I didn’t start looking at excursions for this cruise until three months out. By then all of the Carnival excursions for this port were sold out.

It sounded like you could go to town without an excursion, but most of what I wanted to see here required a car.

I went to all of the big excursion websites I know about. Those were either geared towards people who were staying on the island in hotels or they required you to book for two or more people.

Finally I came across the local tour company Gary Travasos Azorean Tours. They had a lot of options, better prices than the cruise line, and their tours seemed to be scheduled around the ship’s schedule.

About a week after booking I received an email from Gary confirming my tour and telling me he will email me again a month out from the cruise with arrival and meeting point details.

When you come into the port terminal, you see all of the various tour companies holding signs. Mine is on the right.

My tour guide is still waiting on two more people. I’m heading out to the car.

And we are off. There are only three of us on this tour.

Everything here is so perfectly manicured. The entire island could be a golf course.

They are famous for their bananas and to a lesser extent, their pineapples here.

Our first stop is a view point.

This is our tour guide. He contracts out to different tour companies but primarily works with this one.

This is our car.

This is their smallest beach. Like we saw in St. Kitts, they have darker sand here because of the volcanos.

This is their medium sized beach. We’ll see the largest beach later today.

This is the town of Vila Franca which was their first capitol. In 1522 an earthquake hit Vila Franca, killing 5,000 people. That led to Ponta Delgada becoming the new capitol.

That’s the Vila Franca coat of arms. It says “quis sicut deus” which is latin for “Who is like God?” That is in reference to St. Michael for whom the island of Sao Miguel is named.

The Convent of Sao Francisco. This was built after the 1522 earthquake to house the Franciscan clergy. It did so until 1832. In the 1990’s it was converted into a hotel. You can find information on booking a room there by clicking here.

This is the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel which is the main church in Vila Franca.

They are setting up for a party. All parties here have fireworks, in part to let people know where the party is at.

Our next stop has a church and a couple of view points. This is Nossa Senhora da Paz or Our Lady of Peace chapel.

Just from the parking area you have quite a view of Vila Franca and the inlet.

Allegedly there was a cave in this location where some shepherds claim to have seen an image of the Virgin Mary. The chapel was then built above the cave in 1764.

Each step represents a bead on the rosary.

Each set of steps has ceramics depicting religious scenes.

This is what I could see inside the chapel through one cracked window.

Behind the chapel are larger ceramics with depictions of religious scenes.

This is quite a view point.

Behind the chapel is a group of cows. Milk is a big industry here. They provide most of the milk in Portugal

We are now heading to Furnas. The valley that Furnas is located in is one giant volcanic crater that last erupted in 1630.

Our first stop in Furas is Furnas Lake.

Furnas Lake fills a volcanic crater.

The church on the other side of the lake is Our Lady of Victory. It was built in 1864 by a a wealthy landowner after the death of his wife.

Our next stop is a place that makes cheese and candy.

The cheese is made with the hot spring water we’re going to see at our next stop.

They did let us sample all of the cheeses. They were good. I liked the soft spreadable one the best. They have 21 day, 2 month, and 2 1/2 month cheeses.

The church up ahead is Our Lady of Joy. It’s the primary church for Furnas village.

This area of Furnas is the primary reason I booked this particular tour.

There are about 30 steaming, bubbling holes in this area.

This one just opened up in 2019.

You can hear it bubbling.

This is yellow because those bags are filled with corn. They cook them there for 1-2 hours. Apparently there’s also a stew they cook in the ground here.

I tried the spring water from three different spouts. This water eventually ends up in the ocean.

They have a shop in the village where you can pick up snacks, drinks, and souvenirs.

They also had liquor you could sample.

They are proud of their cows here.

Those are bags of corn.

There are a few food trucks in the parking lot. This is also where you can try the volcano corn.

The corn is 1.5 euros.

Birds are around to scoop up any corn that hits the ground.

This leaf has a smell when you hit it. I think it’s ginger.

They put them in the pineapple greenhouses to keep bugs out.

We are on the move again.

Our next stop is a viewpoint of Furnas.

From here you can see all of the places we just visited. The lake is the easiest to spot at the top. Again this entire area is one large volcanic crater.

Then the cloud cover came in.

Then it left.

That’s the view point we were just at. We are moving on to our next location.

I asked about golf because the guy getting off the ship in front of me was carrying his sticks. This is one of their three golf courses. They have two 18 hole golf courses and a 27 hole golf course.

It’s kind of hard to tell where the ocean ends and sky begins.

This is their largest milk factory.

Our next stop is stop is the waterfall and Ribeira Dos Caldeiroes Natural Park.

Furnas and this park are the two reasons I booked this particular tour.

The waterfall is on the opposite side of the stone bridge from the rest of the park.

There are five old water mills in this park. One is still in use. This is the old miller’s house which has been turned into a gift shop and snack bar.

As you can see there is another waterfall in the park.

This is from above the waterfall.

This is the channel that takes the water down into one of the water mills.

This is going down to another water mill.

These watermills were built by the river to use the power of the water stream to operate milling equipment for wheat, grain, and barley.

Now we are down at the bottom looking back at the miller’s house.

On the way back to the front I came across the second waterfall. It started to rain a little bit here but it didn’t last long.

The park has picnic areas with tables, sinks, and grills.

This is a pig pen.

They have an old wagon on display.

The water is led to the mill by the channel. As it enters the top of the building it picks up speed which turns the mill.

And we are back at the old miller’s house.

It started raining in the car but again it didn’t last long.

Our next stop is the Gorreana tea factory.

At 140 years old, this is the oldest tea factory in Europe that is still in operation. They produce about 40 tons of tea each year.

Tea is harvested from April to October. The winter months involve cleaning and pruning the plants and clearing rows.

Tea here is manufactured using the ortodox method. That involves the tea leaves going through four stages: withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying.

This is a tea withering machine which reduces the amount of moisture in the leaves by 30-40%.

At one point in time tea leaves were rolled by hand. Now that is done by these tea rolling machines. The circular motion of these machines breaks up the cell walls, allowing fluid to seep out giving the tea it’s smell.

After the tea leaves are rolled the next stage is oxidation, which takes place in the oxidation room.

The oxidation room is downstairs directly below the withering and rolling machines. It is equipped with an elevator for raising and lowering the tea.

The tea leaves are placed in the trays in this room for oxidation. The type of tea you’re making dictates how much time the tea spends down here. Black tea is here for the longest which is two hours.

After oxidation the leaves go into the drying machine. This reduces the water content down to 3%.

This is the tea grinder room.

This is the sieves room. Tea leaves go through a series of sieves to make sure no objects other than tea make it past this point.

The tea is sorted by hand in this room before packaging.

This is the packages room.

This is the exhibition room. It’s basically a museum with old tea making equipment.

In the bar area you can drink all of the black or green tea you want for free. Other flavors are available for purchase. Many locals come here on a daily basis to drink tea.

They have both indoor and outdoor sitting areas. I prefer the outdoor but once it started raining again, we moved indoors.

After drinking our tea we were on the move again. Our next stop is a view point.

This is the original road they used before the newer roads were built.

This is the largest beach they have here. We have extra time so we are going to stop for pictures.

We are heading back to the ship now. This is their newest 5* hotel, Verde Mar Hotel & Spa.

This area was used as a lookout for enemy ships in WWII.

This is the prison.

And we are coming up on the ship.

This is a tour you can take around town with Lagarta.

They don’t look very comfortable.

We made it back to the terminal. I highly recommend this tour and this company. They exceeded my expectations. The next time I’m in Ponta Delgada I will definitely look into one of the other tours with Gary Travasos Azorean Tours.