Monday, August 13th, 2018
Another day, another convoy. My cousin, Norberto, lead the charge (as he usually does) in showing us around in another part of the island. We started by winding our way up to Lagoa do Fogo. As we made our way up, you could see the vegetation change from the sub-tropical mix of lush green and colourful flowers, to grasses, mosses and scrub. When at the very top miradouro at Lagoa do Fogo, you felt the cool, foggy air, and some of the peaks playing peek-a-boo through the fog (really the clouds). The scene was not unlike what one would find in the Scottish highlands.
We then swung back down and made our way to a set of hot springs known as Caldeira Velha. These hot springs are a series of pools that daisy chain – some are boiling hot, some are suitable to going in for a dip. My brother’s family, second cousins Vasco and Anabela decided to take a dip in the hot springs, while the rest of the men wandered about and kept an eye on belongings. Caldeira Velha is very pretty. It’s lush and feels isolated – however it draws in both the locals and the international tourists. Many western Europeans were present – you could hear Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, German, as well as your “Micalense” accented Portuguese and continental Portuguese.
My brother’s family enjoyed the dip, and my sister-in-law, who suffers from eczema, noted that the dip in the highly mineralized water basically cleared up her skin condition. I shouldn’t be too surprised by that. I would imagine that throughout the ages, hot springs were used for all sorts of skin conditions, and that there are recorded in he voyages in Marco Polo, that the horse riders would sit in the cool mountain streams in Iran that were heavily mineralized to soothe and clear their saddle sores. The Romans built hot baths, and in Bath, England, the Romans built a large complex of baths – hot and cold.
After our encounter with the Caldeira Velha, we went back onto the road, visiting another set of hot springs were people could cook meals in steam vents, then took old roads through the countryside in through Gramas. We came back up onto the main highway, and stopped at the Miradouro da Santa Iria. The sun was setting and sending golden rays of light through the clouds. To the east, we could see my dad’s home town (and the town we stayed at) Sao Bras and the town next to it – Porto Formoso. To the west, was rolling country side, cliffs and oceanside. A perfect way to end the day, and one of my favourite vistas on the island.
