I've Bean Travelling

Our final tour in the Azores took us to the Nordeste area of Sao Miguel, on the northeastern part of the island.

Cesar picked us up in the morning and took us to our first stop at Cerâmica Vieira Lagoa, a 150 year old ceramics factory that produces the signs that adorn many buildings and churches around Sao Miguel. They also produce a range of pottery that is molded and hand painted on site. We saw some of their custom pieces and I picked up a small magnet as a memento.

Next, we returned to a viewpoint to take a second look at Lagoa do Fogo, which had been obscured by cloud cover the other day.

Then we had a stop in Matriz, a small parish within the municipality of Ribeira Grande. We took a quick stroll around and had a snack break, where I tried a delicious glass of hot chocolate from O Chocolatinho.

Before heading to lunch, we took a walk along Santa Bárbara beach, located on the northern coast of Ribeira Seca. We enjoyed watching people brave the massive waves.

For lunch, we went to Cantinho Do Cais in São Brás. It was a long wait on their patio in the heat, but we had a nice small meal of their specialty fish soup.

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At this point we were quickly losing steam due to the heat but we pulled ourselves together for two last afternoon tour stops. First was Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões, set on the slopes of Serra da Tronqueira and featuring a beautiful terraced landscape with waterfalls, hiking trails, and lots of hydrangeas.

Our finale was a visit near Praia da Viola to see a small waterfall. This area includes one of the most untouched black sand beaches of the Azores archipelago and would be a nice hike if we were better equipped. I think this was my favourite place we saw in Sao Miguel.

We returned to Ponta Delgada in late afternoon, zapped from a whirlwind few days touring around Sao Miguel and discovering the Azores. We went for another swim in the natural pool before ordering room service for dinner, and packed up for the next leg of our journey in Portugal. Coming up: Lisbon!