Visiting Mosteiros and the volcanic thermal spring in Ponta da Ferraria on Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal + Beach art

Welcome to the next episode of my trip to the Azores!

Yesterday I left Sete Cicadas via hitchhiking. I wrote about this fantastic place here. The friendly man who gave me a lift is Marco - a fisherman from Mosteiros. 

He likes spearfishing and delivers fish to restaurants in the region. I asked him how much an octopus brings and he said 9 euro per kilo. One of these color-changing animals can weigh a few kilos so if you want to earn a living all you have to do is getting a license and catch a few per day and you are set.

I told him about Steemit. The man has excellent footage! Check it out:

I made these screenshots from one of his videos:

So after we started driving he suddenly stopped after we went around a curve and it seemed like a gate to heaven just opened:

I told him that it would be better to switch on these blinking yellow lights one uses for such a situation and he replied that these are the Azores and that it wouldn't be necessary. Alright :D

He then switched them on - I guess to give me a feeling of safety.

We continued our ride and I changed my original plan which was going to the volcanic thermal springs of Ponta da Ferraria after he told me that he was from Mosteiros and that it is nice there + it would be better to visit the spring at 8 in the morning. 

We dropped off some fish at a friends house and he showed me a viewpoint in the near.

Afterwards we went to a bar and he invited me for a beer. I then invited him and soon we arrived in Mosteiros

I bought a Bolo da Arroz which is a local speciality:

He introduced me to the people from this awesome place and showed me where I could put my tent up. We said goodbye and I wanted to buy a sim-card to have mobile Internet and walked towards the church because someone told me that I could find it there. Instead of the card - none of the shops had any - I met Marco again. Another beer, a joint on my side and a few bites of beef with Piri-Piri.. It was great.

The man has family so he left towards home and I walked to the tent spot and prepared everything for the night.

Normally I am hiding from the eyes of anyone in order to have security. Nobody knows where I am - nobody can come and do me harm. This time it was different. everyone knew that I am going to stay there and after I was in the tent for 5 minutes a man came with a flashlight. OMG!

Well, it was just a friendly guy who wanted to check if everything is OK. At least that's what I thought - all I heard was Portuguese. He disappeared and I was uneasy and had fear that something could happen to me once I was sleeping.

I woke up and had a coffee at the close by coffeeshop. Then I walked down to the beach and shot some beach art:

Later I took the bus to Ponta da Ferraia.

Ponta da Ferraria

The bus took ages to arrive and dropped me off at the top of the hill. I walked down to the thermal spring which was around a kilometer and made some nice photos:

I also found some beach art here:

On the way back up I took a shower and shot this pic. I like the elegance of the construction - only straight lines - with the nature in the background:

Because there were plenty of people in the pool I could only make this image out of respect towards the people there. The volcanic 38 degree Celsius thermal spring:

I took a 2 hour bath, got a sunburn, had salad with swordfish and used the provided olive oil to moisture my skin.

A friendly couple gave me a lift back up the hill and back to Mosteiros. Lucky me!

I then proceeded to write this post. Well, not this one - the first one disappeared after sending which is why I am sitting on the street at 1 AM using the WiFi of the now closed bar. It's alright, I'm making money and this second version could be even better than the first one. 

So now it's time to finish this post. I wish you all the best and thank you for your support. I feel so much better since I've been away from Amsterdam. The mentality of the people here is relaxed and because it's an island everyone better watches out not to make any bullshit because otherwise it's not possible to leave anymore.

See you later,