An Azorean Adventure

Hello and happy new year! I always love the clean start of a new year. One of my new years resolutions this year is to be mindful of what media I consume and it's effect on me. If something isn't serving me internally, I hope to go about it a different way. To kick start that goal I spent all of January off Instagram, with a hope to work on the blog instead... but ended up quite busy with life so now it's February and I'm catching up on September :) I've been wanting to write this post though because our trip to the Azores with Alicia was pretty incredible, I think the pictures speak for themselves!

The Portuguese islands of the Azores are made up of nine islands that lie in the middle of the Atlantic. São Miguel is the most populated island and only a two hour flight from Lisbon, so it's super easy to get to. We chose to stay on São Miguel and not island hop because it seemed there was so much to see on this island, and I think it was a good call. We ended up with a few days of unusually rainy weather so I'm glad we factored the extra time in. The Azores are the perfect city break from Lisbon, although maybe slightly too rural for Justin's taste haha.

Sete Cidades (West)

We started our adventure staying on the west side of the island, in a small village built in the center of a dormant volcanic caldera called Sete Cidades. In the center are two lakes, one emerald and one blue. Portuguese legend tells a tale of a princess with green eyes who couldn't be with the blue-eyed one she loved, so their tears filled the divided lakes. The ridges that were the mouth of the volcano allow for stunning vistas surrounding the area with hikes going all the way around or up the ridge itself.

There are cows all over São Miguel, so not surprising they even have farmland inside the caldera where everything was very green and lush. The Azores are known for their hydrangeas which line the roads, even though we missed peak season for those it was still pretty to see them everywhere.

 I had debated on staying in Ponta Delgada, the main city of São Miguel, and using that as a base. However, I'm really glad we made the decision to stay in the small towns and really get a feel for the area in the mornings and evenings especially. In Sete Cidades we awoke to roosters, and I saw horses and cows on my morning runs. Justin saw packs of dogs however and that was not as pleasant O_O.

Getting treated for a dog bite he got while running 😐

 Near the town you can walk to a hydraulic tunnel, that when not flooded will lead to a town on the west coast. We attempted the walk but unfortunately it was a little too wet about halfway through the tunnel... and we were getting creeped out (or maybe that was just me... not being able to see a light on either end is quite the experience).

One of our favorite finds of the whole trip was our next adventure to a natural hot springs on the west coast. This is a unique hot springs because the pool meets the ocean, the ocean waves roll in to cool down the hot water. At high tide it would be too cold, so you have to time it to arriving shortly after low tide to have the best experience! It didn't feel too touristy, it seemed popular but locals were there as well and it was a very relaxed environment.

In the ocean hot springs!

Near the hot springs, very rocky coast here

 

Winding, steep road down to the hot springs...

Of course we also did several hikes throughout our week here, this one in particular involved a water crossing in the chilly river water. We mostly used the app AllTrails to find hikes, there are many on the island.

A lot of the hikes we did would start on a random country street, through a cow pasture, so it felt like you were walking on someone's property before reaching the main trail. That part was a bit confusing, and we saw our fair share of cows to say the least haha. The Azores is known for their beef production, but I wonder what the island looked like before all the pastures were there.

 

Volcanic black sand beach

Justin avoiding the puddles but climbing a steep hill haha

Communicating by mooing... wait for their reaction...

Didn't know quite what to make of us hahaha

After the pastures, the trail got more interesting... leading to a gorgeous walk along the coastal cliffs.

At the end of the hike we were tired, and thought this was funny we could only see the horses' forehead at first :)

Well deserved post hike drink :)

Elephant rock on the north coast

Visiting the tea plantation

From the north coast we cut through the center and passed by Lagoa do Fogo, or "Fire Lake". The views reminded me of New Zealand with the lake being surrounded by mountains. São Miguel actually has webcams you can check daily for the weather in different parts of the island and this area seems to always have clouds covering it.

Nearby Lagoa do Fogo is another natural hot springs, this one set in the rainforest and was giving me jungle vibes!

Near Ponta Delgada (Middle)

We didn't stay in Ponta Delgada, but instead ending up driving around most of the island and would stop into the city. I'm glad we didn't stay in the city, I was ready for a nature break so would highly recommend staying in Sete Cidades, and also Furnas where we stayed next.

Sao Miguel is known for their pineapples, which they grow in greenhouses, so of course we had to visit. It's definitely a good rainy day activity. Justin and I split the pineapple gelato with fresh pineapple on top... it was sooo yummy!

 

Another thing you can do from Ponta Delgada is whale watching! We went with a great company that researches the whales and dolphins while out on the excursion. I loved that it was a smaller boat, but it was definitely choppy water! I wish we had been able to stand, my spine felt like it got re-aligned that afternoon and not in a good way 😆

Perfect pick me up :)

 The moment we saw our first whale... that was pretty magical. There were two kids on the boat and they were so excited, it was cute to watch and I think always reminds us adults to be more in awe of the special moments. We ended up seeing two sperm whales, and tons of dolphins on the way back 😍 It was amazing having the dolphins swimming and jumping through the water all around us. The video shows this better than the pictures can.

We then ended the day with lovely vegan food! The restaurant was hidden away from the city up in the hills, but the owner was so friendly and the food delicious.

One of each, but please do yourself a favor and never order alcohol free super bock 😂

Furnas (East)

After staying in Sete Cidades we headed east to a town called Furnas, who is known for the geothermal activity in the area and volcano dinners!

A friend awaited us at our rental apartment :)

From the town, it's about a 20 minute walk to Furnas Lake... a gorgeous lake with a path going all the way around, perfect for running! It's here that they also cook the volcano dinner underground. The volcano dinner is called <> and typically a mix of meat/veggies/potatoes or what we had which was veggies/potatoes. The geothermal soil naturally cooks the pots all day ready for you to eat for dinner!

Vegan volcano dinner

 Alicia and I then did a very muddy and steep hike up to the top of the waterfall seen in the first picture of Furnas lake... it was a fun and challenging hike. The views were incredible from the top!

It was quite the workout, as you can see from how sweaty we are haha, but those views 😍 This area was just stunning.

Feeling accomplished, such a good feeling to be rewarded with a view like this!

Continuing the hot spring trend of the Azores, Furnas also has several natural hot springs, with one open at night which was a great way to experience it. This hot spring site had four different pools, all of them were slightly different temperatures and lit by colored leds which really set the mood at night :) I think Justin would say the hot springs were his favorite activity haha.

The town of Furnas is also pretty cute, it's easy to walk around the whole town on foot which is nice. You can tell it's definitely more touristy than Sete Cidades, but still maintains the charm of a smaller town. We really lucked out with the weather in Furnas, we had some gorgeous, sunny days.

I loved this area in particular, mossy paths and what felt like a secret garden.

From Furnas we also decided to go canyoning in Salga Canyon! The starting point was... shocker... a cow pasture haha.

It was a bit of hike down into Salga canyon, made extra sweaty wearing our thick wetsuits, but we had a lot of fun cliff jumping and rappelling for a few hours.

Another day in the Azores, another hike! This was my favorite one for the views along the cliffs.

Can you spot us? :)

On our final day in Sao Miguel we road tripped over to the far east coast, the island is very mountainous in that area with sheer cliffs dropping to the sea. It was a beautiful drive, and we stopped for a nice forest hike to a waterfall :) Accompanied by chickens!

Beautiful views of the town coming back down the hill

Unfortunately I slid down some gravel on the way back... we won't mention what words I said in front of two Portuguese older ladies. Oops... 😅

How to rinse your banged up knee in a Portuguese village... ouch

We stopped at some eastern vistas on the way back, just gorgeous here with parks set up atop the cliffs.

I really enjoyed staying in Furnas, I liked that it was slight bigger than Sete Cidades, definitely more touristy but that just meant more conveniences.

Justin picking a strawberry guava fruit on our last night haha.. he was dedicated

 I would recommend the Azores if you love being surrounded by nature, and lots of cows :)

We spent the rest of the year mostly in Portugal, with a side trip to Paris and Amsterdam I'll need to write a blog post on :) As for this year, I'm currently writing this while on a plane headed to Thailand 😱😍 It's been a dream of ours to make it to SE Asia for a long time, so when Thailand announced the Thailand pass we figured it was time to go! Right now you can apply for either test&go or Phuket sandbox. Thailand suspended test&go for a bit so we did the Phuket sandbox which means spending the first week in Phuket but you can travel around Phuket anywhere you want (no quarantine if vaccinated). From there we will hop around Thailand working remotely hopefully spending 1-2 months total in the land of smiles :) I'm sure we'll fall in love and want to move there if our past experiences predict anything about our personality 😂 Beaches + thai food + scuba diving... I think we'll be in heaven.

Who knows what will happen, that's the current plan but we only have two weeks booked as of right now. I've learned not to plan too far out these days and we want to stay flexible while there. If you asked us what our plan was for life in general you'd get a different answer every week almost. But I'm so excited for this opportunity to go to Thailand, and maybe venture into more of SE Asia from there! We'll be headed back to beautiful Lisboa after this adventure, we were a bit sad to leave. Maybe I need to do a post on being a true nomad, no where in particular to be which is both a blessing and a little stressful at the same time. Nothing is ever all rainbows and butterflies, but life is what we make of it and for Justin & I it's flying by the seat of our pants for now (but hey at least we got our boosters!) 😅

Thanks for following along, we're sending love to everyone back home whom we're always thinking of and missing!

💜

Sarah

"But the most beautiful things in life are not things, They're people, and places, and memories, and pictures. They're feelings and moments and smiles and laughter"
~ Unknown