Chilling out in the warmth

I am not a fan of water, yet I repeatedly find myself in situations involving water, or worse, boats. This trip has plenty of water, but it’s all warm and that is an entirely different story. Each day in Ponta Delgada includes an hour in the thermal circuit – a warm pool, a Turkish steam bath, and a dry sauna. The steam bath has become a favorite of ours. We will have to see how that stacks up against the 4 different hot springs we have in store over the next two days.

We had a 10:30 reservation at Gruta do Carvão, an ancient lava tube located on the edge of Ponta Delgada. I’m not often a fan of caves, but this was not too claustrophobic. Interestingly, because the water dripping into the cave is extremely pure and filtered of all its minerals, no new stalactites form – what you see is original and will never change.

Most of today’s short itinerary was to the east of the city. It was a light agenda day, which was just fine with us.

We stopped at a giant grocery store and bought some provisions to have as a picnic lunch before heading back to the city to walk around.

We ended up wrapping up the day in a botanical garden and wandered around for a bit before heading to the hotel to read and watch the sunset on our balcony.