Nordeste

Nordeste, located on the northeast coast of Sao Miguel, was the prettiest town we visited.





As we left town, we experienced a bit of a traffic jam!

Furnas and Cozido

We drove out to a small town called Furnas and spent three days in the eastern part of the island. This area is well known for its steam vents, which were quite impressive. There is also a local dish, cozido, that is placed in bags inside of the steam vents. Dirt is piled on top and the cozido is cooked in the ground for a few hours. Cozido has various meats--sausage, chicken, pork, and beef--as well as potatoes, carrots and cabbage.






Putting the cozido in the ground


Cozido cooking in the ground


Our cozido dinner

As we traveled across the island, we kept seeing people and animals sitting and standing in truck beds. We finally had our cameras ready on this one ...

Lagoa de Fogo

Another place we visited was the crater lake, Lagoa de Fogo. We had a beautiful day and the views were great. From the top, we could see the entire width of the island.

Vila Franca do Campo

One of my favorite things we did while on vacation was go to a small island called Ilheu de Vila Franca. The island has a crater in the middle that connects in a narrow passage to the ocean. We took a fishing boat out to the island and enjoyed a swim and a little sun bathing on the rocks.






Doc and fellow swimmers

After our swim, we drove to a hill above Vila Franca do Campo to see an old church that was built, according to our guidebook, in the second half of the 15th century. While there, we had another great view of the island.

Mosteiros

Moisteros is a town along the northwest coast of Sao Miguel. We stopped there to see the ocean before continuing along the coast to see a cliff.

Ponta Delgada

Ponta Delgada is the biggest city on the island and was our homebase for about half of the trip.


The main plaza in the city


A street in Ponta Delgada


At the waterfront

Azores

In August, Doc and I went to Sao Miguel for a week. It is one of the islands that comprise the Azores, which are part of Portugal. Even at the peak of their tourist season, there really weren't many folks vacationing on the island. I left wondering if all of the European Union's investment in infrastructure in the Azores would make the islands a much more popular place to visit in a few years.

We'll be posting some photos from some of the towns we visited and things we saw.