Portugal: Azores, San Mighel
The composition of Portugal includes the Azores Archipelago. It is believed that his name comes from the outdated word azures, meaning «Azure, blue color». Legend also connects the name with the word AçOR («hawk»): As if hawks, flying to their nests, showed the navigators to the islands. But since in reality, this bird has never lived here, scientists reject this version.
«Azure» — quite a suitable description of the archipelago. The endless ocean framed an amazing landscape of nine islands having volcanic origin. Most of them — San Mighel: His area is 746.82 km², About 140,000 people live here.
It has a long shape, stretches from the West to the East and consists of two volcanic arrays separated by the central chain of the mountains. The highest point, 1105 m above sea level, is Cape Vara, located in the eastern part.
The largest reservoir on the island — Network-Cydadish, lying in a stratovulkan crater. His name translated from Portuguese means «Seven cities». According to legend, in the XIII century, seven pious bishops, fleeing from Arabs, found the island lost in the Atlantic Ocean and found seven settlements here.
Network Sidadish — These are two small lakes with blue and green water. Their origin is also shrouded with ancient myths. They say that the princess once lived in this area. The king forbade her to meet shepherd, and in love with parting filled two lakes with their tears: Lagoola-Azul («Blue» — In the color of the princess eye) and Lagoa Verdi («Green» — in color eye shepherd).
On the south coast of the island, the charming village of Vila Frank-do Campa is located, founded in the XV century and storing old traditions. An interesting story has its chairlis of the Holy Virgin consent: it is built on a hill, where the image of the Virgin Mary was found in the XVI century. For the temple, the site was chosen down, but every morning the building materials were miraculously returned to the top of the mountain, where ultimately began to build the temple. Now our updated version of 1764. The staircase leads to the top, each span of which is decorated with tiles on the biblical theme.
In the eastern part of San Miguel is the Valley of Furnish, famous for its fumarols with medicinal waters, mud and thermal sources. The western part of the two calder is partially filled with a crater lake Furnash lying at an altitude of 359 m. Here are tens of sources with different temperatures and chemical composition. Locals have adapted geasers for cooking!
Tens of viewing sites have been created around the coast: Ponta Da Madrugada, Ponta Do Sossego, Salto Da Farinha in the East, Miradouro de Santa Iria in the north and many others. They allow you to admire the relief and nature of the green island, as elsewhere called San Mighel. And being in the distance, we can make this tour using Airpano panoramas.
