Treasures of the Azores: Flores Island - "This island is not marked on the map - the real places are never marked on the maps" - LiveJournal. Florish island - papua new guinea resorts Florish island portugal
Description and location
Flores Island is part of the western group of the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. Administratively, the island is divided into two municipalities: Lagis das Flores in the south and Santa Cruz das Flores in the north. The island was discovered in 1450 by Diogo de Teive and his son João. It was originally called Saint Thomas Island. The first settlers on the island were the family of the Flemish aristocrat Willem van der Haegen between 1480 and 1490. Since 1510, the Portuguese from the northern provinces began to settle on the island.
In July 1962, France organized a test site for rocket projectiles on the island. The infrastructure of the island has improved, a hospital and an airport have been built.
In 1994, the French left the island, and tourists began to actively visit it.
Nature
Flores is famous for its volcanic lakes located in the craters of volcanoes. Most of the time they are covered with fogs, so the best time to visit them is spring. The most picturesque of the lakes is Funda, with many small shallows and banks framed by unusually beautiful vegetation, thanks to which it is considered the most beautiful.
Of particular note are the baroque mansions and churches, as well as the Ribeira Grand waterfall.
Pastures, farms and vineyards create an extraordinary landscape of the island.
Climate
Nautical. The average air temperature in January is +15°C, in July +22°C. The summer is hot, but not stuffy. From September to April it often rains, there may be fogs.
Sea and beaches
Favorable time for swimming. From May to September, the water temperature ranges from +20°C to +23°C.
Corals Growing underwater soft corals
Underwater world - rich Rich in various rare species of marine life. You can watch whales and dolphins.
lakes
Lake Funda, with shores that are framed by dense vegetation, is the most beautiful of the seven lakes located in the cathars of extinct volcanoes.
Ocean
Water temperature in summer 21-23°С, in winter 17-20°С
Flora and fauna
Aquatic inhabitants: dolphins, whales, rare species of jellyfish
Vegetation
The most common plants of the island are cedar, English holly, cherry, mahogany, laurel.
Interesting places:
Shops souvenir shops. Shops are mostly open on weekdays, some until Saturday afternoon.
Nutrition
Local cuisine Numerous fish and seafood dishes. The cuisine is based on Portuguese, but there are a number of local dishes.
Entertainment- museums Ethnographic Museum
Adult oriented resort
The temperature even at night in winter is never less than +13°C, so you won't need warm clothes.
Behavior rules
It is not customary to yawn, sip in public places.
Tips
Tipping is unofficial, but if you are satisfied with the service, you can leave 10% of the bill.
Resort specifics: exotic.
Floris Island, one of the most famous resorts in the world, is very popular among tourists. Various types of recreation and excursion programs are one of the main components of modern recreation. Like most resorts in the world, Flores Island can provide a different level of relaxation at a variety of prices. This resort has both luxury hotels and budget hotels.
If you are tormented by the question "Where to relax?", "Where to spend your vacation?". Then, perhaps, Flores Island will be the perfect place to relax.
Flores Island belongs to the western group of the Azores archipelago of Portugal. Its area is about 142 km². The highest point of the island is Mount Morro Alto, whose height reaches 914 meters above sea level. The island has two municipalities: Lagis das Flores in the south and Santa Cruz das Flores in the north. Floris Island is an ideal place for true nature lovers.
Attractions of Flores Island
seven lakes
In the central zone of the island, in the craters of extinct volcanoes, there are the famous seven lakes. These are places of rare beauty. The most picturesque is the Blue Lake (Lagoa Funda). However, other lakes - Lomba, Rasa, Seca, Negra, Comprida and Branca deserve attention and admiration.
Rocha dosBordoes
The rock group Rocha dos Bordoes is a strange and delightful natural wonder of Flores Island. These are huge blocks of basalt, similar to organ pipes, covered with mosses, lichens and other vegetation. In 2004, the Rocha dos Bordoes rocks were declared a natural monument by the government.
Waterfall Ribeira Grande (Ribeira Grande)
Surrounded by lush vegetation in the scenic area of Fajazinha, there are almost two dozen waterfalls. But the most delightful of them is the Ribeira Grande waterfall, whose cascade of water descends from a height of 300 meters. The best place to see the waterfall almost entirely is the observation deck at Fajazinha.
Natural pools in Santa Cruz
The pools are just a few minutes walk from the airport. This is the best place to see local marine life.
Faja Grande
One of the most beautiful places on the island, located on the west coast. On the one hand, huge cliffs rise, covered with lush green vegetation, and on the other, the blue ocean, the waves of which break on the coastal rocks. From here you can see the islet of Monchique, once used as a reference point for maritime navigation. These are small basalt rocks about 30 meters high, isolated in the ocean.
Flores island nature
Flores is an abundance of flowers, bizarre rocks, waterfalls, hot springs, valleys, lagoons, grottoes and the remains of old volcanoes. The island has seven volcanic craters that have turned into beautiful lakes.
The coastline of the island is islets, capes, shoals, bays, coastal caves.
Climate and weather of Flores island
The climate of Flores Island is largely shaped by the Gulf Stream. Winter is mild and rainy. The average temperature in winter is + 14 C, in summer + 25 C. There is less precipitation in summer than in winter.
Flores Island - video
The rise turned out to be early and was accompanied by three observations. Firstly, my shoulders and back ached, secondly, it stopped raining outside the window, and thirdly, we were alone in the whole hotel, which meant that the promised breakfast passed by. Of course, point two was the main thing - the absence of rain, the shoulders were straightened by the photographic backpack perched on them, and we learned where to drink coffee with a roll the day before.
Having made a walk around the city to the bakery and back, we did not attract the increased attention of local residents, as it was the day before, we took the fruits bought the day before from the room and, plunging into the car, moved forward "towards adventures."
Green Island
Flores was discovered by the Portuguese in the middle of the 15th century and called the "island of flowers", however, despite such a romantic name, it was more or less settled only a century later. The first attempt to do this, made by the Fleming William van der Hagen, ended in failure and in 1480 he fled from Flores to Sant Jorge. Apparently, the first pancake determined the shape of all subsequent ones and, despite the fact that in the best of times, when whaling flourished on the island, the population reached ten thousand inhabitants, now it has returned to almost its original values and does not exceed 4000 people.
Apart from catching and processing whales, the inhabitants of Floresh almost never engaged in commerce, living on self-sufficiency and, in extreme cases, exchanging spare parts for their ships from pirates and corsairs for water and food. In this state, they would happily exist to this day, given that whaling was prohibited and the population began to decline rapidly as a result of emigration, if not for the French army.
In the second half of the 20th century, the French adapted Flores as an ammunition test site, as a result of which infrastructure began to develop rapidly on the island, paved roads and an airport appeared. In the end, the French also left, UNESCO made the island a biosphere reserve, but the airport remained and tourists appeared on Flores, becoming a new source of income for local residents.
Lajes
Despite the fact that the rain had ended, the clouds were not going anywhere and continued to hang over the island in a thick gray blanket. Having climbed to a height of six hundred meters, we found ourselves in the central part of the island - here the clouds became closer, and sometimes completely descended to the ground, turning into fog.
Since we managed to get acquainted with the northern coast of the island the day before, now we were driving south - to the town with the "beautiful, and most importantly rare" name of Lajes. It was primarily the commercial port of Flores - you can imagine what an active life there was, considering that the inhabitants of the island provided for themselves. In addition to the "sleepy" port in Lajes, there was a church, a small park, a bridge, a waterfall, a souvenir shop, two or three dozen houses, several cannons, one cat and, besides us, two American tourists: one fat and one thin. Having photographed all this, we went further.
End of the world
Undoubtedly, the main attractions of Flores were not Lajes, not Ponta Delgada and not Santa Cruz - the cities on the island performed a very specific function: to eat and spend the night. Nature had to be enjoyed on Flores, and the first such natural attraction was the western coast of the island, often called by the name of the town located there, Faja Grande.
This place had several features. The first was directly related to the terrain: the central part of the island here abruptly breaks off from the same six hundred meters that I wrote about at the beginning, up to a hundred or less. But the cliff does not immediately go into the sea, forming a giant step in front of the shore. Moreover, the rivers flowing from the center of the island, the largest of which is called Ribeira Grande, have no choice but to fall down the cliff, cutting the “step” with a dozen waterfalls.
The second feature is exclusively geographical. Fajan Grande is considered the westernmost point of the European continent. To be absolutely precise, the westernmost point is the island of Monchique (Ilheu do Monchique), located another 700 meters to the west, and Fazhan Grande is the westernmost settlement, since no one lives on the island.
However, following the phrase: "you can't be 100% sure of anything," one can argue with this statement. The fact is that at the point of the Atlantic Ocean, located somewhere between Faial and Flores, as many as three lithospheric plates converge: European, African and North American. It turns out that the western group of islands, which include Flores and Corvo, is located on the North American plate and the statement that Fazhan Grande belongs to the European continent is not entirely correct.
By the way, on which of the plates the islands of the central and eastern groups are located, there is still no consensus, the presence of the Azores microplate, sandwiched between the Eurasian and African ones, cannot be ruled out.
seven lakes
Having already been at the third "end of the world", after Cape Finisterra in Spain and Cape Roca in Portugal, we seized the moment to drink a cup of coffee and moved back to the center of the island and its another natural feature, or rather, seven whole lakes that filled the former volcanic craters.
So, here are their names: Lomba, Funda, Rasa, Seca, Negra, Comprida and Branca. There used to be confusion and two lakes were named Funda, they were distinguished as Funda Lajes and Funda Cedros, until the second was renamed Negra. Lagoa Negra is the deepest of them all (105 meters).
So, behind our expedition was the beautiful island of Terceira with gorgeous views, a beautiful capital and playful dolphins. Now our path lies to the west - the islands of Flores and Corvo are located 350 kilometers from Terceira, and I will tell you about Flores today.
I have already mentioned that the Azores are not similar to each other, because they arose at different times. So Flores (and Corvo too) is, of course, the most Icelandic of all the Azores. While we were there, it repeatedly seemed to me that I was back in Iceland. Of course, the same Terceira is similar in places, you can also find similar places on Faiale and San Miguel, but the similarity between Iceland and Floris is truly amazing. Well, now let's check if this is so :)
SATA is an Azores airline and the Bombardier Q400 is one of its flagship aircraft
Florish met us with rather gloomy weather and occasional rain, but on the way to the hotel we made a couple of stops. First we stopped near two neighboring lakes and even saw something through the cloud.
The lakes are really located very close and separated by a ridge, from which, in fact, they can be admired. They are called Funda and Komprida. Komprida translates as "long"
But with the translation of the word Funda, I somehow didn’t grow together (Google didn’t help), but we can assume that this name also refers to the form
Looking ahead, I note that we still managed to see these lakes later and in clear weather - you can compare :)
The vegetation on Florish seems to be the same as on other islands, but not quite. There are more mosses and all sorts of low-growing species. This in many ways makes him related to Iceland.
After the lakes, we stopped at an old mill, which has long become a local landmark.
Water mill with two wheels. Each actuates such a mechanism
One wheel turns while the other rests
This car is over a century old. Corn flour in this case
The rain then subsided, then taken again and we went to the hotel. I will tell you about it in detail and in pictures a little later, but first we will admire the beauty of the island
So, we drove to the hotel, threw our bags and agreed with the hosts about dinner. Before it was still a few hours, and the owner of the hotel suggested a ride to the nearest waterfall. Well, we went.
At first, even the weather favored this venture, the blue sky peeped through
The waterfall is small but very picturesque.
Cows graze right there - a complete idyll in general
The waterfall, by the way, is not the only one, there are several of them on the mountainside at once
The clouds, unfortunately, have thickened again
And here is the lower part of our waterfall
The scale, of course, is much more modest than Icelandic
However, there are even more impressive waterfalls on the island, next time I’ll tell you about one of them :)
In general, in clear weather, it’s the best thing to write watercolors here
By the way, it seems to me that the upper and lower parts of this waterfall look prettier separately than together.
Clouds creep up the slope
While there was still something to be seen, we reached the ocean shore
Here is our familiar waterfall
Along the coast (and this is the western tip of Floris) stretch the same lava formations that we saw on Terceira and will meet more than once
This is our short tour and ended, let's go back to the hotel
And on the way we looked into a village store, where suddenly a hair mask from Moscow was found on the shelf! That's really something, but I did not expect to meet such a domestic product in the Azores :)
Well, now, as promised, I'll tell you about the hotel. He is really unusual. Once upon a time there was a very small village on Florish called Aldea da Cuada ("aldea" means "village"). Then the inhabitants abandoned it, until about twenty years ago there was a man who decided to breathe new life into the empty houses. And inhaled.
Now they accept tourists, and each house (and there are about ten of them) has its own name
We were in a two-story building. I shot the next day, which turned out to be very serene
The interiors were handled by the owner's wife, and they definitely worked out.
Here you have candles, and kerosene lamps (we lit them - they work) and complete rustic comfort. One problem - the audibility in such a house is close to one hundred percent, but in an expeditionary race this is not particularly scary.
In the former village there is also a chapel
Here are a couple more houses.
There was still some time left before the planned dinner, and we dispersed to the rooms or the immediate surroundings. But at seven o'clock it turned out that our team had lost Love. I mean, Love went for a walk and didn't come back. Here on this treacherous path
A phone call confirmed her fears: Lyuba got lost, and the stone fences turned out to be akin to a real labyrinth. The rescue team, consisting of our accompanying Larisa and the future son-in-law of the owner of the hotel, set out to search, but we were left to wait for dinner and raise toasts to the successful completion of the operation, organized a headquarters. I will omit the details of this operation, perhaps, because it got dark pretty quickly, and it became clear that the matter was not as trifling as it seemed at the very beginning. But in the end, everyone found each other, gathered and returned to the table whole and relatively unharmed (but the possibility of calling rescuers was seriously discussed at some point). Dinner was a success, to say the least. On the other hand, there cannot be an expedition without adventures, the main thing is that they end well.
And this, by the way, is the owner's daughter, Carlotta. And the dog, which, as I now think, should have just been put on the trail :)
By the way, they thought about how to organize an attraction for future guests from this story. A couple in love arrives at the hotel, they take the young lady away, and let the young man look for himself.
Well, okay, let's return to the beauties of the island again. The next morning, the main part of the team went to conquer Corva, but on the way to the port we stopped at one of the many viewing platforms. Look, this is also a caldera, but not quite an ordinary one. Half of it remained on the island, and the other is now hidden under water.
The village is called Fajazinha
A whole bunch of waterfalls
A very bizarre shape on the slope
Why not Iceland?
And the panorama is traditional
I will tell you about the trip to Corva, which can also be called an adventure, next time, but we returned to Flores relatively early that day, so we still had time to admire the beauty of the island.
Here is another pair of lakes. One of them is called familiar - Funda
And the second lake is Small (Race)
Here, of course, the sun hits the lens directly, but still. As if unknown giants fashioned a hill from a plate
And the hydrangea has already bloomed on Florish
By the way, about the hills. There is a local breed of cows in the Azores, and besides, Dutch ones were brought in not so long ago. So the Dutch also adapted to climb slopes, which they never did in their homeland. Visual proof of Darwin's correctness, in general
And here's another lookout. Do you recognize? Yes, this is the same caldera as in the morning, only from a different point. This is the special charm of Florish - from a different angle, familiar places are sometimes difficult to recognize even
This is the westernmost edge of the island, the archipelago and Europe
To be absolutely precise, this title belongs to the tiny island of Monchica
Well, clear weather also changes the picture.
More than a dozen waterfalls
Fantastically beautiful place
If you look closely, you can see several gray houses on the right side of the frame. This is the village hotel. Well, on these terraces the night before there was a rescue operation.
And here is the reverse view
amazing landscape
The next morning we left Flores. Say goodbye to a wonderful hotel and its hospitable hosts
And we went to the airport. And along the way, they made up for lost time on the first day. This is the same platform between two lakes
Well, one of them, which is also Funda
The final chord was another observation deck
Solid delight
See an island on the horizon? This is Corvo, it is 20 kilometers from Flores
Wonderful Florish in clear weather! Yes, and with cloudy it’s even nothing, I’ll tell you :)
That's all I wanted to tell you about the most beautiful of all the Azores. So long, Florish!
With the Western Azores, we do not say goodbye to this - a story about Corva will be in the near future :) Well, then we will give up on Faial. There we will get acquainted with volcanism and the history of whaling in the Azores.
On Floresh, a few guests are met by an equally small local population, "not spoiled" by tourists. The people mostly live in small idyllic villages, which have a place on office calendars and souvenir postcards. It's simply too good to be true...
With car rental, everything is somehow sad here, so we just caught a local uncle, who drove us around the island for 150 euros. Thankfully it's small.
The westernmost and wettest island of the Azores archipelago is replete with waterfalls of all possible shapes and sizes, up to multi-hundred-meter cascades. Some waterfalls look cozy at home, you can safely climb along their edge for your own pleasure.
Flores Island resembles a layered cake. Basalt alternates with layers of porous ash and lava chips. Underwater rivers suddenly break down right from the middle of the cliff, becoming "waterfalls out of nowhere".
The main attraction of the island's central plateau are numerous crater lakes filled with colorful water. The steep walls of the crater are overgrown with fluffy shrubs. The landscape is somewhat reminiscent of the landscapes of the Patagonian Tierra del Fuego.
There are many crater lakes on Flores - Reserva Florestal Natural do Morro Alto. And there is no shortage of viewing platforms from which you can admire these lakes.
For all its beauty, it is not easy to see the inner parts of the island - impenetrable fog often covers the entire island, and the lower limit of cloudiness is somewhere around 300-500 meters. Therefore, any sunny day should be taken as a unique chance, a gift of fate!
Humid microclimate greatly affects the vegetation of the island. The slopes of the mountains at an altitude of 800-900 meters are overgrown with an amazing forest - bonsai. The kingdom of moss pillows meter thick and intricately curved juniper stretches for kilometers, but it’s unrealistic to walk there.
"Gardens of mosses", freely and widely spread along the numerous rivers and streams of the central plateau, would also do honor to any guru of oriental garden art.
The steep northern coast of the island is undoubtedly beautiful, but almost inaccessible from the coast. The only option to see it is to rent a boat, but on the day of our visit it was, alas, impossible due to the storm...
The opulent west coast of Flores is said to reach its aesthetic climax on the old escarpment path from Ponta da Fage to Ponta Delgada. The start of the trail is really great!
It is worth looking back at the tiny village of Fajã Grande, and the beauty will make your heart skip a beat! The piercing blue of the ocean and the white church against the backdrop of steep green cliffs with waterfalls and terraced fields - why not a paradise landscape?!
The middle of the trail is very difficult, but after 300 meters of climb, the traveler will have a bonus in the form of a waterfall, the westernmost in Europe! Breaking off the basalt plateau, he overcomes the rest of the short way to the ocean in several vigorous leaps...
And here is the westernmost piece of European Earth - Monchiki! A small sheer rock looms in the ocean just opposite the waterfall - and this is the last piece of land on this side of the Atlantic. Further west - only the Bahamas, Bermuda, Newfoundland ...
Patient and hardy at the end of a ten-kilometer trail, a view of the westernmost lighthouse in Europe, located on a cape not far from Ponta Delgada - Farol De Albarnaz awaits. Impatient and lazy people can cheat and drive to the lighthouse by car, take a detour... We cheated!
On the west coast is the local kingdom of ecotourism - the village of Fajãzinha.
Scattered among a mosaic of green fields and laurel copses, Fajazinha and its neighbor Faja Grande compete with each other for the title of the westernmost settlement in Europe. It’s hard for me to judge them, but the western border of Europe definitely made the most favorable impression on me!
No matter how beautiful the west of Flores is, I still give the palm to the south-west of this blessed island ... It is there that the landscapes created by man organically merge with the natural beauty of basalt rocks and the boundless grandeur of the Ocean!
Cooling down, molten basalt can become covered with such a regular network of cracks that it turns into a bundle of identical hexagonal columns of a very considerable length. However, this rarely happens, a unique set of conditions is needed, and the islanders are rightfully proud of their attraction!
It was these pastures on the slopes of the hills that became for me personally a symbol of the Azores - a cow paradise, where the traces of 600 years of human activity blended surprisingly harmoniously into the natural landscape, creating one of the most beautiful man-made landscapes that I have ever seen!