Azores - The North Coast

Just as Beautiful
We took a drive along the north coast later in the week.

We stopped for photos as we drove along.

The sun was out more than it had been the previous couple of days.

Down at the shore the waves weren't all that inviting.  You'd have to be an excellent swimmer to deal with the current and jagged rocks.  I wasn't too keen, cold water aside.  

There was a small village every few miles.  This one had a soccer pitch on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

Further inland, we caught a glimpse of one of many of the waterfalls.

We stopped at Cha Gorreana, Europe's only tea plantation.

They've been growing tea here for hundreds of years.

Doesn't appear they've updated their equipment much since the last century.  

I learned a lot about tea making.  Turns out that the smaller the tea leaf and the closer to the bud, the higher the ranking.  We bought some orange pekoe and some green tea to take home.

We went to a hotel near the town of Furnas to try out the quintessential Azorean meal.  A potpourri of meats steamed by a volcanic vent.  Pretty tasty.