FLORES

Bad weather in Flores! Rain and a lot of mist over the horizon! Well, not something realy unforseen on these islands in the middle of the Atlantic.
This is my third day in Flores, one day before I left for Corvo, two days since I returned.
In Portuguese "Flores" stands for "flowers" and it just deserves the name. I find a lot of landscapes connections with Madeira: every thing looks green, water is in abboundance, steepy roads are plenty. A difference, anyway: cows are much more present.
On the way from Santa Cruz to the northmost village, Ponta Delgada, I took a detour to visit the Fazenda Forest Park, where peacocks seem to replace the guardians. On the way back the team decides to go inland and we finish stoping three times to observe different "caldeiras", which are old craters turned lakes.
Going south the following day we stop at five of six miradors, the first to see the port of Lajes from the high cliff above. After Lajedo and a high view of the west coast, we are surprised by clouds which block any views, so we pass by Rocha dos Bordões without seeing it; two hours later we return and are then greeted with a view of this vertical grooves lava formation. In the mean time we descended to Fajã Grande to have a look at several very high waterfalls and to get the nearest possible view of the Ilhéu (islet) de Monchique, which is the westmost point of Europe and stopped at lovely Aldeia da Cuada, a small abandoned village now transformed into a tourist resort.