Lagoa do Fogo

With a great forecast, we decided to hike to Lagoa do Fogo, which is one of the few places recommended to me by a friend and not covered by the conference social events.

We took an early bus from Ponta Delgada centre to a village 40 minutes away. There we walked up a steep narrow road to a car-park, which is the beginning of the hike. We climbed through beautiful green vegetation, then joined an irrigation canal in a beautiful forest, which we followed for a while until the final climb to the lake. 

According to the map, there was a way up to a summit which would have offered great views of the lake and the caldera, so we started climbing, but we were soon in thick vegetation on a very steep slope, so we gave up and went down, using a different route that turned out to be really enjoyable.

I thought the hike itself would be just a means to see the lake which was the attraction, but it was a much better hike than expected. 16.5 km and 750m climb.

We had plenty of time before our bus back so we went to a lovely bar on the beach, where we shared a plate of chips (we didn't have any food for the hike since we'd left too early for shops to be open), and had a delicious mango sorbet. 

Back in Ponta Delgada, we met up with
2 of Julian's colleagues and the girlfriend of one of them for a tapas meal.