Sao Miguel Island Day 2

I woke up a little after midnight and felt like I had been sleeping a long time, but it was just over 3 hours.I laid there and tried to go back to sleep. It wasn’t happening.Probably from the jet lag and international date line.I got out of bed around 2:30am and decided to try and figure out a taxi to the airport for the next day and other stuff.I called the taxi place and of course, the lady didn’t speak English much at all.She said to call back later in the day.I need to make sure I get a taxi tomorrow morning to the airport around 6:00am.The plane leaves for Terceira Island at 8:25am.I decided to type more in my journal.Before I left home, I thought I would try and type in the computer each day, instead of hand written notes, to save time later.I was also trying to figure out if I could do anything for my 7 hour layover in Newark on the way back.The AirTrain seems like the most viable option.Go see the 9/11 monument and head back.40-60 minutes each way, so it still leaves me 3 hours to be in that area. First stop, ATV Adventure. I have to be there at 9:00am. The meeting place is about 20 minutes away. It 5:24am, so I think I will go take my shower and get ready. I figured I would try to find breakfast nearby.That same restaurant made omelets, but I don’t know if it will be open before I need to leave.I checked google and found a café close by, that opened at 8am.Walked down there at 7:45am and waited for them to be ready.I didn’t have much time for breakfast so I wanted to try and be first.They opened and I told them I wanted the American Breakfast.Only one I saw with eggs.It came with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast with no butter, 2 hot dogs and a little bowl of beans.Strange combo.Walked to the scooter and headed out to the ATV place.There were 5 people in the group.2 girls from New York and a couple from North Carolina.We headed out down the streets for a little while and then headed up into the mountain on a dirt road. The whole mountain was fogged in and it was very windy and a little rain in places.It was still fun, but it would have been great if it was sunny for the views.Stopped to look at an aqueduct that was built in the 17th century.We went all the way up over the peak of the mountain and down around the 2 lakes at the bottom.One of them is called Blue Lake and the other Green Lake.The water is not blue, btw.The names came from a story that there was a princess that fell in love with a servant.The king, of course, didn’t approve.The princess had blue eyes and the servant green eyes, so it is said that the lakes were formed from all their tears. We drove along the street by the ocean and stopped for pictures.I saw one of the things on my list, Elephants Trunk, which is a rock formation formed by the waves. Our guide said he was going to take us a different way back.I’m sure he felt bad because of the weather.Nice guy though.We got back around 12:30pm.I didn’t have much time until I needed to be at the Gruta do Carvao Cave complex, so I headed over to where it was at. They were closing for lunch until 2:00pm, so I decided to try and find a place nearby.Rode around a little bit and found a place called “Toku”.It was a combo small grocery story, deli and “fast food” place.I ordered a hamburger and fries.Nice size and pretty good.Headed back over to the cave when I was done.There were a few of us were waiting outside the cave office, waiting for it to open back up, and it started raining on us.This old guy started banging on the door and yelling frantically.What part of “closed for lunch” did he not understand haha.Luckily they came and opened the door in a couple minutes.Quite a few people showed up.They broke us all up into two groups, Portuguese and English guides.The tour was pretty good.Very interesting lava tube and how it was formed.I was disgusted with the rain and wind, so I rode back slowly towards the hostel.I decided to just turn in the bike a little early.The guy gave me a ride to the hostel.I got my suitcase ready for the next morning and took a shower.There was a music festival starting at 9:00pm right close by the city gates, so I walked over there.It was an older group of guys playing “classical” music on old style string instruments.I watched for a while and then went back to the hostel, watched some tv, and went to sleep.