East from Vila Franca, the main road now heads inland through glorious scenery to one of the São Miguel top attractions, the Valley of Furnas. En route, stop at the Lagoa das Furnas, at first sight much like a Scottish loch surrounded by steep forested green hills. This beautiful lake, almost oval in form, occupies the western part of the Vale das Furnas. But around the northern end of the lake are a number of steaming pools of hot water and half-dozen curious concrete-lined holes in the ground. At weekends this is a very popular picnic spot. Visitors arrive with ready-prepared casseroles, shove them down one of the holes and pack a tight wooden lid on top, then go off for a swim or to fish in the lake until the chicken is ready five or six hours later. If you stay at the Hotel Terra Nostra in Furnas town, they’ll arrange it all for you.
Furnas town itself is a mile or two away through the hills, lying in the base of a wide green crater amid a profusion of flowers and fields, one of the most picturesque sights in the whole Azores archipelago and deserving a visit of at least a long weekend. In the 19th century this was a flourishing spa attracting wealthy Britons and Americans among others. Even today people arrive with doctors’ certificates to swim in the balneario, to take mud baths or to drink the twenty-three different sorts of spring water, cold, tepid or hot, rich in various minerals. The little town is full of small fountains individually marked with azulejo tiles showing the water’s particular qualities, such as ‘Morangueria Spring – Good for the liver’.
There are twenty-two springs in the valley, including some hot water geysers. The main caldeiras are the Murada, the Pero Botelho (about 6 feet wide and emitting a constant roar), the Polme (which sends up a kind of grey dust) and the Esquicho. Icy springs emerge beside those of boiling water, ranging in temperature from below freezing point to above boiling point, making Furnas a much frequented mineral and thermal centre. Especially used are the sulphurous waters of the Caldeira Grande and the ferrous ones of the Quanturas Spring. They are effective against rheumatism, and ailments of the liver, eyes, stomach and respiratory tract. Beside the thermal establishment, there exists a small establishment of carbon-gaseous waters for the treatment of heart diseases.
But much more dramatic are the belching plumes of steam and sulphurous gases into the humid air. Again each caldeira has its own name, sometimes called after long forgotten personages, sometimes indicating its particular characteristics. Quite by contrast is the peaceful natural warm-water swimming pool in the Parque Terra Nostra. Although its opaque rusty yellow appearance, due to the presence of iron, may seem unattractive, don’t be put off. Medical experts may dispute the water’s supposed curative properties but one visitor at least can vouch for its reviving qualities.
Refreshed by a swim one may then take a leisurely stroll through the beautiful park (entrance behind Hotel Terra Nostra) which was initially planned and planted by the 19th-century American vice-consul, Thomas Hickling. The elegant white mansion overlooking the swimming pool replaced Hickling’s house, known to the locals as ‘Yanqui Hall’, where he and his family spent weekends and holidays away from busy town of Ponta Delgada.
