Terciera, a Magical Wonderland

Just like siblings have nicknames for each other, the islands have nicknames as well. Flores is the garden island with its lush forests and mystical waterfalls; Sao Jorge has great cheese; Sao Miguel has mind blowing lakes, and Terceira is the “party island”.  

While they do have many parties (pretty much all the time!), Terceira does have its own beauty. 

The botanical gardens in the heart of the town are breathtaking. Now that spring has arrived, the flowers are beginning to bloom and the whole area is changing in wonderful ways. 

The constant showers (even on cloudless days) produce rainbows all the time. It seems that every time you look off into the distance, there will be a rainbow in the sky! 

This tiny island out in the middle of the Atlantic is a world unto itself. Created in the raging fires of a volcano, it has blossomed into an oasis of tranquility and beauty on your transatlantic passage. 

Terceira

The third island from Portugal, and such named “Third” in Portuguese is gorgeous! One of the splendors is to look out over the “Five Peaks” of ancient volcanoes as well as the giant valley created by lava flows long since past.  

The island has almost entirely been converted into farm plots which form a grid structure on the surface of this land. Unlike in most countries, where farm land is flat and any hills are demolished or terraced, the Azorians seem to just build over the land as it is before them. 

It almost looks like a representation of spacetime and the effect mass has on it. But instead of massive objects stretching the fabric down, here the stretch is up! Hills are simply part of the landscape and the side of a mountain is just as fine a surface for pasture as the flat portions in the valley. 

The view from this lookout is breathtaking! You stand high up on an old volcano, looking down at the remnants of the other volcanoes responsible for forming this land eons ago, and yet it is all stretched out before you, within view but out of grasp.