Ponta Delgada: Travel and tourism

The Eastern Group includes two islands: São Miguel, the largest of all, and Santa Maria. In the first, Ponta Delgada is the most important economic centre of the Autonomous Region and an historic city with impressive churches and convents.

São Miguel, known as «green island», is the most populated of the nine islands (130 thousand people, almost half of the total), and offers many interesting sites, like Caldeira das Sete Cidades, an enormous volcanic crater with misterious lakes, including the famous green and blue lagoons (Lagoa Verde and Lagoa Azul).

Another beautiful lake lies in the centre of the island, Lagoa do Fogo (Lake of Fire), formed by an ancient volcanic eruption in the midst of São Miguel's central mountains.

At Furnas, a spa resort, the visitor can observe the volcanic activity going on beneath the surface and, near the town, the hot steming geysers of Lagoa das Furnas.

Around Lagoa das Furnas, the ground is so hot that two regional dishes are cooked in pots buried in the soil for four to five hours: cozido das furnas (meat and vegetable stew) and bacalhau com batatas (broiled codfish and potatoes).

At about 55 kilometers south of São Miguel, the small island of Santa Maria offers a variety of beautiful sceneries and tranquil sandy beaches. It was the first island of the archipelago to be discovered, by Portuguese sailors, in 1427.