Azores: a paradise on earth. Part 2
Part 2 is dedicated to the island of Sao Miguel — the biggest and most populated island on the Azorean archipelago.
Part 1 is here.
What is Sao Miguel famous for?
Well, locals say 40% of its energy is geothermal (and I witnessed boiling lakes and smoking mountains myself). The best surfing spot is in Ribeira Grande (been there — know that for sure!). They grow pineapples and make liquores. They adore, celebrate and care for their impeccable nature, and don’t care for time — people are unacceptably relaxed and chill.
I will now shortly stop on every aspect that impressed me on Sao Miguel, the island that I spent most of my time on.
Lakes
The ‘cups’ of dormant volcanoes are filled with transparent waters of fast-changing colors that form lakes. One moment it’s azur, the other one — greenish, then — grey, navy blue, dark violet. And it never stops to amaze you. It’s foggy and sunny the moment before the other. This is why the pictures from the same spot but 5 minutes away from each other, are so very different.
Sao Miguel is the only island in the archipelago of nine that is famous for its lakes.
Lagoa Negra was the first one I visited with my new Slovenian friend. Swimming strictly prohibited — excitement is not :)
I have mentioned in Part 1 that my main way of locomotion was hitch-hiking. Once I got a ride in a police car! The policeman was literally radiating of happiness to give a help me out, so excited that he took me directly to the Lagoa das Furnas even though it was way too far from the boundaries of the parish he was supposed to take care of.
Furnas means ‘furnace’ (the oven). Guess what I have stumbled upon when I got to the edge of the water? This!
The valley of Furnas is where they cook a local speciality, one of the most known dishes of the Island of São Miguel — cozido, a kind of stew, which is made in an original way, using only the heat from the earth and taking up to 7 hours.
I am telling you — this land is really hot!
This is how making of cozido looks:
Sete Cidades. Lake of Seven Cities, where ‘cities’ mean ‘lakes’. Magical scenery connected with incredible history, describing it will never come as close as seeing it (better on your own eyes).
This name — Seven Cities — was assigned to the region because of the legend that existed in Portugal in the distant 13th century, saying that seven pious bishops, together with their treasures, flew to the west, to the Atlantic Ocean, where they reached the island and founded seven settlements, fleeing from the invasion of the Arabs.
The legend tells that in the place where the village of Sete Cidades is now located, there was a kingdom where Princess Antilia, who had beautiful blue eyes, lived. Once during a walk, the princess fell in love with the green-eyed shepherd who played the flute. The days went by, young people met near the same old tree, and fell in love with each other more and more day after day.
The king, who wanted to marry his daughter off to a prince from a neighboring kingdom, found out of Antilia’s love and forbade her to see the shepherd. Desperate, the princess asked for the last meeting in the same place.
The lovers cried madly, they were so despondent that two lakes filled their tears: Lagoa Azul (“Blue Lake”) — from the tears of the princess, and Lagoa Verde (“Green Lake”) — from the tears of the shepherd.
Lagoa da Canaria is part of the Sete Cidades chain, and is quite hard to get to (especially, again-if you don’t have a car)
Lagoa do Fogo, or the Fire Lake, is my most favorite of all. Someone very special and dear to me took me there and shared those precious moments with me.
We climbed the hill, I had no expectations of what I was about to see and the very first instant the scenery has opened — my heart began to race as if I was on the edge of death. It was like immense fear, stupor, unknown before desire to cry because of beauty. I was shaken to my core. Never before I’ve seen such a perfection.
Lago do Fogo is the highest and the second biggest crater lake on Sao Miguel, the last volcano eruption happened here in 1563, since 1974 it has turned into a protected (by national legislation) area.
I remember riding the motorcycle that lovely sunny day, wandering around, and thinking to myself ‘This is magic, my blessing, my best ever-taken decision — to be here, in this moment, with these people, breathing this air, having honor and luck to be experiencing all this beauty. How grateful I am!’
Every time I return to that day in my memories all I feel is this humongous gratefulness, inflating me like, you know, only a sense of pride would compare to.
Hot springs and waterfalls
Truly blessed land it is, Azores islands. Hot baths is a miracle on earth, they are scattered along the island, sometimes located right in the parks, like in case of Terra Nostra Park.
Terra Nostra Park has more than 2 centuries of history. Its origin dates back to 1775, when Thomas Hickling, who was a US Consul on Sao Miguel, has put his residence in the surrounding greenery. The residence got a funny name — the Yankee Hall (white building on the picture below).
It was, however, from the middle of the XIX century that this garden, whose initial area was only 2 ha, underwent a notable development, due to the initiative of its owners, the Viscondes da Praia and, later, the Bensaude family.
Just imagine taking a deep breath of fresh, invigorating islandic air whilst you are walking in the shadows of millennial trees…What can be better, you’d ask?
I cherish warmth and yet I am often cold in the middle of the summer.
For people like me Azores has a great surprise to offer — thermal baths, where water temperature rises up to 30 C. The mineral content of the waters differs from spot to spot — they are rich in sulfur, iron, and other essential minerals. Surrounded by vegetation and large trees, it is one of the best ways to restore one’s energy and experience the mystical natural surroundings characteristic of Terra Nostra Park and the Valley of Furnas.
Poça da Dona Beija
The baths of Dona Beija offer 5 different natural thermal pools with a breathtaking tropical landscape. It is believed that high iron content of its water springs combats anemia, allergies, acne and parasitic diseases. The clay and mud have some healing effect too, as they say.
Caldeira Velha
A waterfall of warm, iron water where you can take a dip, it is located on the north slope of the Fogo Volcano, which is not at all far from Lagoa da Fogo. Feels like a real tropical paradise.
Some of the water springs are mineral and totally potable, the one I tasted made me look like this afterwards:
Marine magic — a day in the open ocean
The hero of my childhood, Jacques Yves Cousteau, taught me to look for the unknown and expand my boundaries, discovering and sharing the findings with the others — to enlighten, to inspire, to go beyond prejudices and fears.
I always wondered if whilst getting ready for the expedition he knew or imagined more or less what he will find, or if the findings happened to him just by chance (I doubt though).
It was my dream for a long time…The day I decided to party like Jacques Yves Cousteau and go for open-sea adventures on a little inflatable boat, I had tons of shameless fun (and no signs of sea sickness — that’s important!).
We saw blue, white and bottlenose dolphins, sperm whales (cachalots). As highly social animals, they form groups and families and keep close to each other. We were very lucky that day to see the joyful, frolic and playful dolphin family of 7, sperm whale family of 4 members.
They were super sweet and came close to the boat, jumped out splashing a stream of water. Pure magical experience!
It is also worth mentioning that organizers of such trips take a very respectful approach to the animals — they don’t chase the animals in order to come uncomfortably close to them, they perform only 2 trips per day and try not to disturb marine mammals too much.
And in general, I noticed the Azoreans are almost paranoid cautious about nature protection. And I absolutely loved it!
Nordeste lighthouse
Another bucket list dream, which had been there for years, got real completely unexpectedly.
I have been inside of a lighthouse!
I have planned a special trip to Odessa to try to visit one, the problem is that in Ukraine lighthouses are regime facilities and, therefore, any civil access to the premises is forbidden.
In Portugal, as I found out by pure chance, there is one day per week when the lighthouses are open for visitors — Wednesdays, till 18h. Guess when the lovely hitch-hitchhiker-drivers deposited me by the lighthouse called Farol do Arnel in Nordeste? Right in time for me to join the last group of visitors at 17h53, on Wednesday!
Farol do Arnel is located in the most northeast part of São Miguel Island. It has started to operate on November 26th in 1876, making it the first lighthouse established on the Azores.
The slope leading to the lighthouse is very steep and even dangerous. It is highly advisable that you don’t drive, but walk. Walking downhill is hard but rewarding — the scenery on the ocean that opens before your eyes is mad.
Climbing back up is not a piece of cake, but buoyed up by the visit you can make the epic return.
If you are into lighthouses as well, you would want to check the brilliant photography work of the French photographer Jean Guichard here.
Pineapple plantations
Grown in glass greenhouses on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores, these pineapples, originally from Central and South America, were brought to the island as an ornamental plant. The first industrial plantations appeared around 1860, making this island the only place in the world where pineapples are grown in greenhouses.
The growth of the plant starts with a bulb which is planted in a smaller greenhouses. A month after the sprouts appear, 6 months into a growth period they can be transplanted to a different greenhouse — this process is called ‘final plantation’. After that the plants stay there for 12 more months until fruit can be picked.
3–4 months after the ‘final plantation’ the ‘smoking operation’, called ‘fumo’ takes place. This technique, discovered by accident, works as an intoxication of the plant forcing all the plants in the greenhouse to flower at the same time, allowing for a more efficient harvest of the fruit. Leaves and branches are burnt in special containers placed along the inside path of the greenhouse so that a thick smoke fills the whole greenhouse.
I was impressed to learn that once the pineapple feels the smoke, it THINKS the death is near and so it’s the last chance to produce the offsprings.
The Azorean pineapple takes about unimaginable 18 months to grow and it’s what makes it such a unique fruit, unlike any other in the world!
Surfing
Sao Miguel is the only island in the chain with north-facing beachbreaks at Ribeira Grande and probably has the greatest variety of surf spots. Both the western and eastern ends of São Miguel are very cliffy as the land drops away sharply from the volcanic peaks that used to be two separate islands.
This means the centre of the island is lower and allows for the beaches to form on the north and south coasts. Big waves in heavy water situations characterise the north coasts of the Azores and São Miguel has its share, but few are surfed and many are at the base of cliffs and are only accessible by boat — Baixa de Viola being the exception.
As for me, I found this sport incredibly demanding. It takes a lot of physical effort, trained muscles and persistance to keep trying jumping on board and — most importantly — staying, while there is nothing stable around you.
It was a lot of fun though, I laughed and cried of happiness. My cheeks got tired from smiles more than my legs did.
Next time in Portugal I will take a week course, we will see what kind of surfer I will become afterwards.
Liquor factory
In the outskirts of Ribeira Grande there is a liquore factory of Eduardo Ferreira & Filhos where they produce alcohol liquores for all tastes. Mint? Chocolate? Milk? Maracuja, ananas, blackberry… You name it — and they have it there!
Beware — excursions and liquores tasting are free of charge. Mind your dose!
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This is the end of Part 1 on Azorean series. In the next one we will take a closer look at the history of the islands, architecture of the cities on Sao Miguel, development in isolation, and the street art, which (as we know) speaks of the local reality louder than the morning newspapers.
By the way, talking about the newspapers.. Take a look at the year of origin of the Azoriano Oriental. 1835!
1835, Karl.
I am ending here with one more look at the nature (really can’t stop admiring it) and some music.
