Azores - Day 1 — RachiePie

We flew to São Miguel, the largest of the Portuguese Azores archipelago, on Sunday. From the airplane we noticed the island's terrain is so much different then what we have seen already in Portugal. It is very mountainous and green! Just driving around the island holds so many beautiful sights! Hydrangeas line the roadside and although they are not in season, every now and then, we are rewarded with a pop of blue from the flowers.

On our first day we drove to the northwestern part of the island. Our first stop was Lagoa das Sete Cidades (Sete Cidades Lake). Specifically, the Miradouro da Boca do Inferno lookout point. This is the biggest fresh-water lake in the Azores, situated in the volcanic craters that form the Island, constituted by two lagoons (the Green Lagoon and the Blue Lagoon). There is a sweet story about the how the lakes were formed:

The Sete Cidades Tale

In the place where nowadays is the beautiful small village of Sete Cidades, once was a kingdom where the lovely blue eyed Princess Antília lived. One day, on a stroll by the wonderful greenish fields of the region, the Princess falls in love with a green eyed shepherd that played a flute and walked its flock of sheep.
The King, who desired his daughter be married to a Prince from a neighbor kingdom, discovers their love and soon forbids it. Desperate, the Princess Antília begs for a last encounter to say goodbye.
As both the Princess and the Shepherd talked about their forbidden love, they cried and cried, in such despondency that from the tears they dropped, two lagoons were formed. The Blue Lagoon from the blue eyes of the Princess and the Green Lagoon from the green eyes of the Shepherd. Hence, the lovers were sent apart, yet their tears forever are side by side, in the Sete Cidades Lake.

There is another lookout point nearby called Miradouro Vista do Rei. The location is an abandoned hotel called Monte Palace. The hotel was built in the 1970's and only operational for two years. It has had zero maintenance since it shut down, but people are able to freely explore the building, although keeping in mind to be careful of the debris and elevator shafts! It was pretty creepy, but the view was amazing from the top floor!

After spending time at both viewpoints, we drove down into the village of Sete Cidades to walk around and enjoy the lakes at eye level.

We then drove to Ponta da Ferraria, a small cove surrounded by gigantic lava rock cliffs. In this cove, the ocean water is warmed by a geo-thermal natural spring beneath. You are able to swim in this cove and we did bring our swimsuits, but the tide was too high and the water was very cold! We were able to walk along the lava rocks and enjoy the ocean view.

Our last stop of the afternoon was the Arruda Açores Pineapple Plantation. It is over 100 years old and is the only place in the world where pineapples are grown in greenhouses. We were able to peek inside the greenhouses to see the stages of growth - they were much smaller than pineapples I have seen elsewhere. We were not able to try one, but were offered a sample of their homemade pineapple liquor. I did, however, have one at the hotel for breakfast and it was delicious!