It’s Called “The Green Island” for a Reason
The abundant green palettes of São Miguel
This month’s Globetrotters’ challenge was irresistible. March in Ontario is a gloomy mix of wet snow, brown sidewalks and muddy paths. There is no green in sight yet, except the streetlights. A perfect time to dream of green shoots and luxurious leaves.
After travelling to the Azores last summer, I will forever think of these remote islands when I think of abundant greenery.
São Miguel, where we spent three weeks last July, is called “the green island” for a good reason.
Let me show you. My commentary will be superfluous.
This 290-square-mile island is covered with foliage, grasses and plowed fields. From corn stalks to ferns, from wetland grasses to drought-resistant brush, the variety of flora is mind-boggling.
You can stand at the top of the mountain pass and absorb the green mountain hills all the way down to green-blue crater lakes — calderas. You can hike along the paths that seem to take you back a million years to the time ruled by giant ferns.
You will see bubbling streams buried in green.
Sometimes, the water is literally bubbling — hot springs.
Every ocean view is framed by emerald fields, pastures, and plants clinging to rocks.
The Azores have volcanic origins. Almost everything is made of lava — from the mountainous landscape to hardened lava fields beaten by the waves, to the black sand of the beaches.
But this black lava landscape is graced by abundant Atlantic precipitation year around, creating a palette of greens you have to see with your own eyes to believe.
The Azores are always green — however, if you come in July, you will also see it during the hydrangea bloom season.
Come for the biggest hydrangeas in your life, in brilliant colours, blooming along every road, popping up in the wild, flourishing in every front yard, clinging to every cliff and giving you a distinct feeling of living in a botanical garden.
Which is almost true.
As I contemplated this monthly challenge and browsed the Globetrotters pub, my eye caught this article by Julia A. Keirns. My desert experience is limited to driving from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon — and yet what we saw along the highway was magical, with huge desert plants surprising us with their power.
Now, I want to see, to feel a real desert — and all its greens.
I also loved the story about Madeira by Tim Ward. It has a lot in common with the Azores — volcanic past, Atlantic influence, remote location, and the Portuguese connection.
Having experienced the magic of the Azores, I’m now putting Madeira on my bucket list.
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