Caloura -Praia Beach -Ponta Delgada

Day 5
Today was beach day. We drove down towards Vila Franca Do Campo looking for another beautiful beach. We had heard that the beach near Caloura Hotel was very nice. We followed the highway down to the south end and located the natural pools first. This is a pier surrounded by lagoon-like water with a swimming pool at the end. There is no sand here, it is rocky with a boat dock, but the locals perch up on the rocks and cement, and dive off the pier. They love their diving!

Speaking of diving, The Red Bull Cliff Diving World series was in Sao Miguel yesterday. It was hosted on Ilheu Vila Franca do Campo, an island just off the shore of Vila Franca do Campo. The island was closed so the only way to watch was to be on a boat and be awake by 8 o'clock am. We were none of those things, so we looked up the highlights on:
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Video/RED-BULL-CLIFF-DIVING-IN-THE-AZORES-2012-WORLD-SERIES-HIGHLIGHTS-021243237550697

These are pictures from that website:

from rebull.com

from redbull.com

from redbull.com

from redbull.com

From redbull.com

Very cool!

We drove back the other way and found the beach. If you follow the Caloura Hotel signs, it will take you to Praia beach. This is the most beautiful beach we have seen on the island so far. High rocky cliff sides encircle the brown sandy shore. The water looks green and clear here, and you can see the bottom. It gets deep very quickly, and we learned most people enter by taking a few steps and then taking a dive into the waves. We had to move our towels further up the beach as the waves vary from large to small most of the day and sometimes come as high as the rock croppings on the far side. We started on the far side in the morning, then moved to the other half of the beach on the other side of the rock cropping. This side is the "recommended beach" according to signs. I would recommend going earlier in the day as it gets very busy by the afternoon. The locals bring epic picnic lunches, with tupperware filled with marinated meats to bbq on the stone fire places above. Both beaches are down a steep descend of stairs, and by the end of the day it is quite exhausting to carry yourself back up.

 The above shot is looking down from the top of the stairs on the far side. This is the side we spent the morning on. I liked this side better. There are a lot of families and kids on this side who like to play in the waves and jump off the rocks.

Above is the "recommended" side. It is very busy in the afternoon with teens, and adults. On both sides, but more noticeably on this side, the waves look as though they are covered in a line of seaweed or sea debris. At closer inspection, we learned that it is actually floating rocks. There are little jelly fish here too, but they don't bother you too much. Sometimes you can see them sometimes you can't. I was lucky to be traveling with two east coast jelly fish experts, who told me to cover my stung arm with wet sand, after fearing I'd have to somehow pee on myself to relieve the minor stinging sensation. It went away quickly.

 Swimming in the beautiful green waters at Praia Beach.

The white building on the cliffside behind the building with the orange roof is Caloura Hotel.

The only downside is that there is no food or drink for sale down at the beach or up at the parking lot. There are showers and washrooms though. We drove to a cafe on the way to Lagoa to eat lunch. The grilled mussels were delicious.

We drove back home to freshen up, then left for dinner in Ponta Delgada. We wanted to find Rotas, a vegetarian restaurant that we had heard good things about, but we couldn't find it, despite a lot of support from some very helpful locals.  We did end up finding another restaurant, Bar Colegio 27 on Rua Carvalho Aráuj. Street names are not easy to locate, or read, so if you are google mapping a location, it's best to go by landmarks on the map, and not actual street names.

The cockroaches come out at night. Look out!

 This is tucked away on a street just south of the library. Our servers were very informative and explained the history of the building over the past 200 years from being a salt maker shop, to horse stable, to brothel, to restaurant. The bar features a variety of music, including but not limited to, live jazz and Portuguese Folk, and most of the patrons are tourists, so everything is written in English. It is more expensive here compared to many other restaurants, but for good reason. The food is flavourful, with a little flare, compared to the usual fish, boiled potatoes and corn. Becky had a chicken ceasar salad, Shay the smoky rib salad, with filo cheese, Jarvis the trigger fish, and I had the Steak Frites. The tomato and goat cheese salad, and the carpaccio and caviar starters were very tasty.

After dinner we went to the square off of Campo de Sao Francisco across from the Forte de Sao Bras, per our waiter's suggestion. There is a stage for live music, a carousal, and a bunch of stands, or mini bars, that sell any possible drink you could require. Popcorn, ice cream and other foods are available as are some goods from local merchants if you get there early enough. We had passion fruit drinks from bar Cariocas, and Strawberry daiquiris and a pineapple PDL, from K bar. Very fun environment.

This was the Brazillian bar recommended to us by our servers at Bar Colegio 27

This place got popular later at night. Must have been the flashing neon lights.

Everyone hangs out by either strolling around the square or sitting on picnic tables.

Sete Ciadades -Mosteiros

Day 4
Today we planned to hike around Sete Ciadades, "Lagoon of the Seven Cities," near Mosteiros. We drove to the town down narrow winding roads following city signs. There were several times we thought we were going the wrong way, or might collide in a head on collision, but we somehow made it to main road that takes you into town. In the town below there are WC's (water closets) where you can go to the washroom before taking the hike. We have been impressed with the availability and cleanliness of washrooms on the island. We drove up a road that led us to a hiking trail. We found this by chance. We didn't notice any trail markers in the city, so we drove through and on a dirt road where a child was herding cattle, we noticed a sign so we followed it. Some people opted to drive the trail instead of walk it as it is up hill. We opted to park and walk towards Vista Do Rei. The way up took longer, being up hill, and the fact that we stopped to take many pictures of vistas and cows roaming the fields at extreme angles.

Sete Ciadades from a winding road above

Enjoying the view from a look out

 These signs are everywhere on the island. You can drive to the end of most streets and signs such as this one will lead you in the right direction. There are many roundabouts in Sao Miguel, and they are well labeled. All you really need to know is the city you want to get to. The streets are not well named, but signs will let you know where natural pools, beaches, restaurants etc., are located.

This was one of the signs we saw off the main road that let us know to look for a trail marker.

Views from the hiking trail, way up in the clouds

Cows soaking up the sun high up on the mountain

A milking station in one of the many pastures

A hydrangea fence

After making it about a third of the way around, we decided to head back down so we could visit a beach in Mosteiros to cool off. When we drove to Mosteiros, we followed signs leading us to the natural pools before heading to the beach. These natural pools were made from rock formations that filled up with sea water, and sea life! Locals would climb the dark rough rocks and dive head first into these little pools, it was very entertaining.

Water collects in these pools naturally. Many of the bottoms are very deep.

After a quick dip, we drove down to the beach in Mosteiros. It was very nice. This town had a very beachy atmosphere. There were ice cream stands on the beach that sold beer for a dollar and chips and ice cream. There were showers and bathrooms here as well. The sand is very dark, and a little coarser than in Vila Campo Do Franca. There are rocks at the bottom of the water, but they are quite large, and the water gets deep very quickly so they really only caused trouble when entering or exiting. The views were spectacular. Sunsets are beautiful here.

The sand is very dark. It gets hot! We headed through town and followed signs that said "restaurants." That led us to a narrow street, and at the end sat Restaurante Brisa do Mar. It wasn't bad. I had fried chicken, Becky the Salmon, Jarvis the squid and shrimp and Shay the tuna. We tried some traditional desserts, a pastry-like cookie and a lemon-custard like pie.

We wanted to head home to catch the sunset on the corner by our villa but a small road closure halted our progress. We thought we could make it through, but decided against it. Follow the Desvio signs.

It was like out of a movie.

We thought maybe we could jump it