Azoren - San Miguel

From the Azores high one hears again and again in the weather report, little is known about the island itself. The Azores are particularly popular with holidaymakers for whom nature and originality are more important than a tourist infrastructure that extends into the far corner. The steep coast of São Miguel rises majestically from the Atlantic Ocean, 760 nautical miles west of Lisbon and 2110 east of New York. The black lava rocks with their headlands that line the few beaches have a mysterious effect. Behind it, green hills that resemble an alpine landscape, surrounded by the endless expanse of the Atlantic. Sã o Miguel, also known as the green island, is 65 kilometers long and 16 kilometers wide, making it the largest of the archipelago. São Miguel grew out of several volcanic groups. In the east lies the highest mountain on the island, the Pico da Vara with a height of 1103 meters and the mountain ranges that extend from it, in the center the massif of the Serra de Água do Pau and the crater lake Lagoa do Fogo below the Pico Barrosa. To the west the island flatter, the volcanic cones smaller, only to rise again at the extreme end to a height of 900 meters, that is how high the crater walls of the Caldeira das Sete Cidades are, which is certainly the most imposing and most beautiful example of the Azorean volcanic landscape . The fact that the earth has not yet come to rest on the island is clearly noticeable in the Furnas Valley, the Vale das Furnas, where geysers boil and thermal water flows in some streams.