The last full day in the Azores.
Breakfast at the hotel. Every morning they had fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, juice, an omelette bar, and hot plates of meat, potatoes, and sauteed vegetables.
Pico da Barrosa, a viewpoint at 3,107 feet.
The Pico da Barrosa view of the west side of the island.
The Caldeira Velha hot springs park. It’s full of swimming pools and feels like a tropical jungle.
I was shy to take photos of bathers in the first few pools, so here are their towels.
But I couldn’t resist joining the photographers at the pool with its own waterfall.
A giant fern on the walk back to the car.
I got lost again.
Ribeira dos Caldeirões, the waterfalls park.
The view from the top of the waterfall.
Looking out this window shows another waterfall.
Walking through the park’s adorable stone buildings.
I mentioned in an earlier post that hydrangeas are what the islands are known for, and I found one! Supposedly the white ones are the first to show, so this must have been an early bloomer.
The stairs to the waterfall you can see out of the window.
And finally, the waterfall across the street.
Farol do Arnel, the oldest lighthouse in the Azores. (It started operation in 1876.)
The road to the lighthouse is so steep that they recommend you park the car and walk, because there’s no guarantee the car will make it back up the hill.
There are homes (and the remains of homes) on the walk down the hill.
The Arnel lighthouse! The road continued further down through more homes to a row of boats parked on the cement. There was also a waterfall. (Of course there was.)
This is a situation where the GPS didn’t know the difference between a paved and dirt road. When I searched Google maps the night before, they recommended turning around and going back the way I came. Now I know why–there’s no real road around the southeast corner of the island.
But I got to see the view from that side of the island.
I drove through on a day that they were logging–stripping trees, felling them, then chaining them to a tractor and pulling them up the hill to the truck.
But because the GPS took me the slow way around, I didn’t make it to my target lunch spot before they closed the kitchen at 3 p.m. (The waitress told me that most kitchens in the area closed at that time.) So I scrambled to find food, and was fortunate enough to come across Vale das Furnas above the community park.
I walked in and asked if they had any vegan food, and they said, “It’s just past and vegetables.” Perfect. It had pineapple, garlic, beans, mushrooms, and was delicious.
The community garden.
The community park has a river with water wheels.
It also has a stairstep waterfall.
I forgot to mention that I’m in Furnas, a village known for its geothermal pools. This is the Igreja De Nossa Senhora de Alegria.
Another community park next to the boiling pools.
The caldeiras!
Waves rolling toward the lighthouse, onto the boat landing below the lighthouse, and at an angle toward the island. And the church bell in Furnas, and a bubbling caldeira.