Day 7: I am alive . . . barely!

Today's fact is the Azores Islands were accidently discovered by Portuguese sailors in 1427.  I am wishing I would not have discovered this organized tour!  My body is not hurting as bad as I thought it would be and today's hike is again rated as average . . . great . . . and it is called Janela do Inferno.  Care to take a guess what that means?  Window to Hell . . . hilarious I tell you.  The hike there was gorgeous and not bad compared to yesterday.  I actually thought it was way easier since there was not so much up and down or stairs.  Every time I looked around I thought I was in a fairy tale.  As much as I travel, I still get caught up in my surroundings as if it is the first time I have seen nature's beauty.

Several tunnels to go through or in my case walk up and around . . .

And then we found the Window to Hell . . .

I was sort of like, oh that's it?  But the hike there was nice and easy and enjoyable!  The hike out of hell was just as nice.

And the cows and flowers were there to greet us as we departed!

It was back to the bus to drive to the Lagoa do Fogo.  It was cloudy so we had to drive to the top in hopes of beating the clouds so we could get a look from the viewpoint.

By this point I was starving and we finally took a lunch break at a local park before our next hike.  Oh I am so lucky today is a double hike day!  We drive to the western side of the island to the area called Sete Cidades.  Sete Cidades is a volcanic complex and civil parish on the island of São Miguel in the Azores.  We stopped at Caldeira das Sete Cidades which is known as King's View.  The front is green and back is blue but with the overcast you really can not tell the difference.  I am just thankful we are not hiking to the bottom today due to the trail being closed for repairs!  

There are several other hikes in the area to lagoons and viewpoints so we are doing several small hikes.  

And since we have time we are doing one more hike . . . at least these average hikes are not bad.  I found these signs helpful to guide me how miserable or happy I would be before each hike started!  I could not read them, but I could see the elevation change and trail rating.

The weather was weird with the low fog but just beautiful too.  I loved seeing the markers with yellow and red because I knew I was on a trail . . . maybe not the correct trail but at some point I would reach the end.

I was happy to get some relax time at the hotel before dinner.  It is our last night in Ponta Delgada, on São Miguel Island so I treated myself to dinner at Stage . . . today marks 20 years since Sean died so I just wanted to have a nice meal by myself.  

And I had dessert which was the locally grown pineapple.  It was delicious!

It was just what I needed.  Tomorrow we fly to a different island.