Flores - An Island of Flowers and Beauty

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July 6th 2012

Published: July 6th 2012

The island of Flores is the fourth smallest island of the Azores archipelago and has only about four thousand inhabitants, making it the second least populated. We feel very fortunate to have made our first landfall in Europe on this island. Traditionally the island of Faial, city of Horta is where most sailors make their European landfall. However last year a new marina was opened on Flores which... Read Full Entry

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Bob & Janice Waller

s v Tsamaya

Like so many others we love to travel and we love to sail so cruising makes a lot of sense. Janice has retired from Cornell as a business manager and Bob has retired from South Seneca school district as the high school principal. It's time to sell the house, get rid of whatever doesn't fit on our 40 foot Caliber LRC named Tsamaya (this means Travel Well in Setswana) and set off to see the world. Our reasons for publishing this blog is twofold, first to keep in touch with our friends and family and secondly to share our experiences. If you would like to receive notification when we have added ... full info

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An inviting walk

How could we resist taking a walk down this path? It was well worth it.

Your Location Please

Guess you can't get lost if your home has your latitude & longitude on the chimney!

We weren't brave enough

Neither of us feel brave enough to attempt to climb this outdoor circular staircase!

A typical village street scene

More free water here

One of the many public water faucets found throughout all of the villages.

A walk to the falls

We had a pleasant walk into the base of this magnificent waterfall.

Old mills along the creek

The remains of mills with remnants of their waterwheels dotted the walk to the falls. Bob said he'd love to have the money to renovate one!

Over 900 feet tall

They have provided a nice walking trail to this magnificient waterfall

It was inviting for swimming

We are sure that this must be a great place to swim at the base of the waterfall - just too chilly now

Bamboo Grows Here

There are numerous stands of bamboo throughout the area – they make wonderful walking sticks as well!

Only a few of many

The area is known for its waterfalls – it was difficult to capture the number that we saw. This gives you just a view of only a couple of the many found on the west coast of the island in the area called Poco da Alagoinha.

Bamboo In Use

There were many new plantings along the road surrounded by bamboo structures to help protect them as they take hold.

Mist from the top

The spray from the top of the falls was cool and refreshing as it falls from over 900 feet high. This waterfall was located on the western coast near Faja Grande.

The craters are deep

You drive out to a vantage point of the caldera lakes and are rewarded with a spectacular view such as this one.

Two of the Seven Lakes

We took the mountain road across the island as we wanted to see the lakes formed in extinct volcanoes. Each one was distinct from the other. As you can see the one on the left is very green & the one on the right is dark blue. These are Lagoa Negra and Lagoa Comprida

A Different type of lake

Calderia Seca is very different in that the surface is covered with sphagnum moss.

Churches are Central in the Villages

The churches are obviously the center point of the villages and make for a great landmark against the magnificent back drop of cliffs and waterfalls.

Part of the trail

We enjoyed a great hike along the west coast following a trail along the cliffs starting from Ponta da Faja.

What Else do you Need?

Here you have everything including the cliffs, the village, the stone fenced fields and the sea – what more would you want?

West Coast of Flores

A view of the coastline from our hike. Every bend we traveled rewarded us with another view of grandeur.

Drying Racks

On our travels we saw a few of these racks that are used for drying corn.

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Flores - An Island of Flowers and Beauty

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