Portugal Day 12: Food From a Volcão

Today we set off on our tour around São Miguel. Our group separated into two vans, with younger people in one and older people in the other. Our driver, Paulo, was a police officer who leads tours in his free time. The other driver, Igor, lived in England for some time but was from the Azores.

Our first stop was Cerâmica Viera, in Lagoa. Catherine loves the blue Portuguese tiles and pottery, so we had a great time touring the various rooms, including the painting and the sculpting areas. She decided to a purchase plate with a hydrangea on it, although we also thought about getting a piece of religious artwork out of tile like almost all of the houses here seem to have.

More of the beautiful scenery as we drove around.

Tobacco cultivation. They grow tobacco and make cigarettes with it on São Miguel. Smoking seems to be very popular.

More scenery.

We stopped at a little beach area, where there was a swimming pool filled by the ocean water.

There were fishing boats coming in. Every boat seems to have a religiously themed name and a small image on the bow.

More scenery.

We went to Nossa Senhora da Paz chapel, where apparently some shepherd children saw an image of the Virgin Mary. We hadn’t really heard much about the miracle, but it was a beautiful church.
As you walk up the steps, every landing has a tile image of a different mystery of the rosary, starting with the joyful mysteries.

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The Annunciation.

The Visitation.

The Nativity.

The Presentation in the Temple.

The Finding in the Temple.
Then the Sorrowful Mysteries

The Agony in the Garden

The Flogging at the Pillar.

The Crowning with Thorns.

The Carrying of the Cross.

The Crucifixion.

Some pictures of the chapel and from the chapel. It was a beautiful place. The staircase appears to have been build in the 1960s, but the church is older. We did wonder where the Glorious Mysteries could be found, and then we found them behind the church.

The Resurrection.

The Ascension.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit.

The Assumption.

The Crowning of Mary.

After this, we went to Lagoa das Furnas, where there were beautiful gardens around the lake.

The Capela de Nossa Senhora das Vitórias, apparently built after the owner of the property prayed for his wife to get better when she was sick. She lived, so he built the chapel.

Around the lake. The Azores feel like Hawaii mixed with the Pacific Northwest.

The geothermal cooking pots where they make cozido das Furnas.

A beautiful picnic of volcano-cooked food for us. One of the ingredients, morcela (black pudding) was familiar to Anthony and his brothers from their childhoods.

Next we stopped at some volcanic hot springs. There was a beautiful garden near the hot springs.

Taro, or inhames as it is called here. It is a very common food, and was an ingredient in the cozido.

More of the garden.

The springs are very warm, and are a very different experience from most swimmimg. They are murky and sort of intimidating, but rather pleasant once you get in.

Some refreshments and a picture of the gardens.

We stopped at one last viewing place to take some pictures and see the beauty of the ocean and the island.

Catherine’s cousin Nicole wanted Italian food, which sounded good to us too. We walked down to the marina area and found a restaurant with Italian, Japanese, and Azorean food. After we ate, we met up with Ryan, Michael, and a person named Dominic, who is the nephew of Anthony’s cousin Don Santos. We walked to a place called Doris Bar. We had a couple local beers (there’s an Azorean beer called Especial) and tremoços (lupin beans). Dominic talked about his adventures in Terceira last year, when he ran with the bulls during the festa (on the television screen at the bar there were “highlights” of bullfighting and bull running disasters). It was a very fun night and we had a great time, and feel so lucky to be here in these beautiful islands