The Sea!

I think that if you go to an island and never go out on the water, that's a big ol' missed opportunity.  So, after almost missing our opportunity (the company (which was otherwise awesome) never sent us direction to the meeting spot, so we went to the wrong one twice), we took to the sea for a whale watching extravaganza. Due to our tardiness, we missed the English version of the introductory safety information, but we're pretty sure that it boiled down to "remember that you're on a boat and don't be stupid," and we did hear the "the sea - it is not flat" warning, so we assumed that we were all good.

Now, at least for me (possibly due to my New England roots), whale watching conjured up visions of small cruise ships with many levels, different places that you can hang out, get snacks, enjoy being out on the water, and ideally see whales and eat snacks.

With that picture in mind, allow me to introduce you to our seaworthy vessel for today's adventure (note the lack of snacks).

We got up close and personal with the marine life.  Really personal.

So, our group of 12 straddled our elongated pommel horses and headed out to sea.  We first headed to some traditional fishing boats.  Apparently, all fishing in the Azores is done in the traditional fashion - either hooks and lines or the nets seen here.  These nets allow for trapping fish, but do not trap dolphins, so they're very ecologically responsible.

And apparently, dolphins appreciate this ecological responsibility, and choose to hang out around the fishing boats, hoping to steal lunch.  We were able to see a few pods of common dolphins (~3M in the world), including this one.

So that's the benefit of the weird pommel horse boat.  The dolphins come three feet away from you.  Now we know.

After hanging out with these dolphins for a while, the captain of our blow-up vessel hear that there were other marine life sightings, and we took off for those.  At the next stop, we saw two converging pods of bottlenose dolphins (like Flipper, but without the jumps).  

The second dorsal fin from the left belongs to a baby dolphin.  Apparently, mother dolphins are pregnant for about a year, and then nurse for two years.  Most babies are born in the summer, so this guy was a little early.  We hung around and followed these guys for a while, and then headed further out to the open sea.

Unfortunately, the as we got further away, the visibility decreased, and we were unable to see any other marine life - so no whales this trip.  It was great to be out on the water though, and a very pleasant day for it (especially since Futurismo gave us rain jackets and pants to protect us from the spray - if only we had had our Frog Toggs).

When we got back to shore, we disembarked, had tea, and took off to meander through Ponta Delgada.  We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the water and wandered through some of the side streets in town (continuing to be impressed by the mosaic sidewalks).

Later, we headed back to the hotel for a little downtime before dinner.  We've been staying at Hotel Ponta Delgada, which has overall been very pleasant.  The room isn't huge, but it's a good size, and we've made excellent use of the breakfast provided every morning.  The only weird thing (and I don't know if this is standard for the island, or what, but) is that the entry light and the bathroom light are only controlled through a motion detector.  So, it's very possible that you're taking a shower in the evening, and all of a sudden it's pitch black.  You then flail around for a while until the lights return, so that you can start the process all over again.  And it's vindictive - sometimes it gives you two or three minutes, sometimes it gives you 30 seconds.  I probably won't miss that system.  Jenn won't either - I asked.

Off to Lisbon tomorrow!