Travel: The All-American Azores

Tourists pick their way past the boiling springs in Furnas.

(Marian Betancourt)

It’s bigger than Bermuda, has a buzzing international airport, the oldest continuously operating American consulate in the world, and several pineapple plantations. It is the most popular destination of thousands of New Englanders. And it’s not Hawaii. It’s the island of São Miguel, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the largest of the nine that make up Portugal’s Azores. These dormant volcanic islands have some of the most spectacular scenery on earth and a moderate climate year-round.

Azoreans were among the first to fish the waters of North America, and many Portuguese historians believe the island’s sailors sighted the continent long before Columbus. Every major whaling expedition from Nantucket, New Bedford, and other New England ports sailed first to the Azores, not only for supplies but for crewmen, because Azoreans were expert at landing giant whales from their tiny boats. The term skeleton crew comes from that era, when ships sailed with only a few men to pick up harpooners in the Azores. So important were the islands to whaling that during the Civil War the Confederate raider Alabama sank 10 Yankee whaling ships there.

As whaling declined, Azoreans began to emigrate to New England to work in the fishing industry and textile mills, and they brought much of their culture with them. The popular summer festivals in many Portuguese communities trace their roots to the colorful Holy Ghost festivals that you can still see in island villages from May to September.

Thomas Hickling, a young Boston entrepreneur, moved to São Miguel in 1769, after a spat with his loyalist father over the younger Hickling’s support for the Patriot cause. He made a fortune in oranges, a major commercial crop in the Azores until a disease wiped it out in the 1880s, and he lived to be 91. His Georgian-style mansion, in Ponta Delgada, is now a hospitality school with its own hotel, the Hotel Sao Pedro. In the 1770s he built Yankee Hall, a family summer home and garden in the resort town of Furnas, famous for its mineral baths. Over the years Yankee Hall and its surrounding orange groves have been transformed into Terra Nostra Garden, 30 acres of exotic trees, walking trails, swan-graced ponds, and a topiary zoo for children. Yankee Hall is now a villa known as Casa do Parque, where guests of the nearby Terra Nostra Garden Hotel can rent private suites.

In the center of Furnas there’s a park of bubbling volcanic springs, some with drinking fountains so you can taste the mineral waters, each slightly different. Most visitors stand mesmerized in front of them, breathing in the soothing vapors or eating springs-cooked corn on the cob that vendors sell. Hickling carved his name on a large rock amid the springs in 1770. A plaque commemorates his life there.

One of the best meals you can have in this eastern part of the island is the cozido, a traditional stew cooked in natural volcanic ovens. Residents and restaurateurs alike dig holes, insert their pot or pots (usually wrapped in heavy plastic), bury them, mark their initials on the mound, and dig them up five hours later. The cozido at the Terra Nostra Park Hotel Restaurant includes sweet potato, white potatoes, blood sausage, linguica sausage, cabbage, red pepper, and vinegar.

After building Yankee Hall, Hickling became the first American vice consul for the Azores, under the head consul John Street, who was based in Horta, on the island of Faial. Both were appointed by George Washington in 1795, making this the oldest continuously operating U.S. consulate anywhere.

As you traverse São Miguel, known as the green island, you can’t help but notice the enormous pride Azoreans take in their environment. The land is beautifully maintained, with many public areas for hiking, cycling, and picnicking. The topography is breathtaking and changes quite suddenly. One minute your head is literally in the clouds that pass over a mountain top; the next a magical vista appears of connecting crater lakes—one blue and one green, as at Sete Cidades. At every turn in the road there’s a new spectacular view, and there are lookouts where cars can pull over and admire a rocky coast on one side, a sandy beach on another, rural fishing villages, and cows. It’s not unusual to encounter these bovine lawn mowers walking up the road or having their afternoon nap in a field. They provide the cheese and butter that are a large part of the agricultural economy. Azoreans also grow corn, bananas (sweeter and smaller than elsewhere), and hothouse pineapples. These crops, along with tea, were developed after the orange blight. The Gorreana tea plantation supplies tea to Portuguese stores in the New England as well as other parts of the world. (Germans even have a fan club devoted to the tea.) You can visit the tea and pineapple plantations and buy samples to take home.

If you can tear yourself away from the landscape, there’s plenty to do in Ponta Delgada, with its modern hotels, shops, restaurants, and even traffic jams. Tourism has attracted considerable new construction of hotels such as the VIP Executive (www.viphotels.com), and the Marina Atlántico and São Miguel Park (www.bensaude.pt).

The Carlos Machado Museum (www.museucarlosmachado.pt), open afternoons except Mondays and holidays, is a good place to learn about the natural history, art, and culture of the Azores. A few years ago it sent an exhibition called “A Window on the Azores” to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, the only United States stop on its world tour. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York wanted it, but New England has more clout on the islands.

Shops carry local handicrafts such as miniature flowers made of fish scales, blue and white ceramics, and embroidery work. Some carry miniature replicas of Azorean whaleboats, though you are more likely to find those at Peters Café Sport store, an international mecca for sailors in Horta. Today’s whaleboats are small motorboats and launches that bring visitors up close to the many whales that still populate the waters.

The official tourist office, open daily except Sundays and holidays, has maps and information about lodging, attractions, whale watching, bird watching, tours, and rental cars, taxis, buses, and ferries. You can also find information at www.visitazores.org.

Ponta Delgada is only four hours from Boston on the modern new planes of SATA Azores Express (www.azores-express.com). There are flights daily in summer and several times a week the rest of the year. They also provide package deals with hotels and restaurants.

Before you go you may want to reread Moby-Dick and look for passages like this one from Chapter 27: “No small number of these whaling seamen belong to the Azores, where the outward bound Nantucket whalers frequently touch to augment their crews from the hardy peasants of those rocky shores.”

—Marian Betancourt is a freelance writer who lives in New York City.