Heidi Hess Travel

05/17/2025

Chá Porto Formosa Tea Plantation, Saõ Miguel. This area of Saō Miguel has quite a few tea plantations. Tea plants were originally just ornamental in the Azores, but in the late 1870’s two people from Chine were brought to Saõ Miguel to teach the cultivation of tea as a beverage. I had never seen tea growing before so as we drove I was taken aback by these fields of beautiful “hedges.” Then I learned what they were! 🌿

05/17/2025

Grená Park in Furnas São Miguel Island, Azores. I could have stayed here for a much longer time!!

05/17/2025

The Grená Park in Furnas São Miguel Island, Azores.

05/17/2025

Grená Park in Furnas São Miguel Island, Azores. This area of Sao Miguel is called the Furnas. It is an area of geothermal hot springs. This particular one is a park with beautiful botanical gardens and hiking paths. After a soak in this iron rich bath that was so warm, we strolled through this magical park.

05/17/2025

05/16/2025

We rented a car our last two days to see more of San Miguel. On this day we headed to the west and Sete Cidades (seven cities) which refers to the volcanic structures formed. We got a late start and you can see in the first picture how little we could see of the lakes. Keep going through and you will see how it cleared up for a better view on the return. These mountains create their own extreme weather that changes quickly.

05/16/2025

Our last day as a group of four in Ponte Delgada. Some cool tiles at our hotel, some cool architecture, and a final lunch with these amazing women!

05/16/2025

Ponte dos Capelinhos Lighthouse, Faial, Azores. This place is bananas. This volcano erupted for over a year, creating a new island, connecting that island to the mainland, and now wearing it away, again. No loss of life. The lighthouse keeper remained to document the process. You can see the main house of the lighthouse on the front is still buried in ash. The backside is more visible from the ash wearing away. The caldera is just incredible and vast and lunar. Our taxi driver drove us to the town where you can still see the roofs of houses just poking through the ash. It was all incredibly beautiful and stark. The museum, which is underground, is well worth the visit to understand what you are seeing.

05/16/2025

Hiking and apres hiking. Três Sagres, por favor. The folks in the cafe told our driver we they heard us coming in saying “WE MADE IT!” 🤣

05/15/2025

Caldeira de Faial to Praia do Norte. Another stunning yet rather terrifying hike. All round the peaks of the caldera looking down into the mouth. Fantastic.