Bom dia from the Azores!

You are receiving this newsletter drirect from an internet cafe in Ponta Delgada that I frequent while visiting Sao Miguel.

It has been a whirlwind 9 nine days since I arrived and I am in the final 6 days of my vacation to the Azores Islands.

The weather has been excellent here, especially for late November. It has typically been 16 to 18 degrees Celcius with very little rain. One day it reached 20 degrees.

There is so much to tell you about but my time is limited. I am packing a lot in so that I can add hundreds of pages to www.magical-azores-islands.com in the coming months. I even went 33 hours without sleep (from the Friday am that I woke up in Canada to Saturday night in Sao Miguel, Azores).

Please forgive me for the brevity of this newsletter. Perhaps I will do a special mid month update in December after I add some new pages on the site. Here is a small sample of what I have been up to and what you can look forward to reading about on the site:

Day 1 - Arrival in Sao Miguel Azores; a sunset tour of Ponta Delgada; watching a submarine pull into the harbour; and enjoying some roasted chestnuts by the main church downtown

Day 2 - a tour of Ribeira Grande including the beach, and a beautiful park; a visit to my great grandfathers old farmland; great views from up high in Ponta Delgada, and a great visit to the town of Capelas, the highlight in Capelas was watching the waves crash against the coast.

Day 3 - a flight to Faial with pictures of Horta and the airport.

Day 4 - an incredible visit to Capelinhos, the site of the last volcanic eruption in 1957-58; and a tour of Horta.

Day 5 - up to the Caldeira in Faial (it is huge!); and a ferry ride to Pico Island; we had a wild taxi cab ride in Pico with numerous stops ....I can not wait to tell you about it

Day 6 - a visit to a couple beautiful beaches in Faial (Oh,I nearly forgot to mention we stayed at a great cottage in Faial); a frustrating departure from the airport back to Sao Miguel,

Day 7 - a quiet day spent with family and a beautiful sunset at the beach. Oh, and I took 150 pictures at Quinta das Acacia, the garden is beautiful.

Day 8 - a 5 kim hike near Cete Cidades. It was beautiful. Later on I stopped to see a cargo ship that has made the news here ... it is stuck on shore.

Day 9 -today!! I am catching my breath again ... just got in from visiting a pineapple farm

Well, there is a taste of what is to come.

I apologize for any spelling or grammatical issues. So much to do, so little time!

You can expect a lot of new material on the site in December upon my return to Canada (I have 1500 pictures so far)

All the best Rob Belchior