São Miguel Island, Azores

It was really rainy today so we looked for inside things to do. We remembered that the friendly tourist info folks had given us (amongst other things) and pamphlet on the 'pineapple route'. Hmm, sounds like inside stuff, so that's where we started.

First stop was Pineapples A Arruda, the location of the first pineapple greenhouse in São Miguel. I hadn't realized how long it takes to grow a pineapple, about 24 months! The cool part is how they trigger the flowering -- they create a smoky (aka carbon dioxide-rich) environment which triggers a protective response from the plants, in this case, flowering. Apparently this was discovered by accident. It's convenient because then the entire crop is growing at the same time. Anyways at Pineapples A Arruda there were greenhouses in varying states of growth. They also had some pineapple liqueur for sampling, and a bunch of pineapple-related souvenirs. It was pretty busy with tourists who likely all had the same idea as us on a rainy day.

There's a couple other greenhouses on the 'pineapple route'; we just skipped to the last one, the grandly-named Interpretation Center of Pineapple Culture. It was 3 EUR to enter, which is likely why we were the only tourists (the other sites were all free). The Interpretation Center was nicely done, giving a history of the pineapple industry in the Azores, and how they marketed this exotic fruit in Europe back in the 1800's.

It was still raining after we left the Interpretation Center. We decided just to drive out to the west end of the island, maybe we could catch a cloud break somewhere. It was a really foggy drive up to the viewpoints for Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Verde, we could barely see the road, never mind the view in the distance! Dipped down into the crater to Sete Cidades, where the fog ceiling was about 100m so at least we could see the other side of the lakes.

We continued on to the west coast, where there was some sun! I checked Google Maps for a decent cafe to eat (I was just looking for anything over 4.0) and we ended up at Sunset Poço da Pedra, a little hamburger stall on the coast. The food was great! There was also a nice view of the ocean and waves crashing on the rocks.

We drove back towards home along the north coast, stopping at all the miradouros along the way. One of them, Miradouro das Cumeeiras, went inland up the side of the crater. I drove up, at first thinking it would give a nice view of the ocean. However, it actually was a viewpoint for the inside of the crater, of Lagoa Azul, Lagoa Verde and Sete Cidades which we had previously just seen in the fog. It was a surprise to get such a view given the weather.

We had reservations for dinner at Restaurante Cais 20. The rain had stopped so we walked over, about 25 minutes towards downtown Ponta Delgada (our hotel was on the outskirts of town, in Livramento). We ended up sitting near a couple who are also staying at our hotel, who we've been chatting with. I guess everyone gets the same restaurant recommendations from hotel :) I had the steak, Heather had the chicken, both were good. The restaurant was totally busy with locals, lined up about 20 people waiting for tables. We had a couple espressos to finish and then walked back home.