Destination international - an island stopover

Weekly Update

I just finished a full week in the Azores islands and the stoke is high. Although I am quite tired after a week of full-on exploring but wow was it so much fun, I hope you enjoy reading about this little island adventure.

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A week spent in Connecticut meeting Emily's family over the Christmas holiday and visiting New York City went by faster than I would have liked to feel properly prepared but here I was ready to board my first international flight of the adventure, heading from NYC to São Miguel Island, 1 of 8 islands that make up the Azores Island chain. Located about 800 miles off the coast of Portugal we spent the end of December, New Year's Eve and the first few days of 2024 roaming around this lush green gem. (Aptly named Ilha Verde - The Green Island)

As I sat on my flight to the Azores reality had not really sunk in yet that my life in Washington State was at an end and I am embarking on a new life journey. This is so wild because during my in-and-out year living in Washington I found comfort in the space I made there. This comfort was necessary and perfect in that moment but these travels feed my soul. I have no clue where the time went but the past summer and fall were magical in Washington State. And as I sit here in Lisbon, Portugal writing this I am invigorated to be on the road again, open to whatever journey I come across.

This first stop of 2024, to São Miguel, was a spontaneous add-on after some of the main destinations had been finalized. When I was planning the beginning half of the trip I knew that I was going to visit Portugal and Bali this year. Both of those destinations became a thing when I met Emily because herself had planned two yoga training courses for this year in those countries. So once we solidified doing this adventure together Bali and Portugal became the anchor points to visit with dates set for her yoga training.

Since I am a flight nerd I introduced her to a concept I had known about for years and used a couple of times previously, which is to book a stopover flight between two international destinations. She thought we would just fly from New York City to Lisbon, Portugal for her yoga training and start our trip from there, but once we found the airline that we would be using I mentioned - "How about we do 7 days on the island of São Miguel in the Azores?" Which shocked her for the suggestion and after showing her what I meant we had to do it.

This was possible due to the specific airline offering the option to do an island stopover on São Miguel, and if you don't know what that is here is a little description ✈️

My Azores Adventure

After a sleepless overnight flight we landed in the main city of Ponta Delgada just before 7am local time. I felt a little delirious picking up our rental care at the airport, so much so that I was at a loss why it would not shift into reverse gear. Manual cars are the common thing to rent outside of the USA, and I DO know how to drive normally, but it turns out after asking the attendant that this type of stick shift rental, as a safety feature for reverse you have to lift a little thing on the shifter as you put it into reverse to allow it to go past 6th gear and into reverse. Which now after driving it makes complete sense but in the moment I felt like a dumb tourist.

The way we structured our week on the island was staying in multiple cities, making the most of each day. So immediately on day one we set off from the airport towards the eastern side of the island to a place called Furnas. A small mountain town located inside a volcanic crater, known for its thermal pools and completely rimmed by lush green jagged peaks, Furnas was one destination that we could not miss. Our drive took us through a few coastal villages and viewpoints, each of which had us so excited.

I stopped on one of those random viewpoints to have a quick drone session, which turned into a nap for Emily while she waited for me, and through the lens way above the ground I saw the vast greenery and epic peaks that circled our first's night stay in Furnas. My excitement was so high as I weaved the rental car down the side of the volcano and dropped into the small village in-search of our Airbnb.

Furnas is the thermal hot spot of the island, here is where you can relax in more steaming calderas than anywhere else on the island, soaking in the various natural mineral pools. These calderas are a result due to the closeness of magma to the earth's surface, heating the water and springs.

Once checked in and our luggage unloaded our jet lagged bodies shuffled down the volcanic cobble streets in search of food all while experiencing a tired sense of awe. We immediately learned that on the island the afternoon siesta is definitely a thing, that it is quite common for restaurants close just after lunch only to reopen at 6pm or later for dinner, same is true for visiting Portugal as a whole. So trying to find a place to eat at midday can be tricky, especially when you are two tired tourist that just arrived to a very small village, but luckily with only minimal walking we found an open one.

Despite our tiredness our tight schedule made sure that the first night in Furnas we would experience a hot spring to help ease our bodies, so we booked a time slot online for 8pm at the Poça da Dona Beija outdoor thermal pools. We opted for little later slot so we could enjoy the soothing mineral pools under the stars. Poça da Dona Beija is comprised of a handful of mineral pools, each a slightly different type, but all with a varying temp around 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily our accommodation was just down the road, all we had to do was grab our towels and make the easy walk to enjoy the warmth!

The next day we wandered the city streets and spent hours walking the garden area that is part of the second most popular hot spring in town, the Terra Nostra Park. After the garden stroll we did a mid-day soak in what was a massive natural pool area. The garden walk was a vast cultivated area that I can only imagine is even more impressive during the summer season with the plants in bloom and the hot spring was impressive in size and depth. The whole pool was anywhere from over 5 feet deep to almost 6 feet deep and the water is so full of mineral deposits it will stain your swimwear and leaves a nice rusty shine on your skin when you get out. You will be so smooth afterwards though.

That night we treated ourselves to a nice dinner, as a celebration to the start of traveling. I tried a staple island item - a mixed stew of chicken, pork, beef, blood sausage, liver, ear, cabbage, and vegetables. This local stew is buried in a hole in the ground and slow cooked by volcanic steam for 9 hours! Which surprising enough the following day when we toured the volcanic park I was able to witness where my food was buried and cooked.

We said goodbye to Furnas and proceeded to take our little rental car to the far east side of the island, up around the northern tip, and then back westward towards the surfing city of Ribeira Grande and it's soft black sand beach named Santa Barbra. This beach is the biggest beach on the island and one of the most famous towns for summer travels, even if you are not a surfer.

As we were heading west on the way to our next accommodation we made a random stop to the oldest tea plantation in Europe! The Gorreana Tea Plantation was first introduced in the late 1800's after a blight hit the island decimating the orange fields, which was the main export industry of the time. Once the blight came the farmers hired two esteemed tea specialists from China to start the tea plantation on the island. The crops took strongly to the soil and became a major export for São Miguel, even to this day.

It was a bit overcast when we wandered the tea fields but seeing the production facility and watching a short video on the history of tea production was quite a highlight to learn. Did you know that one tea plant can live for 90 years of harvest! We also tasted the variety of tea produced every year, along with a couple holiday flavored blends. These cups of tea warmed us up nicely and the boost of caffeine made the rest of the drive that day go by quickly.

Our hotel was a little funky accommodation, with a mix of rooms upstairs and a shared common area downstairs from a converted house. Luckily we were the only guests for the night and in the morning the host provided a stellar breakfast of jams, boiled eggs, fruit, bread, deli slices, local cheese, coffee, and tea. Whenever I stay somewhere that offers sliced meats and bread I tend to always make an extra sandwich to take as a snack on the road, shhh don't let them know I double dip the breakfast.

That first night we arrived to Ribeira Grande just after sunset, and since we were staying on the outside of town we drove into the main city square and wandered the streets, stopping by a small restaurant for dinner and bakery for sweets afterwards. I childishly played in a castle set and we wandered the rest of the Christmas nativity scenes that were still set up in the city center.

Having a plan that packed in so much on the island in such a short time it meant that breakfast was quick and we did only a short walk on the length of the black sand beach. This was Emily's first time at a black sand beach so that was quite nice to share that with her, and it was also nice to walk barefoot and feel the sand and sea on my feet. There is something uniquely relieving about spending time next to the ocean, being on the sand this way and swimming in it is just grounding, it always feels like some weight is lifted off me and with the sun out and sand on our tows we wished we had more time to relax there.

After our time soaking in the ocean spray we hopped in the rental and made our way back to Ponta Delgada, the capital city on the island, for a fancy NYE night in the big city. Our hotel was hands down phenomenal, I mean they even had a sauna that we soaked in! Inside the hotel was a small art gallery throughout the property the decor was one themed on modern. We wanted to be in the city for the holiday night because we heard that New Year's Eve is the biggest holiday on the island and we hoped to experience something wonderful, which we totally did.

One thing to note is that although we knew things shut down for New Year's we were still ill prepared for the extent of businesses closed, even in the capital. Most restaurants simply closed and the one's still open were serving a very limited set menu of multiple courses, which had to be reserved in advanced as well. We searched from after 8 pm until 9:30 pm and finally found one that had space for us and just started serving food. I was a little uncomfortable with the price but without coming across anything else we assumed the only other option of ours was to cook some of our dehydrated meals that we brought for our 13 day coastal hike. (It wasn't until after the firework show and midnight celebrations did we finally come across a Burger King and street stands selling food but during our search we didn't even find an open shop with snacks.)

Course after course later of indulging, we found the main square where one of Portugal's largest pop artist was playing a live set and immersed ourselves in a massive crowd dancing and singing along. The energy of the crowd was infections and even though it was hours past my bedtime I was wide awake simply people watching. The island does a big firework show in the main harbor where the cruise ships and fishing/supply boats dock so we made our way to the pier and proceed to cheer along with the crowd as the clock struck midnight.

A tradition in Portugal, adopted from Spain, is to eat 12 raisins at midnight, one for each strike of the bell, to have good fortune during the new year and to make a wish on each one.

The next morning came early, we did not partake in revelry or drinking but I am definitely not used to staying up that late! We were short on time to make checkout but we still squeezed in a very quick sauna session and then we were hustled out the door by the cleaning maid wanting us gone. I should have used one of my wishes to stay in that hotel for one more night because it was so cozy and a full day enjoying the sauna and bed would have been glorious. But 7 days meant we had other places to be on the island. 7 days sound like a long time but they go by quickly when you try to traverse a whole island, and are a person that has to see as much as possible hahah.

Following checkout we attempted to sightsee around Ponta Delgada, the city was completely shut down on New Year's Day and eerily quiet. Unfortunately every time I wanted to bring out my camera the rain decide to come back harder, so after a short dreary stroll we decided it best to meander back to the car and hit the road to the west side of the island!

The rain filled weather followed us all day so it wasn't worth pulling over during the drive but we were able to check out some beautiful cliffs and a small new caldera formation on the westerly side of the island before checking into our last accommodation. We had booked 3 nights in this one spot, knowing we wanted to hike some of the trails on this part of the island and that being in one accommodation would allow us to do laundry and spread out a bit. Unfortunately this was not a good accommodation.

I have stayed in some bad places but this was disheartening when the past accommodations were so nice. We had a whole casa to ourselves with two bedrooms, a living room and an upstairs. The first bedroom we quickly discovered was covered wall to ceiling in booklice, a small insect that only survives in a high humid climate, which the Azores are definitely humid. The are found in furniture and bed sets and live off paper and mold. After a brief panic that the infestation was bedbugs we managed to secure some pillows and blankets and stayed in the loft room upstairs. During our check-in process I personally wanted to avoid the upstairs for the rest of our stay because it was full of creepy haunted vibes. I mean, the lights did not work, the ceiling was slanted and low, and there was a random crib in the space before the loft bedroom. All signs of ghost habitat for sure.

Speaking on that Emily swears she heard something heavy, like human footfalls going up and down the stairs the last night of our stay. Which kept her awake all night long and I being a dead sleeper heard nothing. But what I did hear and discover during the 3 nights staying there, was that the cupboards and the dishes were covered in mouse poop, urine was everywhere and there were signs of nesting. I heard scurrying every night before bed and we felt so uncomfortable and disappointed because we had hoped to cook with the oven and spread out with the space. Have a relaxed time where I could work and enjoy our last nights on the island.

Aside from complaining about our stay, I have to say the western side of São Miguel was worlds different than the eastern side and my favorite hands down. The weather continued to be grey, windy, and intermittent with rain but on our last afternoon we were blessed with sunshine and got to experience some incredible nature.

Final Thoughts

The roads were small and windy, the nature was vivid and wild. I felt like I was truly in a prehistoric jungle and that some sort of dinosaur was going to roam into view at any second. Having a rental car was so freeing, and high's and low's aside, every day spent on the island was a blessing full of awe. The Azores hold a special place in my heart now and I am already aching to see the other uniquely different islands and experience São Miguel in the summer time.

See you on the next adventure - Sheridan

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Sheridan C. Chasing horizons and capturing untamed beauty. Let's embark on rugged journeys together!

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