Azores, the European Oasis – Part 4

The main island Sao Miguel is the complete opposite, compared to the other islands. It is the biggest from all 9 islands, it is 80 kilometres long and 20 kilometres wide. Almost half of the whole Azores population lives on this island. There are more than 100 volcano hills around the island and between them are roads, villages, and by the sea even cities. When we got used to the slow beat of life, we have travelled to Sao Miguel and expected to like it the most. It depends on what one wants but we soon missed the other islands. We got used to slow and calm life with no traffic where there are no traffic lights, beggars, big city buildings or big shopping centres. Sao Miguel has the most developed tourism on the whole archipelago. The Azores’ capital Ponta Delgada is definitely worth seeing, especially the city centre with narrow picturesque streets and mighty churches. Many restaurants invite the tourists for seafood specialties. Ponta Delgada was a great starting point for visiting the whole island or for visiting a bar in the evening. A big specialty in Ponta Delgada are the pineapple plantations practically in the city centre. The old greenhouses were there before they built high buildings around them. They are very welcoming to tourists and happily show them how pineapple is grown. At first I was complaining about the price of the pineapple at the store, which can cost around 5 euros, but when they told me that pineapple fruit needs two years to grow, I changed my opinion about the price of this delicious fruit. The Azores are an important pineapple producer. They make about 2000 tons of pineapple per year. The Azores were once a strong producer of oranges, but a disease dried their trees. Because they wanted to plant the fields with something else, in some unknown way they started producing tea. Some joke, or it might be true, that tea was brought here from the ships, which sailed by from China. Today there are two factories producing Azores tea and green tea on 50 hectares. They produce more than 30 tonnes of tea per year. Tea is produced by machines and not by hands like they used to.

 

  

There are many interesting things on the island. The most picturesque point on the island is Vista do Rei or Siete Cidades where you can get a beautiful view on crater lakes and wonderful untouched nature. One lake is blue and the other lake is green and are definitely the most photographed natural sights on the Azores and the most used pictures to promote the Azores. There’s a legend about the crater lakes that were filled by two people in love. The king had a beautiful daughter who loved nature so much that she spent all of her time in the forests, by lakes, rivers and in hidden valleys. She met a young shepherd whom she started meeting again and again and they fell in love. When the king found out about the news, he forbid the daughter to meet the shepherd ever again. The king wanted her daughter to marry a rich prince. The daughter begged her father to let her meet the shepherd one last time. They cried so much when they last met that they filled the craters with tears. The island is hiding many more lakes in the silent volcanoes, forests, caves, waterfalls, pastures and bright flowers and greenery. The lakes are formed because of the impermeable ground in the crater. And when it comes to flowers, there are hydrangeas, strelitzias, lilies, poinsenttias and many more. The area with geysers Furnas is also very special, as you can bathe in a spa. There’s smoke coming out from the ground and the strong smell of sulphur can get really annoying. The locals are really making use of this hot ground. Not only for warm water, but also for cooking. They put the ingredients in a big pot and then they put it in holes, put the lid on a pot and after six hours, the goulash is cooked. 

 

In the restaurants you can usually get different sea food (specialties are eels and sea urchins) and beef, prepared on different ways. They also offer tropical fruit (like pineapple) and different vegetables. Don’t forget to try their excellent cheese as the Azores are also a well known cheese producers. You can get cheese with pepper, chili, herbs, dried fruit, nuts, etc. And with food, drink their wine. Locals are also proud of their coffee, which is also produced there. We ate their bread for breakfast and it tastes like dessert. They prepare cakes with cinnamon, honey and raisins in different bakeries. The prices in restaurants are a little higher. An average meal (for example a beef steak with a side dish) will cost you 10 or more euros. 

 

 

Restaurant Terceiri, a few kilometres from Angra do Heroisme really stands out. On top floor there is a restaurant and cheese shop and in the basement they produce meat. The specialty is that you can see them cutting the whole cow from the green windows.

People can watch whales and dolphins on most of the islands. The organized tour will cost you around 50 euros and lasts for three hours. The best months to see whales are April and May. At winter they don’t organize these tours because of the weather and the lack of tourists. Tourists can swim with dolphins. As the locals say, this doesn’t look like in the movies, where the dolphin happily greets you and swims close to you. When they have baby dolphins, they can be dangerous. 

Real estate prices are really low on the islands (around 500 € per square metre). There are many buildings on sale. You constantly see boards with the writing “de vendas”, which say that the building is on sale. A lot of the tourists liked it so much on the Azores that they wanted to buy a real estate. A lot of the German and American tourists actually did that and they come back in summer or even move there. The Azores are a destination where you can get everything for a comfortable living as well as peace and untouched nature. 

 

 

People aren’t mistaken when they call the Azores the only oasis in Europe. Travelling in those remote and unknown islands is really different. You get what you need in a modern life, but it still feels like you returned in the past. In time, when time wasn’t important. In time, when only nature was important and what the nature gave to people.