In the middle of Atlantic Ocean

One island. Two hundred euros. Three nationalities. Four seasons. Five adventurous people.

I had barely known something about The Azores before reading the ESN Magazine full of interesting destinations in Portugal. I found out that this group of nine volcanic islands is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. The second one is Madeira, an archipelago of four islands, about which I knew more, of course, since on of them is the birth place of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Finding out that there are low-cost flights to Ponta Delgada, the capital of São Miguel Island, we hurried to find out the prices for renting a place and a car, so we could estimate a budget.

The world is mine!

200 euros (flight + accommodation + car) for experiencing such an amazing feeling! It really pays off!

Even though São Miguel is the biggest island of this archipelago, it took us 4 days to see the most important points of interest. Of course, having a car made this possible… and four experienced drivers that were encouraged all the time: ‘You are doing great, sweety! ’, as the roads were pretty narrow and steep.

The weather is so bipolar!

A few minutes ago it was raining; now it’s so warm and sunny that I’m in my t-shirt, but I am keeping my rain jacket close since it’s a high chance to rain again in 10 minutes… Who knows?! The locals say it happens all the year, not only when we were there, in November.

Literally, four seasons in one day!

Gorreana Tea Plantation

The only tea plantation in Europe is smaller than I expected, but it's awesome! We could try green and black tea for free while watching a brief movie about the history of Gorreana Tea Plantation. Before leaving, we bought some gifts originally from Açores (the Portuguese spelling). I loved the passion fruit and pistachio ice-cream!

Hiking

Doing sports is a must in Portugal, having in mind that they eat rice and fries as a side dish!

You can find a lot of places perfect for hiking on this island. I bumped into uncanny trees, beautiful flowers, like hydrongea, and people cooking stews using underground volcanic heat (‘Lagoa das Furnas’).

Baby pineapples are my new obsession!

Ponta Delgada is the host of a very sweet pineapple plantation and numerous pineapple related products. I loved the chilli sauce made of this versatile fruit and the cake at the restaurant ‘A Tasca’ from Ponta Delgada.

An authentic place

I am aware that we should have slowed down a bit, to explore more the places, not just to try hitting every attraction. I am talking about moments like this one:

I will definitely try to come again!

Photo gallery