It’s Disney, Four Hours of Sleep is Normal! Mother Daughter 2018 F&W TR! (Updated 9/22!)

Reading along! I have to admit I've never heard of Azores and had no idea where it was (thanks google!) haha how did you discover this place?
 
Reading along! I have to admit I've never heard of Azores and had no idea where it was (thanks google!) haha how did you discover this place?

Haha, I had never heard of them either! It was actually my mom who discovered them, I think she read an article about them in the paper or something. Kudos to my mom for finding something cool before I did!
 
Day 2: June 24th - That time we Hiked up 251 Stories

We were up nice an early the second day, which wasn’t horrible actually, that first night I slept better than I have in years so I actually felt really refreshed! Our plan for this day was to hike around the rim of the volcano at Sete Cidades. Since the first few stops of our itinerary that morning were at super touristy spots, we wanted to head out really early to beat the crowds.

We ended up heading out around 7 that morning, and were pulling into our first stop, vista do rei, right around 7:30. It was an amazingly fast drive out there! We were the only people there for the first 5 minutes or so, so it was nice to just take it all in without others being around. Another car pulled up soon after us though, and we recognized the couple from our flight the day before! This actually happened a lot that week, we kept running into the same people throughout the trip!
We took some photos of the area, before hoping back in the car to head to our next stop.


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Our next stop was to see Miradouro Boca do Inferno. When we got there the gate was closed to the road in, so we had to park out on the main road and hike up, but it wasn’t too long of a trek. Unlike our first stop, there were already a handful of tourists here, which we were a bit surprised by seeing it was only about 7:45 in the morning and we had heard places are usually empty until 8:30-9:00!

We had pretty bad timing and started our hike up to the viewpoint at the exact same time as another group, so it was a bit awkward with us all walking up together! This same thing actually happened literally every hike we went on this trip, it was really odd!

Anyways, we made our way up the trail, trying to stay a bit behind the group that we started with to make it a bit less awkward. When we got to the top we found that the clouds had moved in! Seriously, in the 5 minute drive from the previous viewpoint to this one, it went from being perfectly clear, to this:



Since we were in no rush, we decided to just hang out there and wait for the clouds to go away since this was supposed to be one of the best views on the island (certainly one of the most instagramed locations on the island!). The other tourists that were there had the same idea, so the group of us all squished along the railing waiting for the clouds to clear.

Eventually the clouds did clear a bit, and we got some decent shots. Although I don’t get why this place is considered one of the best views on the island, we saw much better views throughout the trip, and without the crowds!







Oh, and here’s a video of the hike up!



After about an hour there we had seen enough and were itching to get on with our real hike for the day, so we headed back to the car and drove down to the parking lot at the trail head.

Now there are two hikes you can do around the rim of the volcano, one that starts at vista do rei and goes around the south side of the volcano, and the second that goes around the north. The one that starts at Vista Do Rei is extremely popular, since it starts at the main viewpoint over the lakes and is easier to access and is set up for more tourists. We wanted to avoid that one since we figured it would be really crowded. We opted to do the lesser known hike on the north, that starts kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Well, we were surprised to pull into the parking lot for the northern hike to find it already full of cars! HA, so much for not well known! Seriously, our friends had come here a year before around the same time of year, and their experience with the number of tourists vs ours were night and day. This island has become really popular in the past year, so much that they actually ban cruise ships now in the summer since they can’t support the number of tourists coming onto the island in the summer months!

Anyways, back to the hike. We of course started our hike at the exact same time as another family, like I said, this happened at every hike. Since this hike was an out and back, I suggested to my mom that we don’t take pictures yet on the way out so we could gain some distance between us and the other family who were stopping a lot for pictures, and she agreed. This actually worked out really well and we gained a pretty good distance on them and ended up not seeing them again that day.

The hike starts down in a valley, next to a cow pasture and an old aqueduct. It’s really unassuming, and unless you know it’s there, you would easily miss it. It starts by walking up the road next to the aqueducts, before you turn off onto a dirt road that runs along more cow pastures. There are a lot of cows on this island.



After about a mile you come across THE HILL. This thing is massive, just goes straight up the side of the mountain. It makes the hills in San Francisco look like speed bumps.



Yeah, that was a surprise, didn’t expect to hike up that monster! When we finally made it to the top, we found ourselves back in the clouds. It was actually kind of surreal, the clouds were so thick we couldn’t see more than about 100ft in front of us, which was also kind of bad since there were a lot of paths around to take! They do mark the trails there, but in that fog it was really hard to see any of them!

We did almost end up going the wrong way at one point, we got to a point where the trail split. We had noticed a group ahead of us had gone to the left, so at first I assumed we should go that way as well, but as we were heading up that way I noticed (barely) a trail marker down the other path! Glad I saw that, not sure where the other path went!

The first 30-45 minutes of the hike we were in the clouds, but eventually they started to lift, right about the time we came across our first view from the hike:



Wow, just wow. From there out the views were just stunning. On the left we had views over the caldera and the lakes, and to the right we looked out over all the fields down to the ocean. This was by far the most beautiful hike I’ve ever been on! It was also one of the more exhausting.

We assumed once we got up to the rim, the trail would be relatively flat. HA. Yeah, that was a bad assumption. It was like a rollercoaster, just up and down the whole way. Here’s a picture of one of the hills, it doesn’t look bad until you see my mom up ahead looking miniature! It was a great workout!



Next up: Day 2, Part 2: Are we there yet?
 
Quick pre-TR update!

So the other week when they released the reservations for Oga's I was super bummed since I was stuck in meetings in a scif both the day they initially released them and the day they released more so wasn't able to try to get reservations until the evening they were released. I was able to score a reservation for one, but hadn't been able to add my mom to the reservation. Well, this morning I was updating our schedule and just happened to take a peak to see if I could change my reservation of one to a reservation of 2 and amazingly one was available! Now I don't have to abandon my mom to check this place out! :rotfl2:

I *think* our schedule is final at this point. We're once again probably doing too much, especially since my mom has a broken foot (I'll get to that soon in the Azores TR!), but I'm hoping if we add a lot of rest time in during the heat of the day it'll be ok.

For this trip we have planned:
-Circles of Flavor
-DAH at MK
-The Illuminations package at Rose and Crown
-Festival of the Lion King Package
-Cabana rental
-Halloween Party
-The lamb and spirits food and wine event
-The Mediterranean Food and wine pairing
-Oga's! (yay!)
-Special Event Illuminations Final showing
-Special Event new/interim Epcot fireworks show

Apparently we didn't learn our lesson after last year to not book so much during our trips...oops!
 


Day 2, Part 2: Are we there yet?

Our plan for the hike was to make it to the midpoint of the north lake where there was a picnic area where we planned on eating our lunch. That was about 4.25 miles into the hike, so we figured 8.5 miles overall would be a good distance for that day.

It took longer than expected to make it to the picnic area due to all the massive hills, but we finally made it and had a nice lunch overlooking the lakes.



This little bird came to join us.



While eating, we got to talking about the hike and how we wanted to see a bit more, so instead of turning back after eating, we opted to continue going for a bit more!

On one hand I’m glad we did, some of my favorite views were from beyond the picnic area, on the other hand continuing on may have been a mistake since we had to hike ALL the way back! We ended up hiking just over 13 miles instead of the 8.5 originally planned! Oops! In retrospect we should have just hiked all the way down to the town of Sete Cidades, which was only about a mile beyond where we turned around, and taken a taxi back to our car!

The views though beyond the picnic area were worth the pain.











The hike back was, well, rough. On the way out we didn’t realize how many hills we were going down! By the time we made it back to the picnic area we had to stop to rest since our legs were exhausted. At least it gave me time to take more pictures!





Eventually we moved on, but it was a struggle. On the way back the trail was a lot more crowded. One thing that we found so odd were the number of tourists who were hiking it as if they were in a competition to finish it the fastest. They weren’t checking out the beautiful views, they were just speed walking and ignoring all the beauty around them, seemed so odd! To each their own I guess!

We also ran into our friendly German tour group on the way back too, we ended up running into this group every single day of the trip. It was really odd that our daily plans were exactly the same!

The hike ended up taking about 6 hours and the last mile or two were pretty ugly. Remember that massive hill we walked up at the beginning? Well, we had to go down it on the way back, and when you’re legs are exhausted, downhill hurts just as much as uphill! We made it though, we were SO happy to see our car! At the end we had climbed 251 stories! The Burj Khalifa is only 163 stories...so we climbed almost 100 stories more than that! No wonder our legs hurt so much!

When we got back to the car we just sat there scarfing down extra granola bars for about 20 minutes. That hike took it out of us! And I row competitively, I thought I was in decent shape! HA! Apparently not!

After resting a while in the car, we ended up driving back to the hotel to just relax for the rest of the afternoon. We got back to the hotel around 4, which was great timing. We showered then just chilled for a while on the balcony.

For dinner that night we were going to one of the top rated restaurants in town. There is only seating for 12 in there though, so it was suggested to get there right at opening at 6:00. So around 5:45 we slowly made our way over there, our legs were not happy to have to go for another walk!

We were lucky and got there right at opening and grabbed a table. It was small in there, the tables were 1” from each other. No, that is not an exaggeration. At the end of the meal they had to actually pull the table out so I could get out!

It was a decent place though, we both ended up getting this rather odd dish, it was steak under pasta? But it wasn’t really steak, it was like ground beef with a lot of spices and ground veggies mixed in? I don’t know, we both found it really odd and wasn’t our favorite. We were so hungry after the hike though that we didn’t care, we just needed food! For dessert we split one of the local pineapples. The locally grown pineapples there are amazing, so sweet!

After dinner we were completely done for the day, so made our way back to the hotel to crash. On the way out though I had to get a picture of the cool street art.



When we got back to the hotel we actually found ourselves still hungry! Haha, our bodies were still recovering from the hike I guess. So we went to the hotel bar, which was conveniently just down the hall from our room, and ordered a cheese plate and a bottle of wine to bring back to the room. The staff at the hotel, especially this bar, were amazing. They brought us the wine and poured us glasses while we waited there for the cheese plate to be ready, and once the cheese was, they actually brought it and the bottle back to the room for us! We ended up doing this almost every night of the trip!

The local cheese on this island is amazing. Best cheese I’ve ever had. Apparently these island actually supply 75%-80% of all the cheese in mainland Portugal! Kind of crazy!

Here is a video of our hike that day!


Next up: Day 3 - Let’s go on another hike! [/URL]
 
Sorry about your mom's foot! But your plans sound fun and I'm glad you were able to add her to your Oga's reservation!
 


Day 3, Part 1 - Let’s go on another hike!

The next morning we woke up nice and early again. Our plan this day was to go on yet another hike. Ha. Our legs were not thrilled with this schedule.

Again we ended up leaving the hotel around 7, this time making our way to the east side of the island for our hike. The trip out was a lot longer this time, about 1.5 hours, and the drive was a bit more difficult. The first half of it was easy and on the “highway”, but that ended about 40 minutes in and after that we were on winding local roads that occasionally cut through the center of small villages where the road shrunk down to only about a lane and a half to fit between the houses. Definitely some interesting moments driving, especially with some of the oncoming traffic!

We arrived at our destination eventually, and found a place to park. We were the first ones there! Yay! We gathered all our stuff and started making our way from the parking area up the road to the start of the trail. Of course, as we’re walking up, another car pulls up and the family gets out and starts their hike at the same time as us. Seriously, every single hike this happened. Super annoying! We were the only two families there for the first hour or so and they just had to arrive at the same time as us. Fortunately this family had a small kid with them, so they were slow going up the trail, I’m actually shocked the kid made it, the trail is not an easy one!

We expected this hike to be a lot flatter than the one the day before, once again, we were wrong. Oops! It starts off at a slight incline, nothing horrible, as you walk along a river. The scenery in there is just stunning, it’s like walking through a rainforest. At a point though, you start making your way up the mountain, and the trail gets really steep. Our legs were not happy with this part!







As we were making our way up the switchbacks, we turned the corner and surprise, there was a random rooster!



He came charging down the trail when he saw us! We had read there were friendly chickens on this trail, so we figured it was him! This guy ended up following us for like a mile! He really seemed to like my mom, he stayed close to her the whole time he followed us, haha!

He did end up leaving us at some point, guess we got too far outside his territory. Soon after he left us though, we could start hearing our destination, and not long after that we arrived.



Salto do Prego. This is a stunning place. We both ended up taking a dip in the pool there, it was so hot and humid in the forest we were super gross and sweaty by the time we made it to the waterfall. The water is frigid though, so it was a very quick dip! Not long after we arrived, the other family did as well, and it was a bit awkward with both of us wanting to just hang out there and enjoy the beauty. Stupid other family. Haha! Actually, they were really nice and we ended up taking pictures for each other.

After a nice break at the waterfall, we hiked back up into the mountain, this time taking a different trail back that brought us through a semi-abandoned village. I guess it used to be fully abandoned, but with the increase in popularity due to the tourism, people are moving back in now.

On the hike back, we ran into a whole group of chickens and roosters! There was one rooster that didn’t seem to like us being there, so started to try to chase us out. Well, he got a bit too close to another rooster and chicken and their baby, and omg, the roosters started to go at each other! The one who was chasing us ended up on a rock at the edge of the trail, and when the other rooster came at him, fell off the rock and down the cliff! We felt so bad, the poor thing! He was alright though, fortunately the cliff was full of vegetation which I think softened the fall, and I guess their wings do help a bit with falling, so he popped back on the trail a little ways down! What weird birds.

Anyways, soon we found ourselves stepping out of the forest into the village. It was really cool, something about ruins is oddly really pretty.







Loved the painting on the houses too.





The village is really small, so it didn’t take long to explore it. We did run into our friendly German tourist group there again though! We also got to play with some really friendly cats. So cute!



After checking out the village, we made our way down another very steep path back to the town where we parked. This path was crazy, must have been 40-45 degree incline, and the bricks that made up the path were sticking up just enough for you to catch your toe, which was scary because at the end of each switchback there was nothing to stop you from falling off the cliff! We made our way down the mountain veeeery carefully!

The views from that path though were breathtaking!



Eventually we made it down to less steep ground, and then back to our car.

It wasn’t a long hike, only took us about 2 hours, which included a lot of stopping for pictures and of course our swim. It was beautiful though, I would definitely do this hike again!

Here's the video from this hike!

Next up: Day 3 - More Island Exploring
 
Sorry about your mom's foot! But your plans sound fun and I'm glad you were able to add her to your Oga's reservation!

Aw thanks! She just got her boot off and started PT, it's a slow recovery! Hopefully she's ok walking on our trip this September...only a few weeks until we go!

So happy I was able to get her onto the Oga's reservation, I'm usually too lazy or too busy to keep trying for reservations, but glad I did this time around!
 
Day 3, Part 2 - More Island Exploring

After finishing up our hike to Salto do Prego, we set off to the town of Furnas for lunch. On the way we stopped at the viewpoints we passed.

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This viewpoint was really cool, it was massive too. There were multi-tiered gardens, a ton of grills, and lots of tables for picnics. There was even a local family there that was cooking fish on one of the grills when we arrived! That is one thing we noticed, there are picnic areas everywhere, they are set up all along the roads throughout the island.

After exploring the picnic area/viewpoint, we got back in the car and made our way to Furnas. Of the two touristy cities on the island (Ponta Delgada and Furnas), I would say Furnas is the nicer of the two. Furnas is really beautiful, with lush landscapes and quaint buildings. Ponta Delgada is still a bit rough around the edges, there are a ton of abandoned buildings that have fallen into disrepair, there are a handful of gentlemens clubs right in the touristy area, and the jail is right in the center of it all too. We never felt unsafe in Ponta Delgada and really enjoyed our time there, but it definitely was not nearly as nice as Furnas!

Again, I digress. We ended up parking at a large lot right when we entered Furnas, it was right across from the calderas, and was easy to get in and out of. Some of the parking further into town was a bit tricky, so we figured this would make our lives easier.

Our plan was to grab lunch at the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel, we had read good reviews of it, and also by eating there we got free admission into the Terra Nostra Garden. It was a bit of a walk from the car, maybe 15 minutes, but it was a nice stroll through town. We were pleasantly surprised when we got there that there were plenty of tables available still. It was around 1:00 at that point, and apparently we were early for lunch! Around 2:00 the place really started to fill up.

For lunch I ordered a fish soup, and then we split the cozido. This is basically a pot full of all sorts of meat that is cooked underground nearby with the volcanic activity. This ended up being a massive amount of food! We each ended up having a steak, pigs ear (not a fan!), pork belly, chicken, pork chop, sweet potato, kale, cabbage, and some other things I can’t remember. I tried a bit of everything, but couldn’t come close to finishing! The flavors were definitely interesting, very sulfur-y, which I guess makes sense based on how they cook it!


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After lunch, we made our way over to the gardens. It’s really nice that you get free admission if you eat at the hotel!

The gardens are amazing, and massive! We thought an hour would be enough time to explore them, we were very very wrong! We maybe saw ¼ of them in that time!


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Unfortunately we were still feeling the previous days hike, so after about an hour we were tired of being on our feet, so decided to move on.
We made our way back to the car, and decided to take a quick peak over at the calderas before heading out.



It’s funny, when we first parked they we commented on how bad it smelled there with the sulfur smell from the calderas. When we came back after lunch we commented on how now it smelled like our lunch! Haha!

We finally got back to the car and made our way to our next stop, another viewpoint, Miradouro Pico do Ferro.





Such a beautiful view! Although the road up there was a bit scary. It’s barely the width of two cars and there are portions where there is a rock wall built right up against the road. As we were driving up, 3 tour buses were driving down, and of course it was right when we were next to the rock wall so we couldn’t move over at all! My mom was driving and informed me after the busses passed that she actually closed her eyes when they did she was so afraid they would side-swipe us! Ha!
Anyways, we got to the top safely and the car was not hit! At the top there is a really steep hill that you have to climb from the parking lot up to the viewpoint, so our legs were definitely protesting that, but once we got to the top, the view made up for the pain!

After taking far too many pictures, we made our way back to the car, and headed off to our next destination. The tea plantation!

Well, this may have been a mistake. This is one of the other super touristy spots on the island, and in the middle of the afternoon it is a madhouse. We miraculously found a parking spot when we arrived, someone had just left, but when we went into the building we realized there was no way we wanted to stay, the line to get a cup of tea wound through at least three rooms! So instead we took a quick stroll through some of the fields, then hopped back in the car and made our way back to the hotel!

It was late afternoon when we got back, so we decided to just sit out on our balcony and have a glass of wine and just enjoy the views for a while. We ended up sitting out there for hours. Since we had such a huge lunch, neither of us were really hungry for dinner, so opted to grab another cheese plate from the bar and eat it out on our balcony while enjoying some local wine.

Here are some views of the beautiful sunset that evening from our balcony:



It was a perfect end to a busy day!


Next up: Day 4 - I'm on a boat!
 
Day 4, Part 1 - I’m on a Boat!

This morning was yet another early wake-up. Although thankfully for our legs, we were not hiking at all! We were going on a whale/dolphin watching cruise! The cruise was set for 8:00AM, and was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel, so we ended up heading out around 7:35. We got there just as they were setting up for the morning.

The company we went with is really great, and also really popular. They are actually marine biologists, so are a wealth of knowledge. Also, unlike most of the other whale/dolphin watching cruises we saw, they only take out small groups of people, 12 max, so it’s much more intimate experience.

When we arrived at the booth, there were two women there trying to sign up for our excursion, but were turned away since they were fully booked for the day. Once those two left, we were able to check in, then we waited around for the rest of our group to show up. Most everyone showed up right on time, except for one family. There’s always that one family ha!

Once our group had all arrived, they took us back into their briefing room and we all sat down to go over what we may or may not see (the emphasized the fact we may not see anything seeing as we’re dealing with wild animals), then went over safety information. Once we went through the spiel, it was time to get our gear! They provided waterproof jackets and pants, and also wetsuits in the chance we could swim with dolphins. Spoiler alert, we didn’t get to this trip, although apparently they really only do that in September and October. We were also given our life vests.

We geared up, then headed over to the boat! It was a tiny tiny boat, it was actually inflatable! There were two rows of saddle style seats in it, my mom and I were lucky enough to get the front row! Once we were all aboard, we headed out to the open ocean! It was super choppy, which made it SO much fun! They did offer pills for seasickness before we headed out, which I’m sure some people would need because it was rough out there in such a small boat.

The nice thing about our boat, was even though it was inflatable, it moved fast! In no time we were speeding past the larger whale watching boats out to our first target! Each company has spotters on the shore to look out for the sealife, so our guides knew exactly where to go.

On the way out we got to talking with the family behind us, and they mentioned where they were from, and crazy enough, they are from the town where we have our summer house on the cape! Such a small world!

We were luck and in no time found ourselves next to some sperm whales! For the next hour or so we floated around following the pod.

After a long time watching whales, we headed over to see what I was most interested in, dolphins!

We raced back towards the island and soon found ourselves surrounded by dolphins! It was so amazing to see all of them.


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We ended up watching them for about another hour, before calling it a day and heading back to the marina. We arrived back around noon, and decided to go back to the hotel to change before heading into town for lunch.

Now, we had a bit of a dilemma with lunch. So not many places over there accept credit cards, even the tour companies. Actually, none of the tours we did accepted them, so we had to make sure we had plenty of euros for the trip. My mom was really concerned all trip that we would run out, so when we went out to eat, she insisted that we go to places that accepted credit cards. Let me tell you, it’s hard to find places that accept credit cards over there!

The first place we found looked really good, but had an hour+ wait, so we decided to go elsewhere. The thing about Ponta Delgada is there aren’t a whole lot of restaurants open for lunch, most only serve dinner, and there are even fewer that are open for lunch AND take credit cards.

We finally stumbled upon a place down one of the side streets that had tables available and the menu looked good, Casa Rosa. Our server wasn’t the best, he was actually kind of rude, but by the time we found the place we were really hungry and just wanted to eat.

While our server wasn’t the best, the food was actually some of the best we had on the island. I ended up getting a cod dish, and my mom got the burger. It was delicious!


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After eating, we decided to head out and explore Ponta Delgada. It’s a super small city, so it wasn’t a long exploration.

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Our favorite part though was the farmers market. That place is spectacular! We ended up buying a ton of fresh fruit to bring back to the room with us, and also picked up some bottles of wine to enjoy. The prices were pretty great too, we got four peaches for only 90 cents!

After the market we decided to take all our goodies back to the hotel and to rest for a while before our big dinner that night.


Next up: Day 4, part 2 - Our Big Dinner
 
Day 4, Part 2 - Our Big Dinner

In the year leading up to our trip we had solicited advice from friends and family who had been before. The one piece of advice we knew we had to follow was to book dinner at Quinto dos Sabores. A family friend told us all about it, and it sounded amazing.

The restaurant is actually in a local family’s farmhouse, and served by the local family. It’s a 5-ish course meal, and the veggies are grown on property! This place by far is the best restaurant on the island.

They only have one seating a night at 7:30. We arrived around 7:20, and although they were not ready for us yet, they let us in and let us select our table. They also gave us the option to go out back and explore their gardens if we wanted!

We selected our table, and soon our water was brought out. They brought out two pitchers, a regular water, and one infused with fennel and I believe mint, it was really good!

While waiting for the other guests to show up, they brought us our bread course. This wasn’t simply bread. There were four homemade dips, a homemade salsa and a variety of different breads to dip it all in. They also had some fried polenta. Yum!


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Eventually the room filled up, and they started serving the first course, ceviche and a salad. This was really good!

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Next up was a soup, I have no idea what kind of soup it was, some kind of broth based one, but it was good!

After the soup we had our fish dish, I think it was a cod? Whatever it was, it was amazing!


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Our next dish was a steak, and wow, just wow, this was perfect! At this point we were so full, but it was so good we somehow fit it all in!

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Our final course was dessert, and it did not disappoint! We were served these brownie like cakes with a gooey warm chocolate inside. Ugh, so good.

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As we were finishing up, our server brought over some more small chocolates to finish up the night. These, like everything else, were delicious!

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At the end of the meal, the hosts brought out a huge cake to the table across from us as a gift to that couple for their anniversary! It was such a nice touch, and the couple were awesome and brought pieces of the cake around the room to all of the diners. So we ended up with a piece of cake to take home with us, which we saved to have for breakfast the next morning!

By the time we left, it was close to 10:00, so about 2.5 hours for dinner. Not bad considering how much food we ate!

We made the quick trip back to the hotel and headed off to bed, we had another early morning the next day!


Next Up: Day 5, Part 1 - That time my mom broke her foot.
 
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Day 5 – That time my mom broke her foot.

We were up nice and early the next morning to get ready for our adventure of the day: Canyoning!

After eating the cake from the previous night, we made our way downstairs to wait for our guides for the day.

We were scheduled to be picked up at 8:30, and they arrived just a minute or two after. We were the only ones being picked up, the rest of the group was meeting at the start point of the canyoning. It was really nice having the van and the tour guides to ourselves for that drive over, we had a great chat with them!

It was about a 45 minute drive over to where we would go canyoning. The start is actually in a public park. While our guides got around to setting up all the equipment, they encouraged us to take a stroll through the park to check it out, which we did.


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It was beautiful back there! Fun fact, the waterfall is manmade!

After our quick little tour of the park, we made our way back to the van to get our gear on. We wiggled into our wet suites and got into the specialty shoes and harnesses for rappelling. We also met up with the rest of our tour group. There was a super nice couple from NH and a couple from Germany, so only six of us total, not bad! The other canyoning groups there had at least twice the amount of people if not more, so it was great having the smaller group.

After we all got into our gear, our guides went through a quick safety chat, before guiding us over to the waterfall for a group picture!



We then walked down through the park before coming to a big “no trespassing” sign….and well, we trespassed.

This lead us up a steep path up through the forest. It was SO hot and sticky in there, and with the super thick wetsuit on it was a pretty miserable hike up. Finally we got to a shallow pool in front of a small waterfall where the guides had us stop and spend a good 15 minutes doing the formal safety talk.

We all laughed when our guide said that no one would get hurt rappelling or jumping off waterfalls, if anyone gets hurt it be from walking. Little did we know….
After our safety spiel we continued our hike up the hill! We finally got to a point where our guides decided would be good for us to start. Our first obstacle was sliding down a natural water slide!


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It was fun, a good warm-up for the next few obstacles!

After everyone had made it safely down the slide, we continued on, walking through the riverbed.

We soon came upon a waterfall, and it was time for some real fun, jumping off!

This was a pretty short jump, but still SO much fun!


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Once again we waited for everyone to complete the jump before moving on through the riverbed.

Our next stop was where we got challenged….we had to rappel down a waterfall!


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This was amazing! I was a little nervous at first, but once I got started it was so easy and so much fun! Although, when I got to the bottom I couldn’t find the ground so I just swung there for a minute while the guide at the bottom tried to free me from the rope! HA!

My mom did a great job with the rappel as well, she was really worried it would be too hard beforehand, but ended up loving it!

After we all made it down the cliff, we moved on to another jump, this one a bit higher than the first.

This jump brought us back into the public area of the park, but we weren’t done yet. We continued on down the riverbed further.

Now, the first part of the canyoning we were up in the forrest and it was just beautiful and tropical. When we came out into the public area and it was a start contrast. All the trees along the river had been cut down recently, and it was just this barren burnt out hills surrounding the river. According to our guides, the local government recently decided to do this because they didn’t think the tourists could see the park from the road above. It was pretty disappointing to hear. It looks so ugly now, I wish they left the trees there!

Anyways. We had to walk a little ways down the riverbed to our next obstacle. As we were jumping from rock to rock, I hear a splash behind me. I turn around to see my mom has gone down. Uh oh! The guide that was following the group quickly caught up with her to see if she was ok. She said she was, but when she tried to stand she couldn’t put any weight on her left leg. So the guide ended up bringing her back up to the van for some first aid. Fortunately we were pretty close at that point to the parking lot, so she didn’t have to go far. And yeah, remember how at the beginning the guide said if anyone would get hurt, it would be while walking? Yup. He was right!

I continued on with the group to our final obstacle. The last one was this awesome super high jump!

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It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Once we had all made the jump, the guide led us up some stairs from the waterfall basin back up to the parking lot. I immediately went over to check on my mom. I had spent 7 years as a lifeguard so have gone through the first aid for first responders course many times, plus with my own clumsiness I’m kind of an expert on ways to injure your foot/ankle, so I checked out her injury. We got her shoes off and I was happy to see there was absolutely no swelling and no bruising. Good signs so far! I pressed around the area my mom said it hurt and no matter where I pressed or how hard, she said it didn’t hurt at all. All good signs! I figured she likely sprained her ankle based on her description of the pain, so after icing, we wrapped her foot and got changed out of the wetsuits. Yeah…turns out I was wrong…she actually broke her foot! Although, when she went to see the doctor, she also told my mom it was likely a sprain…it wasn’t until she got x-rays that they realized it was actually broken!

Anyways, back to the story! We had booked the canyoning tour with an add on of kayaking afterwards, so we verified that my mom was up to it, which she was, and made our way to our next stop!

My mom is a trooper!

Before we went kayaking though, we made a pit stop for lunch. As we were driving over, our guides asked us what viewpoints we had been to so far, so we went through them. Turns out, they did that because they brought us a picnic, and wanted to have it at a viewpoint but wanted to make sure it was one we hadn’t been to yet! These guys were AWESOME!

We ended up going to a viewpoint that looked out over the town of Furnas. It was way off the beaten path, so I don’t think we would have ever known about it, so we really loved them taking us there.


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For lunch they brought us these massive sandwiches, seriously they were the length of my forearm! They were delicious though!

They even brought us dessert! They were these pastries stuffed with chocolate with powdered sugar on top, they called them Pico’s after the other island in the chain. Apparently the powdered sugar on top looks like the snow on the mountain of Pico, hence the name. These were also massive, even larger than the sandwiches! I only ate about a quarter of mine, and saved the rest for the next day.

The guides also provided us with some passionfruit drinks and water. It was a great little picnic with a fantastic view! Also the guides were just such great guys, so much fun to hang out with all day!

Once we wrapped up with lunch, we made our way down the mountain and over to Furnas lake where we would go kayaking.

They had two options for kayaks for us, they recommended that my mom and I go in the two person kayak since the single person kayaks were the racing kind and super unstable. But we figured we go kayaking in the ocean all summer long even in rough water, we could handle kayaking on a calm lake even if the kayaks were less stable.

Well, the guides were correct, those kayaks were so unstable! I selected the red one, so my mom got the blue, which is funny because our kayaks on the Cape are also red and blue! Anyways, I hopped into mine and paddled out a little ways. As I’m paddling away from shore, I here a huge splash come from behind me. Uh oh. I turn around, which almost caused me to flip my kayak, to see my mom sitting in the water next to her kayak. HA! This was really just not her day!

She was in good spirits though, and one thing about my mom is she is a very determined person, so she hopped back into her kayak, and fortunately didn’t have any other incidents with flipping! Our guides joined us in the two person kayak, and got some great pictures and videos of us! They were really great.


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We ended up kayaking all the way across the lake over to the other side where they have more calderas and is where they actually cook the cozido they serve in Furnas! We ended up getting out of the kayaks and went to explore the area a bit. This was really great because we had wanted to check this place our, but didn’t think we’d have time!

After a short time exploring the area, we got back in our kayaks and made our way along the eastern shore of the lake, taking our time to explore and check out nature. It was so relaxing and just a great way to spend the afternoon!

Finally we made it back to the starting point. Our guides got the boats all set while we checked out the area.



Once the boats were all packed up, we all got back in the van and made our way over to our next adventure! Well...it wasn't really an adventure...it was time to relax! We ended our day with a stop at the hot springs in Furnas. Our guides were great, they bought our tickets and then brought us in to show us the various pools we could relax in, and told us to stay as long as we wanted, they'd be out front when we were done.

We ended up spending a little over an hour there, trying every pool! There was one pool that was much cooler than the others which was nice to hop into once we started to feel like we were cooking in the other ones!

Once we felt like we relaxed enough, we met up with our guides out front and made our way back to our hotel. It was such a great day full of adventures, we had a great time, even with the broken foot!

That evening we ended up heading to a restaurant in town, which fortunately opened early by Azores standards, so we were wrapped up with dinner by 7:30. We were exhausted and just wanted to go to bed early that night!


Next Up: Day 6 – What to do when you can’t walk
 
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Wow your mom really is a trooper! I'm glad it didn't end up affecting the day. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun (of course not the broken foot part but everything else)!
 
I need to hurry up and get this interim trip report finished since we're heading back to Disney in just over a week! Eek! Can't believe the trip is coming up so fast! We are so ready to be back and enjoying food and wine. For the last few weeks we've been drooling over pictures of all the offerings this year, can't wait to finally try it!

Alright, on with the TR!


Day 6 – What to do on Vacation with a Broken Foot

The next morning my mom’s foot was not doing well. Overnight it had finally swelled and bruised. Her foot looked like a sausage. Also, more concerning, she could hardly put any weight on it at all.

Now my mom is a bit stubborn, and doesn’t like going to the doctor, so refused to go to one there. We learned the following day this was actually probably a good decision on her part, apparently healthcare over there isn’t great.

Since this was our last full day on the island, we didn’t want to spend it just sitting in the hotel, so we figured since it was such a beautiful day, actually the nicest ay since we got there, that we would drive around the island and stop at all the viewpoints we came across. That way my mom could mostly stay off her feet, yet we could see a lot.

We decided to start our day on the far north east side of the island in Nordeste.

Before the trip I had spend a lot of time researching various parts of the island I wanted to visit, and there was a viewpoint over there that was on the top of my list. So that was the first stop.

It was a bit over an hour to get over there, but it was a beautiful drive, there was not a cloud in the sky and the landscape around the island is just stunning!
When we got there we were the only ones. It was still pretty early, just after 8:00am.

I went and started taking videos of the place, it was absolutely stunning. I got myself a gopro hero7 black for this trip, and I am SO happy I did! I love the videos I got, they are so much better than the still pictures! I’m actually planning on brining it to Disney this trip to document our trip there now too!

While I captured video of the beautiful area, my mom slowly hobbled her way into the gardens. Poor mom, but she refused help! Like I said, she can be very stubborn!

We spend a lot of time at this viewpoint, it was so impressive, and huge! There were various paths to take and different levels of the gardens. I would say of all the places on the island we visited, this was the most beautiful.











After about 40 minutes there, other people started to arrive, so we headed out to make our way to the next viewpoint.

The next one was only about a mile up the road, so we were there soon. I didn’t know what to expect from this one, so was surprised when we got there to see this is the viewpoint of the famous lighthouse!



That was some good luck!

Next we made our way back into the town of Nordeste, where we stopped again and went to check out another view.

We then got back in our car and made our way through town, and got stopped yet again at the only stoplight we saw on the entire island….for no reason at all. It was at a crosswalk for a secondary school….but there was no one around both times….plus it was a Saturday.

After our stop at the lone stoplight, we continued on.

As we were driving I realized we would be near the tea plantation soon, so I suggested that we stop there to see if the crowds were lower at that time in the morning. My mom thought that was a great idea, she does love her tea! So we headed over to the tea plantation, and wow, night and day from the last time we were there! There was no one around! It was amazing. Early morning is definitely the time to visit that place. We got our complimentary cups of tea, I got the green, and I believe my mom also go the green tea. It was delicious, best green tea I’ve ever had! We found seats in front of a window looking out over the beautiful view and enjoyed our cups of tea!





It was so nice and relaxing in there, a perfect pit-stop! We loved that there were so many locals who had biked there that morning and were stopping in mid-bike ride!

Before we left we stopped at the store and stocked up on a LOT of tea. Like, a lot. My suitcase was like ½ tea on the way home.



After the tea, we stopped at the next viewpoint, which not surprising was stunning.



We ended up hanging out here for a bit and ate some of the peaches we bought at the farmers market while enjoying the view. Love how they have tables set up at all these viewpoints!

Next up, yet another viewpoint!



Loved the dog just chilling!

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At that point my mom was really in pain and was kind of done with exploring, so we agreed to head over to the car rental place to return the car early, then spend the rest of the day relaxing at the hotel.

Definitely a bummer to have to cut our last full day there short, but my poor mom was in a lot of pain and I wanted to make sure we did what we could for her.

Fortunately, we were really close to the car rental place at that point, and it was a quick easy drop off. We filled up with gas (for the first time that week!) at the gas station at the rental place, then went in to return the car. They did a quick check to make sure there was no additional damage, which there wasn’t, then got us our security deposit back before finding us a driver to bring us back to the hotel.

We ended up back at the hotel around 1:00, and were getting hungry, so opted to head to the bar for some lunch. I got the burger and my mom got the cheese plate. Both were amazing. The burgers over there were HUGE!

We also picked up more wine for the room, because, well, it’s vacation. HA!

After lunch, my mom decided to wanted to take advantage of our huge soaking tub, so she took a nice relaxing bath, while I went to sit out on the lounge chairs on the massive balcony and read some magazines.

While it was upsetting not to be exploring the island more on our last day, this actually turned into a perfect afternoon. We didn’t really get any rest time during this trip, so to just sit out in the lounge chairs on such a beautiful afternoon and relax was really nice.

Also, that weekend seemed to be the first weekend of the super tourist season, while sitting on the balcony I saw so many tour buses that we had not seen at all during the week.

After a nice restful afternoon, we were starting to get hungry again. There was one other restaurant that got really good reviews that I wanted to check out, so we made our way slowly over there. Seriously, my mom is such a trooper! It must run in the family…when I broke my foot I was also on vacation so immediately went for an 8 mile bike ride afterwards without getting medical attention….and then didn’t bother going to the doctor for weeks afterwards. Needless to say my doctor gave me a bit of a lecture about actually seeking medical attention when injured. Ugh, I know I know, I just have a really high tolerance for pain!

Anyways, back to dinner. We made our way over to this kind of hole in the wall place, it was away from the touristy areas, and frankly a bit sketchy of an area, but when we walked in we were warmly greeted by the owner and lead to a table.

One thing we really wanted to try while there were the lappas, which are kind of like their version of oysters. Well, every restaurant we went to didn’t have them, it was really disappointing….until this night! We finally found a restaurant that had them!!! So of course we ordered them. I also ordered the steak kabob, and my mom got a chicken dish.





The food here was amazing. Our second favorite dinner on the island. We also loved that the owners came around throughout the meal to check in on everyone, it was such a warm atmosphere.

At the end of the meal after we paid, the owner came over to us with some glasses and gave us a complimentary pineapple liquor drink! Such a nice touch! We loved that place, such a hidden gem!

After dinner we slowly made our way back to the hotel to pack, our trip was sadly coming to an end. We spend a bit packing and getting stuff ready for our early flight, then spent the rest of the evening out on the balcony drinking the remaining wine and liquor we had and just enjoying the views out over the Atlantic.

Such a nice relaxing way to end the trip!

Next Up: Day 7 – Traveling is even more fun with a broken foot!
 
What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do- reading all of your trip reports!!! You and your mom have so much fun, and I loved seeing a different way of touring than we usually do, considering we always go with small kids and plenty of extended family. I got a glimpse of what future trips, just hubby and I, will likely look like! So fun!! So many neat food experiences to look forward to! When I got to your latest pre-trip report when you were talking about viewing the last Illuminations and first of the interim show, I realized you'd have to be there the same time we would be. Sure enough, I looked at your signature line and realized we will be arriving the same day. Wahoo, it's almost here!
 

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