"Açores" Região Autónoma dos Açores by bambino36

Location

An archipelago situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just where the rift valley crosses the ocean bottom.
The islands distribution may be considered as forming three subgroups: the relatively large island of São Miguel along with Santa Maria, to the extreme south-east (called the eastern group); Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Terceira, and Graciosa about midway (called the central group); Flores and Corvo on the extreme north-west (called the western group).
Physically, the Azores are generally characterized by the bold and irregular conformation usually found in islands of volcanic origin.
The volcanic character of these islands is also unmistakably shown by the recurrence in their mountain-formations of more or less extinct craters (locally called caldeiras — "kettles"), one of which, the Caldeira of Graciosa, forms a steaming lake of pitch.
As might be expected, the Azores are specially subject to earthquakes.

Climate

The climate, through mild and equable, is extremely humid, the number of rainy days in the year is not far from 50 per cent. Snow never falls, except on the highest mountains. The average temperature is 18ºC floating from 10/12ºC to 24/26ºC.

History

In 1432 the Portuguese, Gonçalo Velho Cabral, discovered the island of Santa Maria, and by the year 1457 all the islands had been visited by Portuguese explorers, none of whom found any inhabitants, wild animals, or reptiles. In 1466 Afonso V of Portugal granted to the Duchess Isabel of Burgundy, his aunt, some sort of feudal privilege in the Azores, in consequence of which the colonists for some time were mostly Flemings, and the Portuguese themselves in those days called the islands as Ilhas Flamengas (the Flemish Islands). The first Portuguese colonies of any importance in the Azores were those of São Miguel, and Terceira.
The city of Angra attained some slight historical notoriety in 1662, when Afonso VI, deposed by his brother Don Pedro, was imprisoned there. In the Portuguese revolution of 1828-33, the Azorean populations took a decided stand against the absolutist Don Miguel, repulsed an attack upon the island of Terceira by a Miguelist fleet, and contributed largely to form the Progressista army which landed at Porto (in the north of Portugal) in 1833, driving Don Miguel into exile, and establishing on the throne the Queen Dona Maria, who for two years preceding had resided at Angra.

Today

The Azores are an autonomous region. Opposed to Madeira, the Azores still isn't a very popular touristic destination. I've been in the Islands several times, especially in São Miguel, the largest one.
Corvo, the smallest island, with aproximately 300 people living there is a small paradise. When walking through the narrow and short roads of the little village, the silence was impressive and I could almost hear my heart beating. The island has a curious lagoon... when observing the lagoon from a certain angle it's possible to count nine small pieces of land above the water and it really looks like the map of Azores.
Flores is the waterfalls island. In the springtime it turns amazingly beautiful.
Graciosa, one of the islands of the Central Group, like the other islands has many interesting places to see. In this island it's also possible to visit a volcanic cave called "bolha" by the locals. I also miss those delicious traditional cakes called "Queijadas da Graciosa".
Terceira, which means third, and as history says the third island to be discovered is probably more famous because it houses the North-american Airforce Base of Lajes. However the cities of Praia da Vitória and Angra do Heroismo, in particular the last one, deserve a visit.
São Jorge is the island that I know the least. Mostly because the island is very hilly and the access is difficult. Calheta on the south side is one of the places where we can have a wonderful view over the Mountain of Pico, the highest point in Portugal with it's 2300 meters.
Ilha do Faial is famous for housing the Peter's Café Sport. In this islands there also some of the best beaches in Azores (note all the beaches, except one, in Azores are of dark sand)
Pico, the second largest island of the archipelago, was before the main island for whale hunting, now wisely converted to whale watching. The view from the top of the Mountain of Pico worths the effort of climbing it.
Santa Maria, on the Oriental Group has the only white sand beach in Azores. The mountaineous north of the island is covered with vegetation that cannot be found on other islands.
Ilha de São Miguel, the main island, was blessed by God. Is one of the most beautiful places I've seen on the Earth that I know.