Day 5: Whale Watching, Caves & Lava Tunnel

July 9, 2020

Happy Birthday, today is my son's 12th birthday and he gets to celebrate it on vacation (again).

After Greece in 2017, Australia in 2018, and South Africa in 2019, we are celebrating his birthday in the Azores this year.

However, we don't have much time to celebrate this morning. We have to be at the port of Angra do Heroismo at 8:30.

We leave at 7:45, we'll postpone opening presents for later.

I already took a good sip from the Vomex bottle for breakfast and I'm already fighting against drowsiness during the car ride.

We arrive at the Water4Fun Whale Watching office right on time at 8:20. I'm still considering whether I really want to go on this inflatable boat, but when it's already 9 o'clock and one of the tourists still hasn't shown up, it's clear:

with the 4 girls who are still here, there are exactly 8 of us.

If I cancel, everything is canceled (or I still have to pay!?).

Okay, life jacket on, close my eyes, and go for it. 

I have the Vomex bottle in my pants pocket, nothing can go wrong. 

Vomex already shows its effect on the wobbly gangway to the boat: I am deeply relaxed. 

Normally, I would have turned around at this point. Now I'm swaying across the floating pier and sitting in the back row, where the boat is supposedly the most stable on the water. The 4 girls are sitting in the front, there are only 8 of us on the 28-person boat.

Great, plenty of space!

Let's go!

Normally, during the high season, which is right now, there are at least 6 whale watching providers on the water. On average, they go out 7 times a day and have several boats in use!

Today there are only 2 providers going out....

1 time in the morning - and on average 2 times a week.

Happy Covid-19!

I hope the small providers can survive this summer...

After a short drive across the sea (thankfully no waves), we see 2 fin whales, and we follow them for a while.

Unfortunately, we only see their dorsal fins briefly, then they dive back underwater for several minutes.

We receive information via radio that dolphins have been sighted, so we quickly head over there. On the way, the spotter on Monte Brasil screams and shouts into the radio. We make an emergency stop and drive back a bit: 4 common dolphins! And supposedly they are very rare to see here!

Just as we are about to continue, a fin rushes through the water next to the boat: a shark!

The shark circles in front of the boat and gets closer. It's a hammerhead shark. Wow! How cool is that?

We continue to a group of dolphins. There are about 60 dolphins jumping out of the water here and racing across the surface. 

We engage in a kind of chase, as the dolphins suddenly dive underwater for several minutes and then resurface elsewhere. As soon as we get closer again, they start leaping and jumping out of the water once more. One dolphin even swims right next to our boat and performs huge jumps.

We're thrilled. A little further on, we encounter another group of dolphins. This group also jumps out of the water and performs amazing tricks.

After about 2.5 hours, we head back to the harbor. My Vomex has done its job. I didn't get nauseous on the boat, but now I'm falling asleep standing up.

Back at the house, breakfast and a surprise await us for the birthday boy:

A birthday cake with candles! How cool!

Many greetings to our landlord Guillaume, who baked a birthday cake just for the birthday boy.

Thumbs up, we think that's awesome! 

After unpacking all the presents and enjoying a leisurely brunch, we drive to the 'Furnas do Enxofre', the mountains that smoke due to sulfur springs

We are the only visitors...

It goes through paths and stairs all through the area of the smoky mountains. Smoke everywhere.

The path is very nice to walk.

We walk down the steep stairs into the volcanic chimney, where there is a lake at the bottom. The interior down here reminds me of a stalactite cave.

In the entire cave, masks are mandatory!

We're totally thrilled! We've never seen anything like this before.

So that it doesn't get boring, we move on directly to the next attraction, the Gruta do Natal.

The Gruta do Natal is a lava tunnel.

Access is also only allowed with a mask, and additionally with a hairnet and helmet.

We look a bit like 'Bob the Builder'.

Armed with a helmet, we enter the tunnel. Here you can see exactly how the lava shot through the tunnel and then cooled down. It's a little spooky.

After the main tunnel, we take the 'difficult' turn. Here it's all about climbing and ducking.

Outside, we take a look at Lago do Negro, then we drive back to the house.

While dense clouds still hang in the hinterland, it has cleared up again on the coast near Biscoitos.

We spontaneously decide to go back to the rock pools and go swimming. The kids don't feel like it anymore and would rather chill at the house. That's fine too :-)

Today, several pools are open, but at the pools with direct access to the sea, we can see Portuguese man o' war jellyfish everywhere. Even in the protected pool, where about 10 kids are swimming around, there are 3 Portuguese man o' war jellyfish swimming near the back rock.

But the locals seem to be used to it, because they just keep their distance and let their children jump into the pool from the neighboring rocks anyway.

With a healthy respect, I venture into the icy cold water (oh god, it's so cold) and swim with my husband to the next ladder - with plenty of distance to the jellyfish.

Then quickly out and dry off on the warm rocks in the sun. That's really nice!

A successful end to an eventful day.