Terceira Island Day 3

Slept soundly and woke up just before 5:00am to get ready. I had scheduled a taxi when we stopped for one of the breaks on the ATV ride. I heard some music and realized that the festival went on all night until 5:00am. It evidently had multiple groups and turned into an outside “Rave” by the sound of the music. That would have been cool to watch if I didn’t need the sleep. Taxi showed up right at 6:00am as I requested. I checked my baggage and got a couple donuts and orange juice right by my gate. Fresh squeezed orange juice, which was different. I waited by the check-in desk until time to board. It was a small plane. Two seats on each side. Maybe 100 seats… I’m just guessing. We took off and half hour later, landed in Terceira. I got my suitcase and then walked around a little bit trying to see where the scooter rental place was. They said walk outside and look to the left for their building. They didn’t say it was across the highway. I got a taxi and told the driver I needed to go to the hostel, drop my bag and head back to the rental place. He said OKAY. Got to the hostel and they had my room ready for me early which was nice. Check-in was normally at 2pm. I dropped my bag and went to get the scooter. The scooter they gave me had a broken right mirror, literally hanging off as I started to go. I asked them if they had another one and they said no but they would check their other shop 20 minutes away. They had one there, so I rode over to the hostel, grabbed my backpack and headed out. Some freeway driving most of the way there and it started to rain on the way. Luckily, I had my rain parka with me, so I stopped and put it on. I arrived at the other place. It had stopped raining. The girl got me another scooter. This one was much nicer. As I was preparing to leave, it started pouring again. I walked back to the shop and stood inside to wait for it to stop. I decided enough was enough. I asked the girl if she had any cars available and she did not. She called over to the original shop and they had one. I told her I would pick it up in a couple hours. First stop was at the Port. Nice little area. Took some pictures and then went to go grab a bite to eat. I had seen a billboard that they had a McDonalds, so I found it and had lunch. I was thinking about going to the two caves, but maps said it was over an hour away, and it was already after 1pm. It opened at 2pm. I wasn’t sure if you had to have a reservation, and with the rain, I decided to do it tomorrow. After eating, I went to Jardim Duque de Terceira which is a big garden area. It was still raining off and on, and my leg was bothering me, so I didn’t walk through the whole thing. I had some time to kill, before getting the car, so I headed to another place on the way back, called Furnas do Enoxfre, which was listed as a cave. Arrived and they had a neat little walkway that went all around this cave. You could not go in the cave, which was a flat opening on the ground, as it was actively giving off Sulphur from the volcano. The rain was tamping down the smoke, so there was not much to see. It started to rain again, so I finished the walk and headed back, fighting the rain off and on. The weather has been crappy here the whole time. No sun at all. I always feel bad for the tourists that come to Hawaii and it turns out to be bad weather. Now I am on the other end of that. I got back to town, gassed up the scooter and picked up the car, a cute little 5 speed, around 3:30pm, and decided to actually go see some of the things on my list. It turns out my scooter rental idea for the islands turned out to be a dud. I headed out up a road into the hills to some viewpoints up high. One was called Miradouros da Serra do Cume. Beautiful panoramic view. After I finished the drive, it was getting late so I decided to call it a day and head out early tomorrow. I booked a car for Pico Island and contacted the people back on Sao Miguel Island to see if they could change my last day there to a car instead of a scooter. They did thankfully.