Hi there my Steemian friends and followers!
Welcome to my special weekly series called Beauties of Azores that was created by me to raise awareness of the extraordinary charm of a captivating Portuguese archipelago known as the Azores.
In the previous episode of the series last week, I took you to the enchanting Green Lake aka Lagoa Verde in this post and I am excited to share some more lake beauty with you today too.
We will stay in the same area but today, I will show you some other lakes too and we will have a look at them from a different perspective ;)
One of the civil parishes of the Azore island of Sao Miguel as well as a tiny picturesque town that is home to just a few hundred people and one adorable church, Sete Cidades is probably the best starting point for hiking around the fabled volcanic lakes of the area.
Offering several modest accommodation options, little restaurants and a mini-market, the town is located within a massive crater right on the banks of the two largest lakes of this part of the island - Lagoa Azul (the Blue Lake) and Lagoa Verde (the Green Lake) that I have already written about in previous episodes of the series. However, there are at least 3 more lakes to be explored in the area: Lagoa de Santiago, Lagoa Rasa and Lagoa do Canario. I am not really sure how many lakes exactly the general term Lakes of Sete Cidades includes but within just a few more kilometers, there are Lagoa de Pau Pique, Lagoa de Eguas, Lagoa Empadadas, Lagoa do Caldeirao Grande and Lagoa do Carvao.
The whole area of Sete Cidades is known for extraordinary natural beauty so it´s no surprise that this part of the island is literally interlaced with a number of great hiking trails of various lengths and difficulty levels. Most of the trails lead through some significantly elevated places, which comes with a huge benefit - they offer astonishing views of the lakes and the breathtaking surrounding landscape.
Known as miradouros in the Portuguese language, the lookouts around Sete Cidades boast of some of the most impressive sceneries on the entire island and there are a lot of them, which is why they never get too crowded with visitors.
I have only hiked up some of the trails so far and have been to just a few of the renowned viewpoints but when on these hikes, I usually take my cell phone with me so that I can take photos of what I get to see up there and share it with you in this series :)
Without further ado, let me now take you on a little tour around the lookout spots of the Sete Cidades area and show you some of the amazing views of local volcanic lakes through these 8 photos.
As far as I know and remember, the lakes featured in the photos above are Lagoa Azul, Lagoa Verde, Lagoa de Santiago, Lagoa Rasa and maybe also Lagoa do Canario. I haven´t been to the more distant group of the lakes yet as getting there from our house would require some strenuous hike and a lot of time but I am determined to get there too once the days are a bit longer again (the sun sets as early as around 5:20 P.M. here these days so unfortunately, I have been very limited by the number of the daylight hours lately).
However, if you are not a fan of hiking or have some limited mobility / physical fitness issues, I have good news for you - many of the viewpoints are actually easily accessible by a car. As a matter of fact, most of the visitors that I have met at the most scenic lookouts, got there by a car, not on foot like me. There is a little parking space and even a picnic area just some 200 m (approximately 650 ft) from Miradouro da Boca do Inferno, the most popular and beautiful viewpoint in the area as well as on the whole island. Several other lookout spots with great vistas can be found within just a few hundred meters from the parking lot so even families with small kids or elderly people can get there with ease and enjoy the stunning panoramas.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of my Beauties of Azores series that was dedicated to the enchanting volcanic lakes found around the little town of Sete Cidades in the northwestern part of the Sao Miguel island. All of the photos featured in this post were taken by me.
If you want to learn more about this exquisite Portuguese archipelago and its charms, stay tuned for the next episodes of my Beauties of Azores series ;)
This post was created by me for the Steem blockchain exclusively.
