Today we began with a stop at a very popular attraction from Sao Miguel island, Our Lady of Peace Chapel or also found as Miraduro Nossa Senhora da Paz. It is a white chapel on a hilltop with panoramic views over the countryside and the ocean. The most impressive feature at this chapel are the stairs that took us up to it. These are decorated with mural artwork. The legend says that the chapel was built in 18th century because sheperds saw an image of the Virgin Mary in a cave so they build the chapel over the cave. It is still visited by many pilgrims until this day. We were lucky to come here early, because at our way back, the parking lot started to get crowded.
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| Our Lady of Peace Chapel |
On our way to today's hike we came across a park so beautiful that we considered it it worth to make a little stop here. It's called Jardim da Alameda, in Furnas. The garden offers a beautiful pyramid-like waterfall, a small aquarium where you can see different kinds of fish, a playground for kids and an outdoor gym. The garden is cut in half by a river which I believe carries thermal water from the cauldrons of Furnas.
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| Jardim da Alameda |
We continued our way to our second hike in Azore, and second most well rated trail by excursionists, and that is Faial da Terra - Salto do Prego hike. This is a circular trail which starts and ends in Faial da Terra and guided us to the marvelous waterfall called Salto do Prego. We found ourselves here surrounded by luxuriant vegetation with several sepecies of regional flora. The humidity was also in its place since small streaks of water were leaking throughout the forest. The path though, might not be suitable for everybody. Even though it's not a long route, it is cataloged as intermediate because there are some slopes that can be slippery at times, large roots emerging from the ground and even a few big rocks that must be climbed.
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| Faial da Terra - Salto do Prego trail |
Our "efforts" to walk in such a beautiful tropical forest has been rewarded with one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen. At the end of the path, Salto do Prego waterfall awaited us, flowing noisily from the mountain and falling into a beautiful lagoon. We took our time here to admire and hear what the imposing waterfall had to say. The water was ice cold. We tried several times to lay our legs in the water, but after a few seconds in we could not feel our feet anymore even at the touch of our hands 😅
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| Salto do Prego waterfall |
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| Testing to see how cold the water is |
On the way back, we took the path to an area called Sanguinho. Here we found old and abandoned houses that are in the process of recovery, and also some houses that are in ruins in which we adventured ourselves to explore them too.
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| Abandoned houses of Sanguinho |
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| Sanguinho village and beautiful view over Faial da Terra |
In the end, the hike took us 5 kilometers in 3 hours.
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| Trail map |
After the hike, we went to have lunch in Furnas to try some local products. We tasted different kinds of cheese, some bread with garlic cheese filling and local meat sandwiches. The cheese was hard on the outside, but soft and creamy on the inside. A pleasure! 🧀 We ended up buying a lot of cheese rolls to bring home as we are big cheese fans and these didn't compare to any cheese we tried.
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| Lunch at Queijaria Furnense in Furnas |
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