From the air thru a hole in the cloud cover

We had a fantastic experience in the Azores. We had no idea what to expect and had not met anybody who had come here. Based on a Conde Nast article, we had chosen this place for Sharmila’s birthday.

The island is beautiful – with lovely water, mountains, volcanoes, lakes, thermal spas – all condensed within a small island. People are extra nice and very English friendly, food is very flavorful, everything is inexpensive and the island is a very safe and secure place. You can easily rent a car and go around but we prefer to take a local driver always since they tend to know a lot of details and unknown places. Henrique was fantastic that way.

You will not get a lot of beaches – especially with white sand and shallow waters. This is a volcano that was thrust itself thru the ocean. So the water is very deep, the waves are huge and the beaches that are there have black sand.

We give two thumbs up to Sao Miguel Island in the Azores!! You might want to visit here before it gets too popular and overrun by tourists.

Back to the northern shores. The water is just beautiful. Those rocks are at least 30 feet high.

Another of those volcano crater lakes. Actually two of them. The Green Lake (smaller one) and the Blue Lake (bigger one).

These birds are fairly common in the mountains here in Sao Miguel island. I believe they are European Robins. This one was fairly fearless and sat next to us in the bench and did not even flinch as I took a few pictures.