Windsurfing in the interior: the “lagoas”
Driving through the lanes in our rental Ford Transit van with our local friends, we come to the most unusual places, but they are not hidden or anything, they are on the map, and very well marked! So getting to them is very simple. We visited the Lagoa do Furnas, and it was windy, perfect for free riding, so we rigged our sails with our wave SUP’s to sail the lagoon from one side to the other, in front of a lonely baroque church, made of black rocks and abandoned just in the shore of the lagoon. Furnas is the town with the hot water and soda so after the lagoon visit, we went there to take a look and buy Furnas bread. As it’s made of iron water, they say that it tastes like wine, and it’s true!
The next lagoa that we visited was “Sete Cidades”. It is the biggest crater of the island, with a town inside! It’s said that some of the inhabitants have never seen the sea, we don’t know if this is true, but inside this huge crater with 300m tall walls, they have their own sea! The lagoon is divided in two, one with blue waters and the other one green. The legend says that they have been formed from the tears of two lovers, a princess and a shepherd, with the eyes of those colours. Within the crater there is a micro climate. Clouds often park there so it can be a few degrees colder in temperature. So the best advice is to look at the sky before you go up, because if you can visit it without the clouds, it is amazing! We visited Sete Cidades in days that seemed like a winter storm, windsurfing with 4.7 and full wetsuits; but also shining sun days, with glassy waters. The wind is super gusty here, but so strong, due to the high walls of the crater, and it’s perfect for slalom or freestyle. The experience of windsurfing inside a volcano is really unique and well worth trying!
A bath in the boilers is the best experience that can happen to you after a long day of windsurfing. Tired and with cold in our bodies, we reached Caldeira Velha through a wild botanical garden path, passing steaming water ferns you could start to feel the uplifting effects! When a waterway is fortunate enough to run into a hot spot, then the water is heated, almost boiling, and is channelled through a small trail of rocks to a pool that renews it with warmer water, letting the excess go down again to the natural channel. And you are there, inside, in the middle of a beautiful tropical forest, watching the sky and all kinds of plants. Quietly, just in the level of the steaming surface, all the tiredness of the day dissipates and you get out with your feet not touching the ground, like flying, as if under a spell.
Thanks friends!
Our trip was coming to an end and it was so nice to see how our friends enjoyed showing us their island. Thanks to Luis, Miguel and Sabone for your advice, help and company. We were lucky to meet such special people, who enjoyed the trip as much as we did. Thank you for your interest and especially for the quality time we spent together. We hope someday to show you our area, as well as you did yours 🙂 We were sad to leave, but happy to have came; grateful and blessed to have had the experience. And yes, San Miguel, right there in front of Lisbon, is a Paradise!