waterfalls | Go Go Chlo

An archipelago of Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I visited two of the nine islands in the Azores, and explored beautiful villages and towns, natural landscapes and learnt about an authentic culture of people.

I had wanted to visit the Azores for over a decade, and hoped that one day I would be able to go for my honeymoon, because it looked so beautiful in all the images I had seen… Well, many years later, and no ring on my hand, I decided I could wait no longer, and I booked myself a trip from Lisbon to Sao Miguel, and a group of tours to enjoy across two of the main islands.

Sao Miguel

The main island of Sao Miguel is the largest of the group of nine islands, and has the main gateway airport to the other islands. It is also the busiest. The island’s capital, Ponta Delgada, has a vibrant feel with many shops, restaurants and a few hotels. I stayed away from Ponta Delgada in a 5* hotel near a beach, but it was fairly remote. Thankfully, I had two tours booked to see the island, as well as being able to access a local walking trail nearby.

The walk that I decided to do near the hotel was following the river nearby uphill and leading to a set of abandoned hydro-electrical stations in the forest. The Azores islands are known for their efforts in alternative renewable energy, especially hydro electricity and wind farms.

These old stations, combined with a dip in a gorgeous little waterfall, made for an interesting walk with a lot of interest in photo opportunities. I felt like I was in scenery that I remember from the TV series ‘Lost’, with abandoned stations locked between the trees and pipes running through the ground. Like at any moment, I will discover a secret hatch!

On the tours I’d booked, I was able to visit a variety of lookout points, and some beautiful villages/towns, such as Ribeira Grande (Big Stream) which had lovely scenery. We visited an active volcano area where our lunch (a traditional portuguese recipe) was buried and slow cooked by the warm ground.

We also visited a geothermal spa, and the well known patchwork viewpoint where you can see thousands of smallholding farms stitched together from above.

Terceira

A few days later, and with a 45 minute flight, I was in the second island of Terceira. This lovely round island, has a lot to offer and is not yet as built up as Sao Miguel. I was in a lovely hotel in a secondary town away from the capital of Angra do Heroismo.

The villages and towns in Terceira are very traditional, and still have many unique customs that they uphold. For example they have a program of events where they have a ‘running of the bulls’ in the streets. This is not to copy the ones in Spain though, it is a unique memorial event to celebrate the farmer and bull heroes that drove the Spanish out of Terceira during a big battle, where the bulls were let loose on the army! Led by a woman villager too! Very cool. You will also find beautiful chapels in every village that are purely for the devotion to the holy spirit, and used at only one time of the year.

Angra do Heroismo is a beautiful little city with colourful buildings and a pleasant marina area. The colours of the buildings are apparently routed originally in the island’s link to trades with India and the spices and materials that were brought. The island also has been home to an American airfield and base since WW2 and so is rich in an international community. The city is actually a UNESCO Heritage Site due to its historic importance as a transatlantic crossing point, it is head of the diocese of the Azores, and it was actually capital of Portugal twice, replacing Lisbon!

The city also has an active military base for Portugal on their Monte Brazil connected to the main city, it is actually an extinct volcano and now a nature reserve for walkers and family picnics. I spent a morning walking around this mountain where I found there to be a lot of stops to enjoy on the trail, including fort ruins, an old whale watching tower, a viewpoint of the city, and a set of aviaries. When you visit the cross statue viewpoint, you will also find a set of military guns pointing towards the city. I thought this was quite strange, until I discovered that the military base was actually built by the Spanish when they temporarily took over the island, and pointed the guns back on to the city as a way of warning off the very unhappy Portuguese people below!

This mountain is just one of many volcanos on the island, the entire Azores group is a collection of volcano eruptions, and have plenty of collapsed, active and also extinct volcanoes. One volcano in Terceira is very special because you can visit the lava canal directly via a tunnel. and walk around over the top of the solidified lava from the last eruption around 2000 years ago. Algar do Cavao is very special and one of the more unique attractions I have been to. It was discovered only in the last century, when a farmer’s cows kept going missing… it turned out that they were falling through the huge crater hole!

Finally, speaking of cows, there are about 2 cows for every inhabitant on these islands. The biggest industry for these islands is dairy produce, and the amazing thing is that it is all made up of smallholdings and many family ran farms pulling together their resources with other farms across the area to make cheeses, milk, ice cream and more. You are never short of a cow, and someone that knows a lot about them!

Overall, I loved visiting the Azores, and now feel determined to visit all of the nine islands and find my favourite. It is an easy place to visit from Lisbon and I am in Portugal often, so I don’t think it will be long before I am back!

The Iguazu Falls meaning ‘big water’ in the native Guarani language, is a huge set of waterfalls set within the Misiones Jungle, at the Iguazu National Park. This world wonder provides a border between Argentina and Brazil, and a unique habitat for plants, trees, birds and other rare wild animals. I visited Iguazu for two days of exploring in the jungle and relaxing with good food and company.

Arriving in Puerto Iguazu

After a fifteen hour bus journey from Corrientes, I finally arrived at Puerto Iguazu. This town is the nearest settlement to the Argentina side of the Iguazu National Park. The town has several hotels and plenty of restaurants for relaxing evenings after exploring the jungle. I met up with a travel companion at this point, and we stayed in a hotel that was surrounded in jungle plants and had a very nice pool!

The jungle by day

During my two days in Iguazu, I visited the national park on both days. The national park is under 30 minutes from the town, and on arrival there is a large visitor centre, cafe, and ticket offices. The park also has paved pathways to lead you through specific parts of the jungle, and various refreshment points. The most surprising piece of infrastructure was the park’s jungle train. It runs on a 3km track to take visitors to the largest fall that is furthest away, and is included in the admission for the park. It is also worth knowing that your second day in the park gets a discount if you show your previous ticket.

Whilst there was some human structures, the park in no way looked ‘well kept’. It is a very wild area and I was amazed at the amount of animals that I was able to see roaming around. In my short time there I was able to see monkeys, capybaras, coatis, toucans, parrots and condors. There were also beautiful insects to see such as colourful butterflies, and huge ant hills with ants carrying leaves back and forth. There were also pumas and jaguars in the park, but they kept to themselves!

The jungle path led us through overlapping canopies of huge and unusual trees, until we reached the huge Iguazu river that flows through the park. To cross, there is a number of metal bridges to lead visitors to the largest fall ‘Giganta Del Diablo‘ (Devil’s throat). From here you can view the huge fall from a platform. There are several other paths to the other falls and other features of the park too. It seemed that everywhere you turned, there was a new wonder to behold! We only chose to walk around but other experiences are also offered, such as a river cruise, 4×4 drives, and repel experiences.

The jungle by night

Once a month, during a full moon cycle, there are a few days when you can visit Iguazu Jungle during the night, for a moonlight walk. I was excited to book this, and emailed the national park administration in advance to arrange my moonlight walk, followed by a traditional Argentine buffet.

There were at least twenty people in my group walk, and a guide that gave us a little information, but mostly warned us to not stray from the group, as the Jaguars would be out hunting! Slightly terrifying!

The tour used no lighting at all, not even a flashlight, we were entirely guided by moonlight. This made it quite special, as we could mainly just rely on the sounds of the jungle. We made our way through to the Devil’s Throat, over the many bridges, with the moon reflecting over the river water. The humidity in the jungle during the day had now dropped down to the ground, causing the bridges to be wet and slippery, which really added to the fear factor.

When we finally arrived at the waterfall, it was absolutely beautiful to see by moonlight. It shimmered in white and silver as it fell to the depth below, and the noise of it was deafening amongst the silence.

After the moonlight walk, we wondered to the national park’s restaurant for our traditional buffet. The restaurant was quite fancy, and had a huge parilla barbeque cooking meat of all kinds. I must have had at least three plates of food at that restaurant, as well as a dessert. I was stuffed, but it was also absolutely delicious!

After my weekend in the jungle, I set off to return to Buenos Aires for my final two weeks in Argentina. Iguazu certainly earns its title as a natural world wonder, it is an astonishing place with an abundance of wildlife, and I would be happy to revisit!