AZORES  - DAY SIXTEEN - São Miguel Pineapples

Blogs: Day 1 - Getting There | Day 2 - Central | Day 3 East | Day 4 West | Day 5 Last Day | Day 6 To Pico | Day 7 Madalena | Day 8 Pico Mountain | Day 9 Pico to Faial | Day 10 Pico East | Day 11 Pico North | Day 12 To São Miguel | Day 13 São Miguel North East | Day 14 São Miguel North West | Day 15 São Miguel Furnas | Day 16 São Miguel Pineapples | Day 17 São Miguel Baths | Day 18 São Miguel Filling the Gaps | Day 19 São Miguel ABF

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Today it was a rainy and dreary day, so we decided to visit the largest pineapple plantation in the Azores. Most of it is inside so we only had to dodge raindrops from building to building. There are several plantations, but we chose this one because of the best Google reviews.  LOL. 

Azores is known to produce the best pineapples in the world and they have won that award over and over again. They originally come from Brazil when it was colonized.  Due to Azores climate each pineapple takes TWO YEARS to grow, even in the green house. They also use no pesticides or any chemicals at all. Because of this long time they are pretty expensive to buy.  In comparison, a Costa Rican pineapple in the grocery store cost $3 and an Azorean pineapple costs $7-8.  That being said, the Azorean pineapples are much smaller but MUCH sweeter and tender.

If you think about it, Costa Rica grows their pineapples outside with lots of land.  They use pesticides and other chemicals and their growing cycle is 9 months compared to 2 years.  Also, Azorean pineapples are grown and cultivated by hand - no machines are used.

The most fascinating thing about their growing process is they SMOKE the pineapples in the greenhouse to promote the budding growth.

This particular plantation has 20 greenhouses with 1300 plants each.  Yup, now you know why they are so expensive.

Their English needs a little attention!  It's all good!

Of course we had to stop at their cafe for a pineapple beer and a pineapple pastry. And what tourist destination in the Azores would be without a cat? Of course they had one!   They also served us a free sample of their pineapple liquor and pineapple jam.  It's absolutely the BEST jam we've ever tasted in the world!!!

Throughout the self guided tour, there are QR codes explaining the process.  Apparently kitty has her own QR Code. 

The rain let up enough for us to take a walk through Porta Delgada's botanical garden.

They had all kinds of grottos to explore, pretty neat for being in the middle of the city. It started raining again so we decided to go to the hypermarket do do some booze and food shopping.

The hypermarket is inside a large mall where they have a traditional Azores sailboat as a decoration.

Of course shopping is a challenge when you don't speak Portuguese and all labels are not in English! Some things you just can't get, like cub soda/seltzer water. It is what I put in every drink I make as I don't drink any sodas even diet sodas. NOT available anywhere. Everything is all about Linguiça and Chorizo sausage, everywhere in the store in many, many different forms. This is NOT the Mexican or Spanish Chorizo, which is spicy and loaded with Paprika. Nope, chorizo here is mild and basicall the same thing as Linguiça just made with a different casing. I LOVE it!

Also we like buying the Portuguese flat chicken at the deli, kinda their version of rotisserie chicken only flattened and cooked on a grill. Now, they do cut it up for you but in the strangest way. They grab a kitchen sheers and have at it willy nilly cutting every thing into small pieces until you can no longer identify the breast or the thighs!! UGH! Happened three times, so I guess it's a Azores thing.

And finally...

What the hell is this??? Chairs on a wall?

I have no idea, we came across it on a back street, and I can find nothing on it in Google.

Wendy's Note:  I sent the photo to the owner of the AirBnB.  He indicates it's advertising for a home interior store.  I did more Google searches and still couldn't find it so I think he's full of crap!  LOL  I'll post it in my Azores travel group - they'll know.