Our immediate destination was the Terra Nostra garden hotel in the resort town of Furnas - well-known for its thermal baths. The town lies at the heart of a volcanic crater in the east of the island, about an hour by road from Ponta Delgada.
The hotel was constructed in the 30s in Art Deco style, and later extended. It is full of alcoves and corners with appropriate furniture although I never saw them occupied.
Most guests come for the large thermal pool that is situated close by in the extensive and fabulous hotel gardens. Pool and gardens are open to hotel guests at all hours and to the public from 10.00 to sundown.
We swam morning and evening. The water temperature was about C40*, depending on which corner of the pool you occupied, and uniformly brown. Bathers can't see a thing in the water, which they share with visiting ducks, geese and swans.
The ducks would dive to graze or to escape one another's attentions. They too were clearly blind down below for one of them surfaced directly underneath me, to the great surprise of us both.
At about 1.5m the pool is shallow enough for people to stand on the rough stone bottom. The water promptly turned my beard red - the colour is used to be - although the tint didn't last.
Beyond the pool stretch the botanical gardens - about a square mile of ponds, trees, shrubs and flowers, divided into numerous sections and carefully tended. One of the these is the cycad garden - below.
The garden demands several hours to be appreciated. Below, Jonesy inspects the topiary.
Steam rises from the hot stream flowing through the gardens.
Ponds abound. Stepping stone crossings await the agile and the foolish.
Jones would stop frequently to send pictures of extraordinary trees to my sister, Cathy, who has been studying varieties for some time.
About a kilometre away at the other end of the town were several caldeiras, collapsed volcanic cones in which water boiled fiercely day and night. Restaurants lower pots into smaller vents to prepare a local meat and veggie dish.
Unlike Madeira, Sao Miguel is the scene of intensive dairy farming. One sees large tractors, often pulling even larger trailers, everywhere on the island's impressive roads.
Cows graze in numerous small fields.
The fields extend to the very edge of the cliffs that fall sharply into the sea.
We enjoyed three days in and around Furnas. Thence to Sete Cidades, a lakeside village in another volcanic crater at the western end of the island.
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