Cruise Stopover on São Miguel: Sete Cidades, Gorreana Tea, Furnas

Five and a half hours is what a ship's stopover allows, and this tour is built to fit inside it. Pick-up is in the cruise terminal hall at Ponta Delgada, from someone holding a sign with your name on it. First the Sete Cidades volcano and the Vista do Rei, the viewpoint over the crater that holds the Blue and Green lakes, and the most famous viewpoint in Portugal. Then the north coast at the Miradouro de Santa Iria, where the cliffs drop to the ocean with green hills and wildflowers behind them. Gorreana comes next. The plantation grows green tea and black tea, and the guides go through the history of the place, how the leaf is grown, and the old methods still used to process it. Both teas are poured fresh at the end. Furnas is the last stop, and you smell it before you see it. Steam comes straight up out of the ground beside the road, hot springs bubble in the middle of the village, and sulphur hangs in the air the whole time you are there. If the ship's clock leaves room, one more stop is added: a pineapple plantation, grown by a method used nowhere else.