. Based on Cindy’s report, that seemed to have been a good decision. The airport was chaotic and it took me about half an hour to get a tuna sandwich and a soda at the one restaurant that was open. Ryan Air was even less comfortable on the way back to Lisbon than it had been on the way to the Azores, but I survived. I pretty much collapsed in bed when I got to my hotel.
My trip home on United was much more comfortable. All in all, it was a pleasant enough couple of weeks away. Apparently, the top 4 locations in the running for the 2026 conference are Cape Town, Istanbul, Bali, and Brisbane. I’d definitely prefer Bali out of those, since I’ve never been there. And I do like Cape Town, which is a good gateway to other places I haven’t been. Since the full membership votes on this, we’ll have to see what happens.
I took advantage of an opportunity to catch up on sleep a bit. Several TCC attendees met downstairs at the bar and we had a pleasant evening of drinks and dinner. (Cindy arrived too late to join us. She texted me and we set up a time to meet for breakfast, which was included at the hotel.)
Since the conference didn’t start until early evening, Cindy and I had broked a Whaling Heritage tour for the afternoon. We were picked up at the hotel and driven to the offices of the company (which also does whale watching, though those tours are often canceled due to weather.) We were shown a few videos about whaling in the Azores, which was primarily done for processing of whale products, especially oil and spermaceti.
We got to handle harpoons, which makes for an amusing picture.
Then we went outside to see a whaleboat.
Finally, we were taken to a lookout hut where spotters scan the water for whales and radio the whale watching guides. I saw a sailboat and some birds, but no whales, alas.
Overall, I thought the tour was both entertaining and informative.
They dropped us back at the hotel and we checked in for the conference. There was a welcome reception, followed by a buffet dinner. Unfortunately the rooms where each of those were held had terrible acoustics. It should have been enjoyable to mingle and talk with people, but both rooms were painfully loud. In addition, while the food was okay, the buffet was set up in an awkward arrangement. For example, the plates were not at one end of the buffet, but sort of in the middle. And they were slow to replace things that ran out, like lettuce, which I tend to think of as a key element of salad.
We went into the conference room, which, fortunately, had decent acoustics - at least as long as people used the microphones. There was a short presentation about TCC history to celebrate the organization’s 70th anniversary. They also gave out forms for people to nominate locations for the 2026 conference.
Friday featured a full day tour. We started off going towards a scenic overlook.
Then we moved on towards an area along the coast which was pretty much where we’d gone for the whaling history tour the day before. That was followed by going to the Furnas Valley, to see some fumaroles (vents which release volcanic gases, which people use for cooking). Unfortunately, just as we got to the end of the path, it started raining, so we turned around right away and went back to the buses. By the way, the path was full of tree roots.
We went to the town of Furnas and looked at a bunch of fumaroles.
After that we went to a restaurant to eat Cozido das Calderas, a meat and vegetable stew cooked in the fumaroles. Not really my sort of thing, since sulfur is not really my favorite food flavoring. After lunch, we set out to tour the Terra Nostra Garden. This started with the summer home of Thomas Hickling, built in 1775. A few years later he became the U.S. Consul to the island of San Miguel. Later on the house was converted to a hotel. There’s a thermal pool in front of the house. Personally, I’m not a fan of orange-brown water and I was not inclined to get my bathing suit stained by the unattractive water.
I am, however, a fan of topiary. Here, have an orangutan.
Or, perhaps, you’d prefer a visit to Australia? (Not that I’m actually sure what animal this is supposed to be.)
I think these are water lilies, but as a person who can just barely tell a rosebush from a weeping willow, who knows?
It inevitably began raining again while we were waiting to get picked up by the buses. Our final stop was at the Gorreana Tea Plantation. By the time we got there, it was absolutely pouring. We pretty much ran to the store, which had nothing much of interest for me. I did taste a tea sample, but their tea was not really much to my taste.
We went back to the hotel, where we had a free evening. Various TCC chapters held dinners. I knew a little over half the people at the D.C. Chapter dinner, which was held at the restaurant in the adjacent hotel. The food was pretty good value, with three courses (soup or salad, pasta or fish, and dessert) plus a glass of wine for EUR 20. Overall, it was a good time.
Saturday started with a keynote presentation by Pauline Frommer, focused on ways to save money when traveling. I’d heard her speak before and I don’t think she said much that I didn’t already know. There was an interesting talk by Craig Forest, who had been involved with filming for The Amazing Race (and other programs). I stopped watching the show years ago, but I did find his presentation interesting. He also had several film clips from Marrakesh, which has been on my list of places to go to for a while.
That was followed by another buffet lunch, after which there was a walking tour of Ponta Delgado. To nobody’s surprise, there are lots of churches, many of which were not open.
There was also a stop for cheese tasting (which I ignored).
I can look at fancy silver, but I don’t really need any of that either. (And I think that store was closed anyway.)
Further along, we saw the city hall. And another church.
These magnificent gates lead to the Fort, which now has a maritime museum.
There’s also a monument to emigrants.
The biggest highlight in that area had to do with two convents. We were able to go into the elaborate interiors, which had red carpets, ornately decorated altars, and (yes!) azulejos.
We were supposed to go to a nearby botanical garden, but it started raining. We found somewhere to get coffee - and, more importantly, have a “comfort stop,” before returning to the hotel. We had dinner that evening at Solar de Graca, which featured a buffet with okay food, followed by a folk music and dance show.
Sunday involved several member presentations. Topics included tips for booking airline travel, a pretty thorough talk on Pacific Islands, a talk about Indonesia, and three people talking about difficult destinations. The latter proved just how crazy some TCC members can be. No, I am not planning to go to Mogadishu. Nor do I have any desire to go anywhere I can’t legally get a permit for.
There was the inevitable buffet lunch. There was an afternoon tour to the Sete Cidades (Seven Cities) but, since I had an early evening flight and all of the other tours had run late, I decided it was best to skip that. Based on Cindy’s report, that seemed to have been a good decision. The airport was chaotic and it took me about half an hour to get a tuna sandwich and a soda at the one restaurant that was open. Ryan Air was even less comfortable on the way back to Lisbon than it had been on the way to the Azores, but I survived. I pretty much collapsed in bed when I got to my hotel.
My trip home on United was much more comfortable. All in all, it was a pleasant enough couple of weeks away. Apparently, the top 4 locations in the running for the 2026 conference are Cape Town, Istanbul, Bali, and Brisbane. I’d definitely prefer Bali out of those, since I’ve never been there. And I do like Cape Town, which is a good gateway to other places I haven’t been. Since the full membership votes on this, we’ll have to see what happens.