A few of my best photos of Sao Miguel

So here they are, my daytime (well, most of them are shot at daytime…) images of the Azores. I wont tell you my whole holiday story and I know very little more about the objects I photographed than you do. So I have no extensive text to go with the photos. Instead, I will tell you what you see in the image description when necessary 😉 And as always: click on the images for the full photos, they are quite HD.

I would recommend visiting Sao Miguel to everyone looking for a short but active holiday; 7-10 days is enough to see and do most of the coolest things. I sure had an awesome time there!

The northern coast of Sao Miguel isn’t very beachy….

An old line reel that was – fortunately long ago – used to tow whales ashore

To be honest, I find these cliffs way cooler than beaches

On a walk towards another old whaling harbour, we came past these beautifully eroded walls

The eastern part of the island, near Nordeste, is probably the most colorful of all.

While the Hortensia’s and ginger lilies aren’t native species, they really add some color to the landscape all over the island. The local government apparently is trying to get rid of the ginger lilies as they are an invasive species and disturb growth of native plants, but they really are everywhere.

Moss…

A typical road near Nordeste. Again very green and flowery.

These are the boiling wells of Furnas. The terrible smell of rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) doesn’t keep some 1500 people from living there. I sure was out of there as fast as I could 🙂

These were the … well… stinkholes 😛

Roots hanging from a ‘New Zealand Christmas Tree’ in one of the exotic gardens in Ponta Delgada

On our way to Caldeira Velha (natural hot tubs with waterfalls and all…) we came across the crater lake of Lagoa do Fogo

I could have admired the beautiful lake for hours. Nowhere have I seen anything like it!

Swimming in the hot springs was cool, but again the landscape there is breathtaking.

Hortensia’s growing everywhere. But they must all have been planted as I understood that they can’t reproduce by themselves. Also, I haven’t seen a single pink one on the entire island, so there must be lots of iron in the ground.

In this crater lies the village of Sete Cidades alongside 2 lakes, one green-ish and one blue-ish. The lake on the left is believed to be green due to the presence of algae.