The Azores
Sao Miguel Island, Azores
Portugal
March 19th - 22nd, 2024
This is a blog post about the first part of my trip to Portugal, which began far off the Portuguese mainland somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Azores are a small volcanic archipelago of nine islands located about 1,500 kilometers west of the Iberian peninsula. I flew from Munich via Lisbon, and from there to the largest airport on the island of San Miguel. It is a two and a half hour flight from Lisbon. I had beautiful views of these little specks of green islands seemingly in the middle of this vast ocean.
Due to their extreme remote location these island had been uninhabited, until they were discovered by Portuguese explorers in the early 15th century (although some historians believe that the Phoenicians may have reached them more than 1,500 years earlier). They quickly became a strategic location for European traders and explorers, and somewhat later whalers and farmers, as its rich volcanic soil allowed crops like sugar, tobacco, and later, tea and pineapples to thrive. Over the centuries islands populations became a melting pot of European settlers and African slaves. Today, the Azores are an autonomous region of Portugal, with an economy mainly based on agriculture, fishing and tourism.
I picked up my rental car at the airport and drove to my hotel, the beautiful Pedras de Mar Resort. The hotel is a modern building located on the northern shore of the island overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Renting a car is a must here, since it's the only way to get around and explore the island. I started my first day with a hike along Lagoa do Fogo.
Surrounded by steep crater walls Lagoa de Fogo is a spectacular crater lake located at an altitude of more than 500 meter right in the center of the island.
One of the surprising aspect of the Azores is the extreme contrast of landscape. At one moment you think you are England surrounded by meadows, fields and gentle rolling hills dotted with sheep. And the next moment you find yourself at the steep egde of a huge volcanic crater staring down at a blue crater lake.
On my second day I drove for quite a while along very narrow country roads to the west coast of the Island. My goal was to see the largest of the volcanic craters on Sao Miguel Island, the Sete Cidades. This is the most famous landscape view on the island, the Miradouro da Boca do Inferno, from which you can see the massive volcanic caldera containing two lakes surrounded by steep, forested crater walls.
I went on a short but strenuous hike up to a ridge overlooking the hidden Lagoa de Santiago.
The next day explored the south and east coasts of the island. My first stop was the Nossa Senhora da Paz Sanctuary near the town of Vila Franca do Campo. The small church is famous for its blue-and-white tile zig-zag staircase. And you have amazing panoramic views points over the town and the island in front of it.
The largest lake on the eastern side of the island is Lagoa das Furnas, which is a beautiful lake surrounded by lush forests. It's not as dramatic as some of the other crater lakes, but it is worth visiting especially for the mysterious looking Chapel de Nossa Senhora das Vitórias. It is a small funerary chapel, built in neo-gothic style in 1862, by a wealthy local landowner to commemorate the death of his beloved wife. The chapel sits on a small hill on the edge of the lake, and looks like a set from a Harry Potter movie.
I stopped in the nearby city of Furnas, which sits in a volcanic crater valley that is one of the most geothermally active areas on Sao Miguel. There see steaming vents with strong sulphur smells all over the town in parks and long the river.
My way back to the hotel took me along the dramatic east coast, where the meadows and towns are perched dramatically above the vertical sea cliffs.
I really enjoyed the Azores, even though I only had time to visit one of its many islands. There is a lot more to see on this archipelago and I definetly plan to come back some time. The next morning I took a direct flight San Miguel to Porto to continue my trip on the Portuguese mainland.
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