Tag Archives: vacation

The next two stops on our tour of São Miguel Island were the town of Ribeira Grande and the waterfall at Salto do Cabrito. Since we’re discussing the tour in chronological order, I’ll begin today’s article with Ribeira Grande. And we’ll begin with the charming and ornate façade of the Church of Espirito Santo:

How about a quick gander at a wonderful liquor store specializing in some of the local spirits? This is A Mulher de Capote (The Woman in the Cloak) factory store at 11 Rua de Goncalo Bezerra (not to be confused with actual distillery located to the south of downtown):

Of course, no Portuguese destination would be complete without at least one colorful balcony image. This is an outside view of Mulher de Capote:

Time to head out of this wonderful little town and into the countryside for a neat waterfall located about 5.2 kilometers/3.2 miles driving distance to the southeast of this store. Next stop: Cascato do Salto do Cabrito:

So, what exactly does Cascato do Salto do Cabrito translate to in English? As best I can tell, it’s something like Waterfall (or Cascade) of the Leaping (Salto) Kid (as in baby goat—Cabrito). Whatever it means, it always translates to beautiful and worth the trek:

The vegetation is this area is lush, green, and altogether wonderful. The flower at the top of this article was photographed here, as is this image:

We left Cobh (Cork), Ireland behind, after which we spent two days at sea aboard Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship Brilliance of the Seas. And on the third day of our transatlantic voyage, we made port in the Azores in Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island.

And, once again, Ursula had us slated for a tour. Our tour on this day would take us to visit numerous sights around the island, and our vendor for this tour was Azorean Tours. Azorean Tours was a great choice, and our tour group definitely got our money’s worth.

One of our first destinations after pickup would be Fire Lake. To get there our van would have to climb up some serious hills. And, of course, that means great vistas, starting with this look back at the city of Ponta Delgada:

So, while we’re way up here, let’s take in the first views of the island from high above:

By the way, São Miguel Island has a nickname. It also goes by “The Green Island,” and the image below gives you a clue as to why: