The Azores is known as the 'Hawaii of Europe'—with whale watching and dramatic volcanic scenery Best in Travel is here! Discover 2025’s destinations The 30 best countries, cities and regions to visit in 2025 Plan your trip with Elsewhere, by Lonely Planet See where a Lonely Planet Membership takes you Subscribe to our weekly newsletters to get the latest travel news, expert advice, and insider recommendations Explore the world with our detailed, insightful guidebooks Stay ahead of the curve with our guidebooks Uncover exciting new ways to explore iconic destinations Every month, we release new books into the wild Search Search Close search menu Explore Best in Travel 2024 Africa Close menu Countries Antarctica Antarctica Close menu Regions Asia Asia Close menu Countries Australia & the Pacific Australia & the Pacific Close menu Countries The Caribbean The Caribbean Close menu Countries Central America Central America Close menu Countries Europe Europe Close menu Countries Middle East Middle East Close menu Countries North America North America Close menu Countries South America South America Close menu Countries Read on to get the most of out your first visit to the Azores the gorgeous “Hawaii of Europe.” Benjamin van der Spek/Shutterstock When you first look through the airplane window and down at the Azores you might think you’re in the South Pacific Just a quick glimpse will explain why so many call this Portuguese archipelago the “Hawaii of Europe” and the “Islands of Colors.” Set in the middle of the Atlantic halfway between the USA and continental Portugal, the nine major Azores islands – São Miguel Flores and Corvo – are impossible not to adore Expect green fields spotted with free-roaming local cattle (referred to locally as “happy cows”), and lagoons in extinct volcanoes. Thermal pools offer the chance for a hot dip (the warmth coming from deep within the earth), while ultra-fresh ingredients make for uniquely savory local cuisine A trip to the Azores is simply a must-do for savvy travelers – and one you’ll never forget Since the Azores are a year-round destination your key considerations will be what you want to do The summer brings many visitors from the mainland who arrive to soak up the scenery or visit relatives making this a busier and more expensive season The scene is more relaxed and cheaper in the shoulder seasons, while winter can offer challenging weather. Remember that the islands are set in the middle of the ocean and are more exposed to the winter storms that form in the Atlantic – which often affects flights (and your plans!) prepare to face all four seasons in one day You can wake up with sunshine and warm weather only to take a hike up a mountain to find plunging temperatures Don’t leave without packing a waterproof layer temperatures range from about 68–79°F (20–26°C) in the shoulder seasons from about 60–71°F (15.5–22°C) and during winter from about 53–64°F (12–18°C) Keep in mind that at different spots on these remote islands São Miguel is the largest island in the Azores and works as a hub to reach the other eight. The Ponta Delgada airport receives international flights from the United States and Canada as well as a number of European countries; transatlantic flights also serve Terceira. If you can’t find a nonstop flight, the easiest way to get to the Azores is via Lisbon or Porto From São Miguel, you can get internal flights with the local airline SATA to every island in the Azores. You can also opt for SATA’s Azores Air Pass, which allows travelers to visit up to three islands at a special rate. Another way to get around is by ferry: Atlanticoline serves Terceira Be advised that your plane or boat legs may change as the departure schedule can be disrupted by air and ocean conditions Being flexible with your itinerary is a good idea if you plan to visit more than one island in the Azores Renting a car is the best way to explore these beautiful islands having the freedom to travel at your own pace and visit more off-the-beaten-track locations is essential to making the most of your trip renting a car allows you to easily get around the larger islands such as São Miguel (287 sq miles / 743 sq km) Pico (172 sq miles / 445 sq km) or Terceira (154 sq miles / 399 sq km) You can even take your rented car on the ferry between some of the islands, including the Pico–Faial–São Jorge triangle. Public buses are also available on all islands except Corvo get out and explore on foot – for the views in these islands never disappoint immerse yourself in nature and be amazed by the sounds of the birds and running waterfalls and the smell of flowers and wet vegetation São Miguel is a great option for first-time visitors and great restaurant and accommodation options Five days should be enough time for a thorough introduction But if you want to get a true sense of the richness of the Azores set aside two to three weeks to hop between islands and get to know what distinguishes each one – and why the archipelago is truly one of the most exceptional destinations in Europe If you want to immerse yourself in nature and experience the rawness of gorgeous landscapes, you’re in luck. All the islands have hiking trails that bring you deep into their wild heart revealing lagoons formed inside extinct volcanoes or waterfalls that cascade from the top of the mountains On the island of the same name, Mt Pico is another must-see place in the Azores But the unforgettable view from the top on a clear day is well worth the effort While in Pico, visit the local vineyards that are part of a landscape that’s been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site Gaze out at the ocean as you enjoy a glass of wine: you might spot a pod of playful dolphins or even giant whales You’ll know you’re atop a cluster of volcanoes when you see the dark-gray stone used in the old buildings, and the black sand on the beaches you can even feel the volcanic activity on your very skin: the water at iron-rich thermal springs is warmed by heat emanating from the island’s inner depths The same heat cooks the traditional cozido dos Açores (Azorean stew) in the Furnas area where chefs place vegetables and meat in the earth for up to seven hours before it emerges steaming hot and with a sulfur-y kick Terceira and São Jorge have natural pools that are carved in stone by the rough Atlantic and simultaneously heated by the volcanic rock In Faial, the underwater Vulcão dos Capelinhos erupted in the 1950s – an event that caused half the island’s population to flee An interpretative center near the site of the eruption gives context on the ongoing volcanic activity in and around the islands Exploring outdoors is far from the only activity in the Azores. On São Miguel, you can join a whale-watching cruise, visit cheese factories, see spiky fruit grow at pineapple plantations or spend an hour or two at the famous Gorreana Tea Factory the oldest (and arguably only) tea plantation in Europe Staff members offer free tours of the factory and museum which feature plenty of vintage machinery (some still in use); toast to your visit with a cup at the end of the tour If your goal is to escape and disconnect from the world you’ll find that tranquility in the Azorean fajãs small coastal villages next to large cliffs Once in Fajã de Santo Cristo, cell phone and internet connections are almost non-existent, leaving no choice but to unplug and slow down. This is the ideal place to relax, catch up on your reading, discover the lagoon by kayak or taste the clams served at O Borges, the oldest restaurant in this location. The Azores is a destination for all types of travelers, with everything from five-star hotels to local homestays. You can find lodging, food options and island tours to suit all budgets. Your car rental will likely be your biggest expense, especially if you are traveling in high season; try to plan ahead and make your reservations as soon as possible. These are the average daily costs you can expect: Four-star hotel room for two: from €150 (US$158) Dormitory room in a hostel: from €45 (US$47) Self-catering apartment: from €100 (US$106) Car rental: from €35 (US$37) per day for a small car Given the variable weather and outdoor-adventure possibilities in the Azores, we recommend bringing a light rain jacket, a breathable fleece layer you can take on and off on the go, and waterproof trekking boots and poles. You’ll want a good backpack to carry all this with you as you get out and about in this magical archipelago. Exploring the various volcanic craters and lagoons hidden in the islands’ interiors provides one of the Azores’ most memorable experiences. Keep in mind that these extraordinary natural ecosystems should be approached with great care. Respect the local landscape by visiting in a way that doesn’t disturb the animals or damage any plants; the easiest way to do this is by sticking to marked trails. Many are there to protect vegetation and prevent soil erosion, but also for your safety, as they avoid unstable or slippery ground. Also, as much as the lagoons seem like the perfect opportunity for a cooling dip, most are unsuitable for bathing or swimming for safety reasons. Always follow the safety signs displayed at each lagoon. Finally, be aware that weather conditions can change from one moment to the next, especially in higher areas. Check the forecast before venturing out on a long trail to ensure you’re not caught in a precarious position mid-hike. And never forget that waterproof layer. your new go-to podcast to spice up your weekday mornings with relevant news and behind-the-scenes from Brussels and beyond From the economy to the climate and the EU's role in world affairs this talk show sheds light on European affairs and the issues that impact on our daily lives as Europeans Tune in to understand the ins and outs of European politics Dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries Deep dive conversations with business leaders Euronews Tech Talks goes beyond discussions to explore the impact of new technologies on our lives the podcast provides valuable insights into the intersection of technology and society Europe's water is under increasing pressure floods are taking their toll on our drinking water Join us on a journey around Europe to see why protecting ecosystems matters and to discover some of the best water solutions an animated explainer series and live debate - find out why Water Matters We give you the latest climate facts from the world’s leading source analyse the trends and explain how our planet is changing We meet the experts on the front line of climate change who explore new strategies to mitigate and adapt the Azores lie in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean The clouds here are so low you feel you have to duck to avoid them Small fishing boats hug the harbour wall while larger commercial vessels bob about in the perennial shadow of a cruise liner Cargo ships dot the horizon and the occasional sight of a clipper evokes imaginings of the age of exploration that this place between the New World and the Old World is home to a festival that links the history of music and culture with its future António Pedro Lopes co-founded Tremor in 2013 "The idea was to bring life back to the city centre which is the main city of the island of São Miguel and also the biggest one in the Azores," Lopes tells Euronews Culture "which at the time was really set in a crisis.. and of course it was having consequences here which means that the commerce was falling apart and even the city centre became a bit like a ghost town So our goal with Tremor was this idea of bringing back life to these places by using those places that resisted the crisis slippery and home to a handful of good bars and restaurants This month it celebrates its 479th anniversary Tremor is celebrating only its 12th birthday this year but it's not just the capital that needed the push The Azores is statistically the poorest area in Portugal and one of the poorest in the whole European Union with over 30% of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion It is also the youngest area of Portugal with an average age of around 42 Festival organisers began with a 24 hour showcase in 2013 but over time developed a much broader platform that has changed lives in areas outside Ponta Delgada And one of these areas will be familiar to some Netflix viewers The quiet fishing village of Rabo de Peixe has found fame as the location for a successful TV series of the same name ('Turn of the Tide' in English) due to an incident over 20 years ago a colossal amount of cocaine worth more than 150 million euros was recovered from a boat that sank off the coast Tremor has worked with the young people of this village for over a decade "We have a long relationship right now," says Lopes and it's a place that is highly stigmatised It's a place that has been getting a lot of attention because of high dependencies on public subsidies and it's definitely not only specific to that place but there's also a lot of cultural richness." The Som Sim Zero project, which developed out of the relationship between the ondamarela music collective and the Deaf Association of São Miguel, were the entertainment in Rabo de Peixe but they've played on bigger stages such as the Lisbon edition of Rock in Rio Dino Oliveira has been involved with the project since its inception and knows how much Tremor has done for the area these kids that never did anything or anything different these people that would never probably in their lifetime go even near the airport." Secret concerts inspired coach trips to far flung parts of the Island where the natural world was the stage, but Ponta Delgada itself has an abundance of excellent venues such as the Teatro Micaelense 60 acts from 17 countries entertained a devoted festival audience of 1500 visitors And the highlights included the quirky Joseph Keckler Dressed so neutrally that he could have been on stage in any of the previous six decades Keckler reminds us that you should just do whatever you like to express yourself and that following a framework is probably a drab idea His operatic range is impressive although a different amplification setup might be useful as a closely mic'd up opera voice can be hard to listen to His multimedia elements were nicely executed and who doesn't like a tune centred around sexual liaisons with the supernatural Speaking of the supernatural, hailing from Argentina, the autotune punk circus that is Blanco Teta kicked off the festival with unrestrained brio lead vocalist Josefina Barriex controlling the vocal pitch shifts on a contraption that resembles an 80s speak and spell machine Barreix stalks the stage like a Star Wars hybrid of Darth Vader and Princess Lea while mad cellist Violeta García turns lab coat to lingerie I’m tempted to talk about performance art over music but let’s remember the Sex Pistols Bassist Carlos Quebrada grimaces and prowls like an Argentine centre back while drummer Carola Zelaschi gets her Animal on part White Stripes and a sprinkling of Tracy Bonham Another discovery came in the shape of Azorean-born Eugenia Contente Contente was the epitome of the happy performer and I have never seen a Strat so viciously spanked on a clean setting she blasts into Cuban jazz before peppering her blues jazz with scalic licks While some of the acts fell victim to their own profundity decreasing their impact through self-indulgence Contente is completely free of pretension and effortlessly bonds with the audience through the shared joy Keckler flew in from New York and most of the audience flew in from somewhere or other And yet the festival has extremely sound eco-credentials In 2023, Tremor received the 'A Greener Festival (AGF) Certification' which is setting the standard for sustainability in live events Lopes thinks any argument pinned on the carbon footprint is a misunderstanding of what sustainability really is "We've had conversations with sustainability experts in Central Europe to say like this festival is like one of those boutique festivals in the middle of nowhere the one that allows one thing to be sustainable or not But more important than this technical dimension I think where we champion sustainability is really on the social and on the human dimension." which takes the form of a 'leave no trace' ethos It's certainly more of an avant-garde festival than any other I've attended the 'pairing' of acts with landscapes cannot help but thrill I'm not convinced that the swarthy fishermen of São Miguel island are into the avant-garde but I think they quietly enjoy an initiative that only wants to make a positive impact for islanders And any trajectory that begins in hardship and ends up performing in Rock in Rio has to be a barometer for success São Miguel still hisses with geothermal power in the form of mineral-rich hot springs and bubbling calderas Locals have made an art of harnessing this natural resource you can dive along cliffs overlooking the azure Atlantic But don’t get sidetracked: Stay on course with this culinary road trip and you’ll be rewarded with a caldera-cooked stew one of the world’s sweetest pineapples São Miguel’s star export was the orange But after a blight destroyed crops in the late 1800s farmers looked to a new fruit that had recently been imported from Brazil: the pineapple They built greenhouses that mimicked the heat and humidity of the plant’s native home and grew them in the fertile Azorean soil heavy on sweetness and light on the acidity quickly became the island’s main export crop Today, you can buy Azorean pineapples at restaurants and grocery stores across São Miguel. You can also visit one of the island’s pineapple plantations. Plantação de Ananás dos Açores is a five-minute drive from downtown Ponta Delgada and offers tours through its greenhouses as well as plenty of opportunities to indulge in the prickly fruit—on its own or in the form of pineapple-flavored ice cream Pineapple wasn’t the only successful transplant when orange crops failed. After your pineapple experience, hop in the car and drive 30 minutes to the Gorreana Tea Plantation Open since 1883 and the oldest still-operating tea plantation in Europe Gorreana is a relic of São Miguel’s heyday as a tea-producing powerhouse While Azorean producers steadily supplied Europe throughout the 1800s and into the 1950s hardships from the aftermath of World War II decimated the industry only two producers remain—the Porto Formoso Tea Factory and Gorreana visitors can see this history in the antique equipment on display at Gorreana’s factory and watch the traditional tea-making process For exploring the island’s volcanically-cooked delights a small parish about 15 minutes from Gorreana You’ll know you’re in the right place when you detect a slight sulfur odor in the air The aroma comes from the area’s fumaroles holes in the ground that emit hot gasses and vapors For a colorful chemistry lesson, be sure to book a tea tasting. When servers mix Azorean green tea leaves with Furnas hot-springs water, something magical happens: Instead of adopting green tea’s typical amber hue, a unique chemical reaction produces a shockingly purple brew. (Note: The Chalet requires advance booking for all of their experiences.) The recipe for cozido das Furnas is simple: a combination of meat But the secret to this singular meal is the six to eight hours slow-cooking in the gentle geothermal heat yielding tender vegetables and falling-apart meat Cooks don’t even add water or stock to their pots since the steam pulls out the ingredients’ natural juices Plenty of island tours will include a trip to the fumaroles, followed by a lunch of cozida das Furnas. You can also try it at one of the island’s eateries, such as Vale das Furnas or the restaurant at the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel which also features iron-rich (and rust-brown) springs for an invigorating soak Not all of Furnas’s delicacies rely on volcanic activity. Born in Furnas, the bolo lêvedo can be compared to an English muffin then slather on jam and cheese at breakfast or use them for burgers or steak sandwiches at lunch These pillowy buns have fans around the world—especially in Portuguese enclaves You can find bolos lêvedos at most shops in Furnas and across São Miguel If you want to combine a workout with your carbs try a trek at the Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeirões End your journey with happy hour. There’s no better place to sip an adult beverage than Solar Branco a hotel that happens to house the largest “gin library” in Europe The collection of more than 1,500 bottles includes varieties from South Africa to Scotland or a gin and tonic made with any of the bottles If you want to support local causes while sampling the booze try one of the house-made Ghosts of the Ocean gins Proceeds go toward protecting the whales that live in the Azorean waters Like our Atlas of amazing places the gin library is also a community project with many of the bottles contributed by visitors you can exchange it for one of the treasures in the collection leaving a piece of yourself on São Miguel and taking a piece of it with you We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders My first tip-off was the trip reviews we would occasionally receive here at WendyPerrin.com written by travelers just back from the Azores and delighted at their luck in discovering this off-the-radar spot I was cooking up plans for my own family’s trip Here’s what I found most enchanting about the Azores: START A WOW TRIP TO THE AZORES Airlines are launching a ton of new nonstop flights all over the world. Here’s the list of direct routes to Europe, Asia, and more. For a travel solution tailored to your trip goals and preferences, click this green box. Your email address will not be published. You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Volume 11 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2023.1144151 This article is part of the Research TopicEarthquake Swarms and Complex Seismic Sequences in Tectonic and Volcanic AreasView all 6 articles A correction has been applied to this article in: Corrigendum: The february 2018 seismic swarm in São Miguel The island of São Miguel is among the most seismically active areas of the Azores archipelago This work focuses on the most significant recent swarm We set up an automated procedure to process continuous full seismic waveform data from local stations to generate high-quality earthquake information on the volcano unrest episode next we located the detected events and then classified the earthquakes based on their waveform similarity identifying three families of seismic events We then extended the catalog by template matching we computed moment tensors to investigate the source mechanisms of the largest earthquakes Our results image the ∼2-week swarm evolution The activity started with a precursory phase with low rate and low magnitude (ML < 2.0) seismicity and the activation of a deeper structure (∼10-15 km) a new earthquake family emerged at shallower depths (∼8–12 km) reaching magnitudes up to ML 3.4 a third slightly shallower family was activated Moment tensors show mostly normal faulting mechanisms compatible with the orientation of the regional stress field A surface deformation transient was recorded by geodetic stations and continuing over the following ∼17 months corresponding to either inflation or extension around the swarm region The prolonged surface deformation implies a process that was initiated during the swarm and subsequently accommodated mostly aseismically We interpret the seismicity observed at the early stage of deformation as indicating episodic fluid injection through the crust related to the local hydrothermal or magmatic systems We conclude that the Fogo-Congro region continues to be seismo-volcanically active with both seismic and aseismic deformation observed and requiring close multidisciplinary monitoring The proposed methology based on the automated analysis of continuous waveform data provides high-quality imaging of the spatio-temporal evolution of seismicity which can be used elsewhere in the operational monitoring of seismo-volcanic crises to gain insight into the ongoing deformation processes improve hazard assessment and help in the development of effective mitigation strategies The three events with magnitude Mw > 6 mentioned in the text are identified by their dates Miguel colored according to time of occurrence Miguel Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was generated from a 1:5,000 scale digital altimetric database from the Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Transportes of the Azores Government It is also shown the locations of the volcano-tectonic features identified in Carmo et al (2015): (SCV) Sete Cidades Volcano; (PFVS) Picos Fissural Volcanic System; (FGV) Fogo Volcano; (CFVS) Congro Fissural Volcanic System; (FNV) Furnas Volcano; (PV) Povoação Volcano; (NVS) Nordeste Volcanic System which was the most intense swarm recorded in the instrumental catalog and occurred in the region of the Congro fissural system the authors identified two clusters of activity A stress inversion showed a dominant normal faulting regime in Fogo consistent with the Azores regional stress field a heterogeneous local stress field was found in Congro The authors interpreted the compressive stress at depth as causing fluids to rise dominantly extensive stress field at more shallow levels as brittle failure along fractures with various orientations due to the circulation of fluids rising from depth we tackle two main objectives: 1) To validate a highly automated strategy based on the analysis of continuous waveform data to quickly characterize seismo-volcanic crises; and 2) To use this strategy to study the spatio-temporal evolution of seismicity during the recent February 2018 S We start by analyzing the local earthquake catalogs to establish the February 2018 S Miguel crisis as significantly above the background seismicity level We then apply a mostly automated workflow to characterize the crisis The automated workflow consists of earthquake detection and augmentation of the catalog by template matching We complement this analysis by computing focal mechanisms for the events with higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) assessing some statistical properties of the seismicity and investigating the relationship between the seismicity and surface deformation Miguel seismic sequence in light of possible driving mechanisms the two catalogs also show some detail differences the IPMA catalog shows epicenters distributed with a roughly N-S trend whereas the CIVISA catalog shows epicenters clustered without a clear orientation (A,D) Magnitude histogram for the 2018 IPMA and CIVISA earthquakes (white bars) histogram for the February 2018 crisis only (gray bars) cumulative number of events with magnitude for the 2018 reference catalogs (solid black line) and for the February 2018 cluster (dashed black line) Miguel showing the epicenters of earthquakes according to the two reference catalogs Epicenters of all earthquakes occurred in 2018 are shown in black whereas white circles represent those of the February 2018 cluster (C,F) Epicenters of the February 2018 cluster with depth (by color) and magnitude (size of circle) Yellow triangles represent seismic stations Given that one of our goals is to validate an automated strategy for quickly building an earthquake catalog during seismo-volcanic crises, we started by identifying the most significant earthquake crisis that occurred in S. Miguel during 2018. For this purpose, we applied Seiscloud (Cesca, 2020) to the two local earthquake catalogs (Figure 3) Seiscloud is a clustering algorithm that groups earthquakes based on various measures of proximity we searched for clusters of earthquakes that occurred close in time where a cluster was defined by at least 10 events occurring within 3.65 days of each other (Nmin=10 FIGURE 3. Temporal evolution of the seismicity in S. Miguel for the year 2018 (left) and for the February 2018 seismic crisis (right). Histogram of the number of earthquakes in bins of (A) 1 week, and (D) six hours. Evolution of earthquake magnitude in time, considering the IPMA (B,E) and CIVISA (C,F) reference catalogs. Colors show different temporal clusters of earthquakes identified using Seiscloud (Cesca, 2020) The February 2018 cluster is identified in both catalogs with MLmax = 3.4 The CIVISA catalog shows some early precursory activity already on February 8th Both catalogs then show a sharp increase in the seismic rate on February 12th The seismic rate then progressively decreases and is mostly over by February 20th Seismic stations whose waveform data was used in this study For nearly automated catalog building, we adopted a workflow that consisted of detection, location, magnitude estimation, earthquake classification and catalog expansion using template matching (Figure 4) We further computed moment tensor solutions for the larger events Automatic multistep procedure of continuous waveform processing Lassie starts by computing characteristic functions from the continuous seismic waveforms recorded at different station channels The characteristic functions should be tuned depending on the application we used characteristic functions suitable for detecting P and S-waves which results in two distinct Image Function Contributions (IFCs) Lassie then applies a delay-and-stack method to the characteristic functions and performs a grid search to image the likelihood of possible hypocenters based on the coherence of the characteristic functions Lassie implements a spatial and temporal sampling reduction that improves computational efficiency but on the other hand leads to high location uncertainties we used Lassie only as a detection algorithm and locations were refined subsequently We carried out automatic detection using two different 1D velocity models: the regional model used both by IPMA and CIVISA, which we refer to as azoresipma (Steinmetz et al., 1976; Senos et al., 1980; Escuer, 2006), and a model based on P and S receiver functions that we refer to as rfcmlaa (Silveira et al., 2010) We band pass filtered the continuous waveform data from 2 to 9 Hz We then searched for earthquakes within a 3D grid with a total length of 20 km along latitude and 25 km along longitude centered on latitude = 37.77° longitude = −25.40° the grid had a total length of 30 km The spacing between grid nodes was 1.0 km in all directions This selected search volume includes only the closest seismic stations leaving out the stations further away from the cluster we set a coherence threshold of 3.5 for the earthquake detection This deliberately low threshold avoids missing the detection of low amplitude earthquakes but has the downside of increasing the number of false events (false positives) which must be removed later in the workflow we removed the false events using both visual inspection and cross-checking against the reference catalogs We computed these grids for the two velocity models previously mentioned The 3D grids had the same dimensions as the grid used for detection with Lassie Waveforms were bandpass filtered from 2 to 9 Hz and a 15 s time window was selected around the Lassie detection time starting 2 s before Lassie’s origin time We estimated the earthquake magnitudes using the waveform maximum amplitude approach (Båth, 1966) We used the traces recorded at the broadband stations CMLA and PCALD which are stations with fully documented and open-access instrumental response The peak amplitude method consists of estimating the linear relationship between the maximum displacement recorded in the waveform and the local magnitude of an earthquake: Δ is the epicentral distance and A represents the peak amplitude measured on the horizontal components simulated on a Wood-Anderson seismometer the waveforms were first deconvolved from instrumental response to obtain ground motion in displacements The trace was then bandpass filtered with a passband 1.25–20 Hz (4 poles) to approximate the response of the Wood-Anderson seismometer The elastic attenuation constants were set to a = 1.48928 b = 0.00266 and c = −2.55971 in agreement with the magnitude calculations routinely done by IPMA and CIVISA we then calculated a normalized distance d = 1 - CC the distance between two events is equal to zero (d = 0) when the events are identical (CC = 1) we applied Seiscloud to identify subclusters of events using the resulting distance matrix We used clustering parameters Nmin = 10 and ε = 0.2 meaning that a cluster was formed whenever for one event there were at least 10 others with a CC equal to or larger than 0.8 In our analysis we considered the events with Loki’s highest waveform coherence (coherence ≥0.5) we used the following criteria: 1) the average of the normalized cross-correlation coefficient (ncc) between template and detection must be greater or equal to 0.6; 2) the coherent waveform signal of the detections must be observed in at least 7 channels; and 3) the threshold defined as N times the daily median absolute deviation (MAD) of the network stack function (NSF) must also be greater than or equal to 15 The final catalog is then formed by the template events plus the associated new detections with correlation equal to or higher than 0.6 with respect to the templates which we refer to as “slaves.” is justified by the unverified sensitivity of the short-period seismic stations For the cross-correlation we used a time window starting 1.5 s before the P-phase and ending 1.5 s after the S-phase using 2 s long windows for P phases in the vertical component and for S-phase in the horizontal components Green’s functions were computed using the velocity model azoresipma Figure 5 shows examples of a true (coherence = 8.9) and a false (coherence = 3.8) event detected with Lassie the false detection is a result of noisy data and/or the low threshold that we considered for the detections A visual inspection of the Lassie detections showed that the false detections also often resulted from instrumental issues (e.g. we systematically revised the catalog to remove false detections The false positives could alternatively be reduced by either increasing the detection threshold or in the subsequent location step with Loki as false positives should show poor locations The original detection catalogs produced by Lassie contained 5,192 or 4,312 events for velocity models azoresipma or rfcmlaa after removal of false events only 1,002 or 1,047 corresponded to true events Example of the detection of a true (origin time 2018-02-12 03:27:50.5) and a false (2018-02-12 05:02:25.6) event with Lassie (A,E) Waveform traces at each seismic station used (B,F) Characteristic functions for the normalized amplitude envelopes indicate the corrected travel time for the P-wave (solid red line) and S-wave (solid blue line) for each station The best fit of the synthetic arrival time of the respective phases at each station is marked with a small red/blue vertical bar (C,G) Map view of the station locations and probability density function distribution marking the most likely epicenter location with a white star (D,H) Global detector function (solid red line) where the red shadowed area represents the time frame shown in the coherence detection map The horizontal black line marks the threshold chosen for the detection becoming shallower both towards the NW and SW The few earthquakes at the bottom of the grid likely have poorly constrained locations Hypocentral 2D histograms of the earthquakes located with Loki (A) Map and (B) longitude and (C) latitude cross-sections of the 402 events with coherence higher or equal to 0.5 The blue cross represents the average location of the selected events The cluster is more populated between the Fogo volcano and the Congro fissural complex at depths of 7–15 km (see Supplementary Figure S1 for rfcmlaa velocity model result) The estimated magnitudes show that most located events have ML between 0.0 and 3.0 (Figure 7). Our maximum estimated magnitude ML = 3.44, for the event that occurred at on 2018-02-12 at 04:54:29, corresponding to the earthquake with ML = 3.4 in both local reference catalogs. Our estimated magnitude values show a good agreement with the earthquake magnitudes of the CIVISA and IPMA reference catalogs (Figures 7A, B) (A) Estimated magnitude of the 402 relocated events vs Orange circles show the comparison between our estimates and IPMA’s catalog and the purple circles show the comparison with the CIVISA catalog The solid black line represents the y=x curve CIVISA (purple) and our catalog (light green) (C,D) Same as (A,B) but using the catalog obtained after template matching Our estimated magnitude values generally show a good agreement with the reference catalogs The events of family C2 show a low amplitude P-phase when compared to the other two families and a notable coda Family C3 seems to have the longest duration P-phase and both P and s phases are quite harmonic We also note that S-P times are not significantly dissimilar among the families with values of approximately 0.5 s–6.0 s for C1 1.0 s – 7.0 s for C2 and 2.0 s – 6.0 s for C3 Identification of different earthquake families based on the similarity of waveforms recorded at station MESC C2 (red) and C3 (green) are placed from (A–C) Colored traces correspond to the stacked waveforms of each family Selected traces are plotted downwards by increasing dissimilarity to the top example waveform Finally, after applying the template matching technique to the continuous data and using the relocated 402 or 409 events as templates, we detected additional low amplitude earthquakes, augmenting the previous catalogs to 2,553 and 2,613 events, respectively. Figure 9 shows an example of a template event and its slaves for the three components of station MESC showing one template event (black line) and associated detections (gray) We show as an example the template with origin time 2018-02-12T03:51:48.80 Each rectangle shows different components: (A) vertical (EHZ) in which an event with ncc = 1 corresponds to the detection of the template itself The difference in magnitudes is related to the different stations used to compute magnitudes in the different catalogs The CIVISA catalog has a higher total number of events due to a higher number of low magnitude events recorded with ML ∼ 0.5 withal this catalog is based on a denser network in the hypocentral region and the seismic rate of cluster C2 starts to decrease C3 is located at slightly shallower levels and further to the SE than C2 Most of the earthquakes in our catalog (∼86%) occur on February 12th the rate and magnitude of the seismicity becomes similar to the early stages of the sequence The seismic sequence activity continued for another 7 days Temporal evolution of the earthquake’s magnitude: (A) two-week period corresponding to the February 2018 swarm Hypocentral location of the earthquake families: (C) map view and (D,E) cross-sections with contour line surrounding 70% of the events from the final catalog The events are colored according to the families identified by waveform similarity: C1 (blue) The moment tensor inversion of selected earthquakes, including those with the highest magnitude and good signal-to-noise ratio at various stations, led to the determination of 9 deviatoric solutions (Table 2; Figure 11) Most of the focal mechanisms inferred correspond to earthquakes of family C2 We were also able to obtain one solution each for earthquakes of families C1 and C3 Although we find some variability in the MT solutions normal faulting focal mechanisms with strike-slip components are dominant Most Non-Double Couple components show negative compensated linear vector dipoles (CLVDs) Centroid depths range between 4 and 10 km slightly shallower than the hypocentral depths estimated with Loki (6–15 km) Moment magnitudes values (Mw) are similar to the ML estimates Deviatoric Moment Tensor for 9 earthquakes of the February 2018 swarm FIGURE11. (A) Map view and (B) cross-section of the final automated earthquake catalog, comprising templates plus slave events, and the location of the focal mechanisms obtained by moment tensor (Table 2) The catalog epicenters are represented by white circles that mark the corresponding location grid cells and the events for which we estimated the focal mechanisms are marked in colored circles The colors of the focal mechanisms indicate their families: C1 (blue) Seismic stations are shown by yellow triangles Observed displacements at GNSS stations VFDC and FRNS Temporal evolution of the cumulative number of earthquakes after each step of our workflow using the azoresipma velocity model: (A) IPMA (solid green line) and CIVISA (solid gray) reference catalogs (D) Loki results with coherence ≥0.5 and (E) Final earthquake catalog obtained with the template matching Results after each step are marked with solid red lines whereas the CIVISA catalog is shown with a solid gray line for comparison The automatic process could reproduce ∼82% of the manually picked CIVISA catalog (see Supplementary Figure S1 for rfcmlaa velocity model result) The results obtained throughout our workflow using the two local velocity models This may be because the two models are not significantly different at the depths where most events originate (5–15 km) The similar results also indicate that our solutions are robust and stable to minor velocity model variations which is important given that the procedure is mostly automated Cluster C3 and the whole sequence are identified as mixed swarm/mainshock-aftershock types The modulations of these indicators among different sub-clusters indicates a complex behavior with an evident swarm activity in the initial phase and some combination of swarm and mainshock-aftershock sequences during the latter part of the sequence Summary of the statistical analysis and corresponding classification among swarm mixed and mainshock-aftershocks (MA) seismicity A very visible difference between the earthquake families resides in the frequency content of their waveforms We speculate that the higher-frequency waveform family the more harmonic and lower frequency waveforms of C2 and C3 may correspond to earthquakes occurring in the presence of fluids the February 2018 swarm appears to have been triggered at depth The brittle failure at depth seems to have opened a pathway for fluids to migrate upwards from depth faulting responds dominantly to the regional stress regime Moment tensor inversion shows normal faulting with strikes-orientated NW-SW. This pattern is consistent with the regional stress regime (Figure 1B) and with reference MT solutions computed for earthquakes to the east and the west of S. Miguel (e.g., Custódio et al., 2016). Silva et al. (2012) obtained a similar result when analyzing the focal mechanisms of the 2005 swarm indicating that the Fogo-Congro stress field is dominantly extensional and coincident with the regional tectonics solutions with a high consistency between the best and the mean result have a small non-DC component percentage and a common T axis The presence of non-DC components close but not equal to zero despite not being very reliable due to the moment tensor estimation uncertainties indicates the possibility of tensile and compressive movements associated with the opening and/or closing of cracks that we hypothesize to be caused by infiltration of volcanic and/or thermal fluids We hypothesize that fluids induced and facilitated fracturing generating earthquakes whose kinematics is governed by the regional stress field Evolution of the position of GNSS stations in São Miguel Island with respect to station AZSM Displacement of (A) the Fogo Volcano station During an approximately 17-month long period starting with the 2018 swarm station VFDV moves 29.0 mm to the south and station FRNS moves 9.8 mm towards the east We did a linear fit (red line) of the differential positions between February 2018 and July 2019 in order to obtain the displacement estimates the swarm marks the beginning of a ∼1.5 years long period of surface deformation which may indicate either aseismic slip of tectonic faults or an aseismic intrusion We studied the spatio-temporal evolution of the seismic swarm that occurred in February 2018 in S We successfully set up a semiautomatic procedure capable of generating a high-quality earthquake catalog that reproduces the main features of the local reference catalogs The automatization of the seismic monitoring workflow presented here has the advantage of reducing the time and human power needed for earthquake catalog generation for the determination of basic earthquake parameters such as origin time the full waveform analysis allowed us to identify different families of similar earthquakes which in turn provided a clearer image of the spatio-temporal migration of seismicity and of the underlying processes We deduce that earthquakes with higher frequency content are associated to brittle failure and lower frequencies are associated to the presence of fluids The template matching allowed us to augment the catalog and further provided information on the sites where seismicity occurred persistently We conclude that the automated analysis of full waveform data is key to provide information on the evolution of unrest episodes and their underlying processes representing a critical complement to traditional earthquake catalogs and helping to better assess the hazard of seismo-volcanic crises The February 2018 swarm occurred in the region of the Congro fissural complex, similar to the previous May/September 2005 swarm (Silva et al., 2012) and likely reactivating the same fault system The epicenters form an elongated shape with a roughly NW-SE orientation The seismogenic region extends through depths of 5–15 km becoming shallower to the northwest and to the southwest The sequence displays mostly a swarm-like behavior Most of the seismicity occurs over the first day of the second week of activity (February 12th) with the highest magnitude earthquake occurring approximately one hour after the onset of the phase of most intense activity Earthquake family C1 occurs at the deepest level and is identified as a precursory phase of the swarm The onset of family C2 marks a clear change in the swarm Our moment tensor results are consistent with previous studies of seismic swarms that occurred in the same region indicating that the Fogo-Congro stress field is predominantly tensional with the main extension axes oriented NW-SE the seismicity of this region seems to be a local response to the regional forcing triggered by the uprising of fluids from depth Through the detailed analysis of the February 2018 swarm we conclude that this seismic activity is due to episodic fluid transfer through the crust associated with hydrothermal and/or magmatic activity We conclude that the Fogo-Congro system continues to be seismo-volcanically active and that the 2005 crisis was not an isolated unrest episode but rather a part of long-lived and ongoing deformation processes The region should be closely monitored using multidisciplinary instrumentation comprising seismic and geodetic capability both seismic and aseismic deformation are observed and the two datasets should be used analyzed together for better monitoring of the region and improved hazard assessment and risk mitigation computed ground deformation through the analysis of the time series of GNSS station position for 3 closest stations to the swarm epicentral area located in S and FRNS) and 1 station in Santa Maria Island (station code: AZSM) All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version We thank the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for funding this work through grant SFRH/BD/147385/2019 project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL and the RESTLESS project PTDC/CTAGEF/6674/2020 We thank Fernando Carrilho (IPMA) for providing the earthquake catalog of the Azores archipelago We thank CIVISA for sharing the earthquake catalog of 2018 and the waveform data of 5 seismic stations in São Miguel Island We also recognize AV contribution which research is supported by Project PE0000005 - RETURN under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3 - Call for tender No 341 of 15 March 2022 of Italian Ministry of University and Research funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: A. Soares, YW5hbGR5bmUuc29hcmVzQGVkdS51bGlzYm9hLnB0 Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Visitors to the Azores – the gorgeous volcanic islands in the Atlantic, 870 miles (1400km) from mainland Portugal – can savor beaches of all types On some islands, you’ll find ocean pools the ocean waves have naturally carved into the coastal tuff Sometimes locals’ favorite swimming spots have a mix of both the often-blusterly Azores might feel a bit cold for swimming – but the climate just takes some getting used to Beach-going weather in the summer can last a whole month but you can expect that to be interspersed with showers that turn up humidity levels up to 90% The one thing that can dampen your beach plans for the day Finding a large patch of jellyfish in the ocean or washing over the sand: Portuguese man o’ wars are particularly dangerous and are being spotted more frequently every year you’re almost guaranteed to enjoy these top beaches in the Azores Praia dos Mosteiros gets busy on the weekends during peak season a bus stop within walking distance and free parking only steps from the stretch of sand make it the perfect spot for a full day on the sand and in the sun Local tip: Experienced surfers (waves break into the rocks here) will find this one of the best spots on the island to catch some waves One of the largest beaches in the Azores and one of the most popular swimming spots on Terceira Praia Grande lies right below Praia da Vitória’s seaside avenue in the historic center When the weather isn't favorable for lounging on the beach plenty of people set out exercising and on oceanside walks instead With fewer currents and warmer waters than elsewhere on the island expect this city beach to be more crowded in the summer Planning tip: If you have a stopover of at least four hours in Terceira grab a cab and head to Praia Grande for a quick dip  or a stroll past the street art murals – then return to the airport in time for your flight The city of Praia da Vitória is just 3 miles (5km) from Terceira airport The most popular natural swimming pool on São Jorge Poça Simão Dias is accessed via a short but rugged rock path Most come to photograph the clear turquoise waters that contrast with the black basalt coast and the vegetation-covered hills; if this is your plan before the crowds in search of swimming and sun-seeking arrive The pointy rocks around the pool have very few spots suitable for laying down a towel which makes Poça Simão Dias a better spot for quick dips and snorkeling when the sun starts peeking out from behind the cliff and warming up the water Protected by the Monte da Guia hill and an old defense wall and a short drive from the center of Horta Praia de Porto Pim is a favorite of families on Faial Its calm waters and proximity to cafes and restaurants make it a popular spot even outside the beach season Local tip: In 2019, Hurricane Lorenzo heavily damaged this small stretch of sand – yet the beach has been slowly returning to its former Blue Flag state this stretch of coarse black rock slopes gently into the ocean so you can ease into the water without feeling that sudden loss of ground beneath your feet And the water here is warmer than elsewhere in the archipelago the beach is within walking distance from the town center (roughly 2300ft/700m) and right at the end of the airport’s runway the noise of planes will hardly ruin the beach-going experience.) Protected from the ocean by a nature-made low wall of rocks the calm turquoise waters of the natural pools at Carapacho on Graciosa stay at a pleasant temperature practically all year long if the currents are too strong for a safe swim.) While this village in the southeast is more popular during the thermal season, typically from May to September, visitors head to Termas do Carapacho It is believed that the water in both the natural pools and the thermal baths has healing properties A native of the Azores, Sandra Henriques is the author of the Lonely Planet’s new Pocket Azores. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights Ann Abel is a Lisbon-based writer covering luxury travel with a soulFollow AuthorFeb 28 06:42pm EDTShareSaveComment@font-face{font-family: "Schnyder"; src: url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/schnyders/schnyders-bold-webfont.woff2") format("woff2") url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/schnyders/schnyders/schnyders-bold-webfont.woff") format("woff"); font-weight: 700; font-style: normal;} @font-face{font-family: "Merriweather"; src: url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bold-webfont.woff2") format("woff2") url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/merriweather/merriweather-bold-webfont.woff") format("woff"); font-weight: 700; font-style: normal;} @font-face{font-family: "Euclid"; src: url("https://i.forbesimg.com/assets/fonts/euclidcircularb/euclidcircularb-bold-webfont.woff2") format("woff2") 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rgba(51,51,51 0.8);} .bg-body{background-color: #333333;} #article-stream-0 .subhead3-embed.font-accent #article-stream-0 .subhead3-embed .font-accent{font-family: Euclid,"Noto Sans","Droid Sans","Helvetica Neue",Corbel,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;}Botania Hall home to primordial nature and tinged with Continental sophistication But what all that forgets is that tourism on the islands That history began 90 years ago with the opening of the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel in the center of the botanical park of the same name the Furnas region of the island was drawing foreign visitors to its volcanic hot springs and thermal baths in partnership with the other local entrepreneurs of the Terra Nostra Society Foundation Their goal was to harness the interest of the “international travel circuit for those seeking unique experiences.” They hired local architect Manuel António de Vasconcelos who designed the hotel in a style influenced by Art Deco Vintage 1930s tourism advertising—showing off the sleek Deco lines of the original building and promoting the natural wonders of “St Michael’s”—in the hotel corridors today proves the point There’s also an archive of some of the years that followed during which the hotel and its casino attracted glamorous tourists and the island’s elites and eventually added a new wing in the 1990s And now that much of São Miguel gets crowded in high season private corners are more appealing than ever That’s some of the thinking behind the decision to turn Botania Hall into a private villa in the center of the Parque Terra Nostra a somewhat Jurassic endeavor that dates from the 18th century The original mansion was built in the early 19th century by Thomas Hickling a Boston entrepreneur who came to the island for the orange trade and ended up the American vice-consul no one went to Furnas because people were afraid of the volcanic steam that rose from the ground both by the steam and by the flowers that grew in that fertile soil and he made his summer home in the house he called Yankee Hall—until he went bankrupt He sold the place to the Viscount of Praia added a second floor and greatly expanded the garden surrounding it purchasing ten more hectares and bringing the property to 12.5 hectares (31 acres) and turning parts of it into a romantic garden in the English fashion the garden design got more and more elaborate—plants grouped by their families rather than the usual geographies specimens that grow only in greenhouses elsewhere in Europe nearly 1,000 identified camellias—and more and more impressive Some trees are more than 160 feet high; garden front office manager Gonçalo Lopes says they may be the tallest in Europe kept the villa as something of a secret venue and requests had to be approved by the hotel’s deputy manager Even after a significant renovation in 2022 turned it into one of the island’s loveliest accommodations But now the villa is easy to rent—it has a website, for starters—either as a two-bedroom house with gracious living and dining areas or as individual suites with partial access to the common spaces by local interior designer Leonor Sousa Lima kept the historic feeling and original elements like blue-and-white tiles graceful arches and small-paned windows but modernized them with soft colors high ceilings and revamped bathrooms by the noted Portuguese designer Empatias There’s an option to staff it with a butler or guests can take the short walk to dine in the hotel’s very good restaurant drink in its bar with its excellent selection of craft cocktails made with aromatics and flowers from the garden or sample aquatic meditation and water sound journeys outside in the thermal baths Villa guests also have full access to the thermal pools and botanical gardens a major selling point for nature lovers who want some peace The garden sees about 300,000 visitors a year and while a new visitor center helps manage the tourist flow it can all get quite busy during the high season But the park closes to the public at 4:30pm and the emptiness that descends once the day-trippers go home is priceless It brings back that feeling of being on the vanguard of discovering a remote natural wonderland of glimpsing those unique experiences that Vasco Bensaude and company were aiming to share with the world nearly a century ago Metrics details Global warming significantly alters lake ecosystems worldwide the effects of warming at a regional scale are often overlooked due to the scarcity of multidecadal to centennial regional studies we examined diatom sedimentary records from five lakes on São Miguel Island (Azores archipelago) over the last 170 years Our analysis using hierarchical generalised additive models revealed an abrupt shift in the island-wide diatom community around 1982 CE when the Northern Hemisphere temperature exceeded 0.35 °C above the 20th-century mean This community regime shift resulted in a 27% loss in regional diatom diversity across the Island previous anthropogenic impacts may have enhanced lakes’ rapid response to warming These findings highlight the vulnerability of freshwater island ecosystems to climate warming and emphasise the importance of transitioning from local to regional assessments to preserve regional resilience and prevent irreversible damage to these essential freshwater resources and their biodiversity a Annual Northern Hemisphere surface temperature anomaly (NHSTA) averaged from 1982 to 2011 compared to the 1901–1981 average the black rectangle indicates the Azores archipelago b Location of the studied lakes in São Miguel Island understanding biodiversity dynamics before and after a regime shift is essential for predicting and managing the impacts and recovery of such shifts on ecosystems coupled with the scarcity of data from subtropical regions a Lakes responding coherently to climate warming at both local and island-wide scales; b lakes showing divergent lake-specific (local) responses yet aligning at the island scale; or c lakes diverging at the local scale without a shared response at the island scale Lake-scale responses indicate changes in diatom community turnover over time Lake-scale shifts (thicker coloured bands) indicate significant rates of change for each lake Island-scale responses represent the island-fitted trend of diatom community turnover for all lakes (the shared regional response) An increase or decrease in the y-axis is reflected in the “average” predicted value of community turnover at the island scale Island-scale shifts (thicker red band) indicate significant rates of change that are common in all lakes Values inside brackets after the lake name indicate the community turnover in DCA standard deviation units (SD) using only the data from the last 50 years the onset of the decline of Urosolenia eriensis (U eriensis) and the transient increase in benthic diatoms The abrupt transition after 1980 CE towards a planktonic dominance of diatom species in deep lakes leads to a regional-scale functional homogenisation of the island deep lake ecosystems a Results of losses/gains ratio between consecutive 30-year intervals across the entire record b Results of losses/gains ratio between consecutive 10-year intervals only for the recent period (1969–2010) Colours and labels indicate the time interval from the most recent of two consecutive periods where species losses and gains have been assessed (e.g. 1950–1980 indicates the species losses/gains occurred between the 1930–1950 and 1950–1980 periods) these factors may have significantly reduced the diversity of benthic diatoms at local and regional scales This may explain why our data did not show a clear island-scale diatom community response to previous fish introductions over the last two centuries fish introductions and local land use disturbances may cause rapid changes at the local lake-specific scale that could erode lake ecosystem resilience to warming lake-specific anthropogenic activities would not be the main driver that caused the island-scale shift in diatom communities after ca this regional coherent shift could be explained by the effects of warming on lake limnological conditions through its effects on lake stratification and mixing regimes our data did not show a significant diatom community response to changes in precipitation precipitation records did not show a recent significant trend with positive and negative extreme years after ca Precipitation events may impact lake limnology at the lake-specific scale (e.g. lake and catchment characteristics would determine their impact on the ecosystem capturing long-term island-scale coherent or lake-specific responses could be difficult using a dataset at the time resolution of our diatom sediment records potentially facilitating the island-scale regime shift driven by the temperature increase since 1982 CE Integrating knowledge of past responses from sediment lake records from different catchments especially those encompassing the spatial heterogeneity of the islands will play a key role in enhancing the accuracy of recovery scenarios under ongoing and future changes across multiple scales this advanced knowledge provides a unique quantitative evidence-based basis for restoration and conservation actions of freshwater ecosystems providing a determinant and crucial step in the design of a sustainable highly effective lake conservation and mitigation strategy applicable worldwide Taxa were grouped according to their habitat preferences and benthic (see Supplementary Methods for further details) We examined three scenarios: (a) lakes responding coherently to climate warming at both local and island-wide scales; (b) lakes showing divergent local responses yet aligning at the island scale; or (c) lakes diverging at the local scale without a unified response at the island scale (Fig. 2) We tested these predictions by modelling how diatom communities changed over time due to increasing temperatures and previous anthropogenic impacts DCA values) and expected abiotic external drivers of change (i.e. air temperature) to assess significant trends in species turnover over time at a regional scale We used an HGAM to model the expected value of community turnover (DCA) with (i) a global smooth to model any trends that are common to all lakes; (ii) individual lake-specific effects with their own smoothness penalties to allow each lake to have its own trend in time \({f}_{{lake}(i)}({tim}{e}_{i})\); and (iii) \({\gamma }_{{lake}(i)}\) a random intercept for each lake about the mean response We also model DCA axis 1 scores as a function of temperature replacing time in the previous Equation (see above) with the NHSAT anomalies or the Ponta Delgada instrumental air temperature anomalies (see below) To fit the model using temperature data for each sediment sample we first calculated the top and bottom ages for each sample to calculate the mean temperature anomaly for the time interval that integrates each sediment sample Temperature and precipitation annual anomalies were computed relative to the 1901–2000 average This approach was implemented because changes in evenness (SAD) and the species pool size across the last 200 years could be expected time intervals with higher species turnover (i.e. greater species replacement over time) are expected to have a larger species pool size than time intervals with lower species turnover Notice that we have only used four lakes because Lake Furnas was excluded from this first analysis using the 30-year time intervals The number of species gains and losses between consecutive time intervals at a regional scale was assessed using the R library “codyn” (version 2.0.5)88 We employed the same procedure and standardisation protocol to calculate regional dominance metrics obtaining the regional species matrix across the studied period and grouping the data set into 30-year time intervals for the full record and 10-year intervals for the most recent period (1969–2011 CE) Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article North Hemisphere Surface Air temperature was downloaded from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/global/time-series. Ponta Delgada air temperature and precipitation and the five diatom sediment records data set are available at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13853797 The code and data for the present analysis and figures are available at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13853797 Pörtner, H.-O. et al. Scientific Outcome of the IPBES-IPCC Co-Sponsored Workshop on Biodiversity and Climate Change https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.4659158 (2021) Climate-driven regime shifts in the biological communities of arctic lakes Critical Transitions in Nature and Society (Princeton University Press Abrupt change in ecological systems: inference and diagnosis Anthropogenic climate change has altered primary productivity in Lake Superior Biodiversity as insurance: from concept to measurement and application and variability of lake productivity at a global scale Regime shifts in shallow lake ecosystems along an urban-rural gradient in central China Ecological and evolutionary consequences of biotic homogenization Global change revealed by palaeolimnological records from remote lakes: a review Linking water quality and well-being for improved assessment and valuation of ecosystem services Lakes in the era of global change: moving beyond single-lake thinking in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services Warming winters in lakes: later ice onset promotes consumer overwintering and shapes springtime planktonic food webs Impacts of multiple stressors on freshwater biota across spatial scales and ecosystems Successful invasions to freshwater systems double with climate warming Nutrient enrichment modifies temperature-biodiversity relationships in large-scale field experiments Phenological shifts in lake stratification under climate change Synergistic effects of climate warming and atmospheric nutrient deposition on the alpine lake ecosystem in the south-eastern Tibetan Plateau during the Anthropocene Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on community assembly Leibold, M. A. & Chase, J. M. Metacommunity Ecology, Vol. 59 (Princeton University Press, 2017). https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1wf4d24 Long-Term Dynamics of Lakes in the Landscape: Long-Term Ecological Research on North Temperate Lakes (Oxford University Press Large‐scale climatic signatures in lakes across Europe: a meta‐analysis Biogeography and lake morphometry drive diatom and chironomid assemblages’ composition in lacustrine surface sediments of oceanic islands Impact of the historical introduction of exotic fishes on the chironomid community of Lake Azul (Azores Islands) Sete Cidades and Furnas lake eutrophication (São Miguel Azores): analysis of long-term monitoring data and remediation measures Mechanisms regulating CO2 and CH4 dynamics in the Azorean volcanic lakes (São Miguel Island Portugal): bio-geochemistry of volcanic lakes in the Azores Distribution of toxic cyanobacteria in volcanic lakes of the Azores islands Modes of climate variability: synthesis and review of proxy-based reconstructions through the Holocene Ecological thresholds and regime shifts: approaches to identification Early warning signals have limited applicability to empirical lake data Hierarchical generalized additive models in ecology: an introduction with mgcv Detecting thresholds of ecological change in the Anthropocene Diatom species variation between lake habitats: implications for interpretation of paleolimnological records Divergent trophic responses to biogeographic and environmental gradients The vanishing and the establishment of a new ecosystem on an oceanic island – Anthropogenic impacts with no return ticket Climate change facilitated the early colonization of the Azores Archipelago during medieval times Diatom-inferred ecological responses of an oceanic lake system to volcanism and anthropogenic perturbations since 1290CE Recent global warming induces the coupling of dissimilar long-term sedimentary signatures in two adjacent volcanic lakes (Azores Archipelago Extrinsic and intrinsic forcing of abrupt ecological change: case studies from the late Quaternary Balancing biodiversity in a changing environment: extinction debt Synthesis reveals approximately balanced biotic differentiation and homogenization Using invertebrate remains and pigments in the sediment to infer changes in trophic structure after fish introduction in Lake Fogo: a crater lake in the Azores Rapid ecological shift following piscivorous fish introduction to increasingly eutrophic and warmer Lake Furnas (Azores Archipelago Consequences of dominance: a review of evenness effects on local and regional ecosystem processes Biodiversity conservation through the lens of metacommunity ecology Reynolds, C. S. The Ecology of Phytoplankton (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542145 Phytoplankton response to a changing climate Lake Redo ecosystem response to an increasing warming in the Pyrenees during the twentieth century Climate change forces new ecological states in tropical Andean lakes Lake diatom responses to warming: reviewing the evidence Hypothesized resource relationships among African planktonic diatoms Worldwide alteration of lake mixing regimes in response to climate change Classifying mixing regimes in ponds and shallow lakes Impact of summer warming on the thermal characteristics of a polymictic lake and consequences for oxygen The thermal response of small and shallow lakes to climate change: new insights from 3D hindcast modelling The influences of the AMO and NAO on the sedimentary infill in an Azores Archipelago lake since ca Relationships between freshwater sedimentary diatoms and environmental variables in Subarctic Icelandic lakes Multi-trophic level responses to environmental stressors over the past ~150 years: insights from a lake-rich region of the world Sensitivity of lake thermal and mixing dynamics to climate change Stratification strength and light climate explain variation in chlorophyll a at the continental scale in a European multilake survey in a heatwave summer Implications of spatial heterogeneity for catastrophic regime shifts in ecosystems Hemispheric‐scale patterns of climate‐related shifts in planktonic diatoms from North American and European lakes Climate-induced changes in lake ecosystem structure inferred from coupled neo- and paleoecological approaches Impacts of global climate change on the floras of oceanic islands – projections Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet Groundwater governance in the Azores Archipelago (Portugal): valuing and protecting a strategic resource in small islands A procedure for preparing large sets of diatom slides from sediment cores in Listagem dos Organismos Terrestres e Marinhos dos A{c}cores (eds The human dimension of biodiversity changes on islands Wood, S. N. Generalized Additive Models: An Introduction with R (Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2017). https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315370279 Gratia: graceful ggplot-based graphics and other functions for GAMs fitted using mgcv Modelling palaeoecological time series using generalised additive models mgcv: mixed GAM computation vehicle with automatic smoothness estimation New Azores archipelago daily precipitation dataset and its links with large-scale modes of climate variability RClimDex-extraQC (EXTRAQC Quality Control Software) User Manual (Centre for Climate Change University Rivira i Virgili ERA-CLIM: historical surface and upper-air data for future reanalyses Embracing scale-dependence to achieve a deeper understanding of biodiversity and its change across communities Using coverage‐based rarefaction to infer non‐random species distributions Assessing microbial diversity using recent lake sediments and estimations of spatio-temporal diversity: spatio-temporal γ-diversity and sediments iNEXT: an R package for rarefaction and extrapolation of species diversity (Hill numbers) Coverage-based rarefaction and extrapolation: standardizing samples by completeness rather than size The relation between evenness and diversity codyn: An r package of community dynamics metrics Download references The European Research Council supported S.P.-R was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (DL57/2016/ICETA/EEC2018/25) and the DISCOVERAZORES research project (PTDC/CTA-AMB/28511/2017) which funded CIBIO/InBIO (projects UIDB/50027/2020 is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Ramón y Cajal Scheme (RYC2020-029253-I) This research was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects PaleoNAO “ESF Investing in your future” and “ERDF A way of making Europe” Sampling locations are publicly accessible and not subject to restricted regulations All procedures followed local and national guidelines MED – Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture Environment and Development & CHANGE Global Change and Sustainability Institute Institute for Advanced Studies and Research Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía (CICA) Integrative Freshwater Ecology (CEAB-CSIC) Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences conceptualised and developed the original idea and built the database analysed the data and prepared visualisations co-wrote the first draft of the manuscript contributed to the edition and revision of subsequent and submitted versions The authors declare no competing interests Communications Earth & Environment thanks John Smol reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01744-6 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly. Perhaps the second best thing you can do with cheese the surprisingly simple dish combines juicy heirloom tomatoes All of which can and should be topped with flaky sea salt and a sprinkle (read: giant heap) of parm if you’re planning to make the pie dough from scratch there’s only 20 minutes of actual prep; the rest is for chilling the dough and baking the galette) That’ll intensify the flavor of your tomatoes and prevent the dough from becoming soggy From French toast to fried rice, here’s how to make the most of your leftover hot dogs and buns Who needs the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre when you’ve got local grocery stores They’re apparently the hot new travel destination As anyone who has watched an episode of Succession knows, being rich has its perks — but also comes with specific burdens. In Long Island Compromise Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s highly anticipated second novel Carl Fletcher’s wealth is the reason he’s kidnapped and held for ransom But it’s also the reason he safely returns home to his wife and kids less than a week later The family seemingly moves on — until 40 years later when the Fletchers realize how much the kidnapping has shaped their lives Brodesser-Akner: Cottage cheese is the best cheese a show) for an hour each morning so that whatever happens in the day no one can tell me I didn’t do my favorite thing that day Brodesser-Akner: I’m sorry to say that someone just told me about the Rotten Tomatoes for aggregating book reviews. It’s called Book Marks “The Case Against Summer”...shout out to Vox for saying the quiet part out loud and relaxing hot springs — without Europe’s summer crowds Did we mention it’s just a four-hour flight from the East Coast a public bath turned design-focused hotel with cozy rooms (think: teal walls and brown leather accents) a traditional meat and vegetable stew that’s cooked underground by volcanic rock and heat were “formed from the tears of a shepherd and princess who shared a forbidden love.” Soak up the stunning scenery while on one of many hiking trails like the 7.5-mile loop along the caldera rim make sure to visit the Vista do Rei and Boca do Inferno viewpoints but always features expertly prepared local cuisine We asked you to vote on an etiquette question you’d like answered [saying something like]: ‘My private [life is] separate from my professional [life] and I would like to keep it this way.’ your colleagues or boss may want to see your social media content because you’re getting engaged or married [or you’re about to experience another big life event] ‘I’ll show you the photos after’ or you can email them You could also offer an alternative platform [to connect] like LinkedIn which is more appropriate for keeping a professional relationship assure them that you’re thankful they want to connect but you want to maintain personal boundaries.” Certified etiquette coach and founder of Manners with Kristina Mental health-related leaves of absence are up 300% since 2017 — and women accounted for 69% of those taken in 2023, according to one analysis. In a world where it can feel challenging to take control of your mental and physical health, we’ve got you covered. The Skimm Well newsletter gives you expert-backed advice and info to do just that. Sign up for the Daily Skimm email newsletter. Delivered to your inbox every morning and prepares you for your day in minutes. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Volume 11 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2023.1258767 The February 2018 seismic swarm in São Miguel A Corrigendum on The february 2018 seismic swarm in São Miguel, Azores by Soares A, Custódio S, Cesca S, Silva R, Vuan A and Mendes VB (2023). Front. Earth Sci. 11:1144151. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1144151 there was an error in the text of the Abstract The sentence in question previously stated: a new earthquake family emerged at shallower depths (∼8–12 km) reaching magnitudes up to ML 3.7” a new earthquake family emerged at shallower depths (∼8–12 km) reaching magnitudes up to ML 3.4” Additionally, there was an error in (Figure 1) as published. The colorbar legend of Figure 1B was ranged from 0.0 to 1.0 when it should have specified the types of focal mechanism: Reverse (RV) Strike-Slip (SS) and Normal (NM) ordered from bottom to top in the triple junction between the North American Earthquake locations are shown according to the ISC catalog from 1995 to 2021 (brown dots) The currently inactive East Azores Fracture Zone (EAFZ) is shown by a dotted line and the rectangle identifies the Azores archipelago region (B) Earthquake epicenters (brown dots) and focal mechanism indicating a dominantly transtensional regime from the Global CMT catalog (Ekström et al. from reverse (blue) through strike-slip (red) to normal (green) according to the Kaverina classification (Kaverina et al. as implemented in FMC (Álvarez-Gómez The corrected (Figure 1) and its caption “(A) Location of the Azores Archipelago Miguel Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was generated from a 1:5000 scale digital altimetric database from the Secretaria Regional do Turismo e Transportes of the Azores Government (2015): (SCV) Sete Cidades Volcano; (PFVS) Picos Fissural Volcanic System; (FGV) Fogo Volcano; (CFVS) Congro Fissural Volcanic System; (FNV) Furnas Volcano; (PV) Povoação Volcano; (NVS) Nordeste Volcanic System” The authors apologize for these errors and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way Keywords: spatio-temporal earthquake evolution Vuan A and Mendes VB (2023) Corrigendum: The february 2018 seismic swarm in São Miguel Received: 14 July 2023; Accepted: 07 August 2023;Published: 01 September 2023 *Correspondence: A. Soares, YW5hbGR5bmUuc29hcmVzQGNhbXB1cy51bC5wdA== On this week-long itinerary you'll hike swim and visit the historic whaling town of Sao Roque do Pico Sandra is an Azorean native who has researched and written the first Lonely Planet guide to the Azores Here she shares a one-week itinerary for first-timers to São Miguel I was born and raised on the Azores Islands and these are the questions people ask me the most: Is it always raining sometimes answering involves me printing out a map of the archipelago and asking lots of follow-up questions.  This one-week itinerary covers the three largest islands: São Miguel, Terceira, and Pico. I’m sure you’ll want to return to explore the other six. When to arrive: The best time to visit the Azores is between June and August The weather is warmer; it’s beach season; it’s the best time for whale watching; and you’ll find more cultural events and festivals.  How to get to/from the airports: Driving is the best option to travel between the airports and the islands’ main cities – public transit on the islands is hit-and-miss plus understanding each network is confusing and time-consuming.  What to pack: A light, waterproof jacket is your best friend in the Azores. Although it's not always raining, the weather can shift quickly throughout the day. In summer, pack swimwear – there's always a spot for an ocean dip somewhere Planning tip: To travel between islands, optimize your time by choosing the earliest flights possible and the ones with the least layovers. Research and book flights using the multi-city option on Azores Airlines Most international flights land in Aeroporto João Paulo II (PDL) on the largest island a great way to ease into the Azores experience – not too remote to feel isolated How to spend the day: Day one calls for a slow start and get accustomed to urban life by the ocean Shake any jet lag or long-flight drowsiness with a walk in the historic center Dinner: A Tasca is a great place for your first taste of traditional Azorean cuisine Morning: Hire a taxi or drive from Ponta Delgada to Sete Cidades (30km/ 18 miles) Most travelers head straight to Miradouro da Vista do Rei for the views over the blue and green lakes – although stopping here is a must after seeing São Miguel’s most famous landscape drive down the winding road that leads to the center of the quiet lakeside village Take a break: Head to Casa de Chá O Poejo for a light lunch ask to pack your meal and have an impromptu picnic by the lake.   Afternoon: One of the top beaches in São Miguel it's also a family's favorite in the summers Whether it's a good day for a swim or relaxing by the shore Dinner: Ponta Delgada’s artistic district O Quarteirão has some of the best restaurants in town, including the local institution Rotas da Ilha Verde one of the city’s first vegan and vegetarian restaurants In the evening: If you still have the energy wrap up your day with a cocktail at Résvés Street Bar How to spend the day: Start early and take the scenic road EN1-1A towards Furnas so I suggest a stop mid-way in Vila Franca do Campo to stretch your legs and see the islet from Miradouro Ilhéu da Vila.  Take in the view, but hit the road soon, so you reach Furnas around mid-morning. You’ll want to explore the walking paths of Parque Terra Nostra and soak in their pool of naturally heated water and visit the caldeiras (puddles of scalding water in the village center) before lunch. The shallow pools at Poça da Dona Beija are safer for non-swimmers whether you had the traditional cozido (meat-and-potatoes stew cooked underground in volcanic steam) or not stop by Padaria Glória Moniz for coffee and get a few bolos lêvedos (traditional Furnas sweet bread) for the road Dinner: Head to the fishing town Rabo de Peixe for an early dinner at Botequim Açoriano Planning tip: For cozido das Furnas, make reservations at least one week in advance. Restaurante Tony’s is one of the best spots in town to try this local dish Take a break: Grab a coffee or a glass of wine, and unwind at cozy, dog-friendly family-owned bookstore, cafe, and cultural venue Lar Doce Livro you'll likely stumble upon some event with local artists Dinner: You can’t leave Terceira without trying alcatra (stew in a clay pot) Boca Negra is one of the best places to have it How to spend the day: Drive from Angra do Heroísmo to Serra de Santa Bárbara Interpretation Center to learn about one of the volcanoes that formed Terceira Island Take in the views from Miradouro de Santa Bárbara and then head north to Biscoitos One of the busiest beach destinations in the summer this town is also known for its wine.  Dinner: Drive along the coast to Praia da Vitória to grab dinner at O Pescador a traditional seaside restaurant known for fish dishes In the evening: A post-dinner walk along the promenade by the beach before driving back to Angra is a great way to start saying goodbye to Terceira.  head to Porto da Areia Larga – the starting point of a hiking trail leading to the vineyards at Criação Velha.  Take a break: When walking back to Madalena, stop by Atlântico Tea and Wine House for petiscos (food to share) and local wine by the glass Dinner: Make reservations for one of the tasting menus paired with selected local wines served at Azores Wine Company – or choose one of the smaller menus with petiscos.  Dinner: Have a sushi dinner made with local products at the Japanese restaurant with a view Mar Sushi Terrace In the evening: A trip to Pico isn’t complete without a visit to Cella Bar. Order the Cella Wine Tasting to bid the Azores farewell. creating rugged mountains and high lakes like Lagoa do Fogo that lie in dormant craters Far out in the North Atlantic stretches a rain-swept chain of volcanic islands On a day shaped by washes of cloud and sun Inês Pereira Rodrigues of Lisbon leads the way up a steep trail part of a network of trekking routes that crisscross the island of Sao Miguel looks almost like a tropical forest," Rodrigues says There are head-high ferns and trees that look ancient People sometimes compare the forests of the Azores to scenes in the film Jurassic Park But temperatures in the North Atlantic tend to be temperate not tropical Sao Miguel is the biggest island in the Azores The trails are often challenging and rocky winding like calligraphy along mountain streams There are birds everywhere — flocking through the branches filling the forest with dizzying layers of song They lie more than 900 miles from the rest of Portugal and roughly 2,400 miles from the east coast of North America Sao Miguel was a layover port for ships from Portugal traveling to the Americas Sao Miguel's coastline is often rugged and stormy The Azores lie more than 900 miles from the Portuguese mainland and the islands feel remote Hiking trails often break out of the forest into wide meadows of emerald grass bordered with the blooming hydrangeas that grow wild in the Azores the island can feel more like Ireland or Vermont than the tropics black and white cows everywhere," Rodrigues says explaining that dairy farms are a symbol and a source of pride for these mountain villages the good Portuguese butter comes from the Azores." is criss-crossed with well-marked hiking and trekking trails that cross the forests There's a pattern to trekking on Sao Miguel Steep mountain pathways give way to hillside dairy farms that give way in turn to more tangled forests and rivers soaking downpours that blow in swiftly from the grey ocean and the challenging terrain and the lonely location of these islands Trekking in the Azores often means getting wet and gorgeous sunny days can suddenly turn into torrents of rain "It definitely feels like we're in the middle of the ocean," Rodrigues says "When we're at some high lookout point and you can see the water on both sides there's a roughness or wildness to the place." but as we turn back toward the village below Sun spills over the forest and the meadows and the distant stormy sea shaping lush forests and emerald green meadows Become an NPR sponsor Go to Home PageSubscribeAdvertiser disclosureSearch The Points Guy a "magical" little enclave tucked in central Mexico's Guanajuato state Despite the hilly terrain and narrow cobblestone streets San Miguel de Allende should be experienced on foot whenever possible You'll get lost exploring the lanes lined with shops restaurants and galleries housed in colorfully painted colonial-era buildings The towering spires of the stunning pink Church of San Miguel Arcangel sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of the Americas act as your compass and guide you where you want to be Previous slideNext slide1 of 2Church of San Miguel Arcangel ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY01And the flowers and foliage and flowers blooming just about everywhere from traditional recipes to spots serving the foods of Italy (There are expats from all over the world and they've brought the best of their culinary traditions to San Miguel We walked among locals going about their daily business and that's a nice change from heading to a Mexican beach resort where the only people you meet are other Americans Finally, this is a family-friendly destination with tons of green spaces and parks where local families and tourists come together to watch their kids play This destination has been on my radar ever since Hyatt opened Numu Boutique Hotel San Miguel de Allende I fell in love with the town on a short visit in September and will be back travelers can most easily get there by flying to one of two airports Queretaro Intercontinental Airport (QRO) is the closest (an 80-minute drive) arrive via Leon/Bajio International Airport aka Guanajuato International Airport (BJX) It's a slightly longer drive to San Miguel de Allende (one hour and 40 minutes) BajioGo offers shuttle service from both airports for about $30 per person each way Private sedan or SUV services are also available from a variety of transportation companies and start at around $100 one-way I booked a private sedan transfer with Transportes y Tours San Miguel Magico Numu Boutique Hotel San Miguel de Allende is a fantastic value It's a Category 6 hotel in the World of Hyatt program King rooms start at around $320 or 21,000 World of Hyatt points per night When booking, use one of the credit cards that earn the most points for Hyatt stays or one that offers automatic World of Hyatt elite status for value-added benefits ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUYThere are only 44 rooms at this hotel If you like to breeze through a buzzy lobby But what I loved was that Numu was intimate enough that the staff at the front desk and door had time to chat with us every time we entered or exited the building Getting to know them and hearing their recommendations for things to see and do was a highlight ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY012Numu's design was organic and inviting We felt at home immediately and it was easy to picture that this used to be the site of someone's home as a World of Hyatt Globalist elite member was upgraded one category to a 558-square-foot premium room A tray of macarons was waiting for us when we walked through the door for the first time To be honest, I was initially disappointed we weren't upgraded to one of the master suites, since there was availability for our dates. When I initially made the reservation, I tried to apply a suite upgrade award to confirm a suite upgrade I was told the hotel would do its best to upgrade us anyway I emailed the front desk to let them know how much we'd appreciate the suite but I've heard from many other Globalists whose experience was the same I'll just book it outright since upgrades don't seem to be as free-flowing at this hotel as at others in the Hyatt network rainfall showerhead and multiple sitting areas that were all very comfortable Our room only had a French balcony overlooking a side street It was nice to have the fresh air but I would have preferred a step-out balcony since the weather was fantastic during our stay Previous slideNext slide1 of 2Who needs a suite This premium room was plenty spacious with lots of seating ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY01The staff kept the room stocked with necessities such as Mighty Leaf tea and coffee pods and bottled water There is also a refillable container and a water station on each floor alcohol such as Jack Daniel's whiskey and Belvedere vodka (from $9) The large flat-screen TV on the wall across from the bed offered Google Chromecast to stream on If your travel party brings a lot of luggage there's plenty of room in the double closet which also houses two bathrobes and two sets of slippers for guest use Previous slideNext slide1 of 2The spacious desk also houses a coffee/tea station two bottles of water replenished daily and a refillable water bottle ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY01The king bed was extremely comfortable with nice fluffy pillows (many Hyatts love stocking rooms with those pancake-style pillows but I'm not a fan) There were USB outlets on both sides of the bed as well as two USB outlets on the top of the clock radio Previous slideNext slide1 of 2I also really liked the detail on the nightstand lamp ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY01The bathroom was quite large and had a marble vanity and a cool sink with a modern faucet and there was a separate toilet room with a frosted door I liked the glass ceiling that brought in sunshine and moonlight (no need for a night-light) Toiletries — including bar and liquid soap There was also a basket of amenities that travelers may need -- things like a dental kit Previous slideNext slide1 of 3Marble vanity. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY012Food and drinkNoia rooftop dining. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUYNumu is a boutique hotel, yet it offers two on-site restaurants and room service. Interestingly, both dining venues are outdoor. You'll find Enrique in the courtyard off the lobby, serving breakfast. It's also a good place to sit with drinks purchased at the lobby bar. The restaurant part of the courtyard has tables shaded by retractable awnings and umbrellas. Comfy seating areas are tucked further back in the courtyard. Previous slideNext slide1 of 2Plenty of seating under awnings. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY01It's a nice place to work in the morning if need be or enjoy a drink in the afternoon or evening. Previous slideNext slide1 of 4Fruit plate. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY0123The breakfast menu is small but there are some delicious options, such as: Smaller entrees, such as fruit bowls, acai bowls, oatmeal and breakfast sandwiches are also on the menu. Servers also came around with fresh pastries, and they were delicious As a World of Hyatt Globalist, my breakfast was complimentary. Even if you don't stay at Numu, lunch or dinner at the Mediterranean-themed Noia Sazon con Alma, the hotel's rooftop restaurant, is in order. The views are beautiful, the staff friendly and we enjoyed the menu when we ate there for dinner. Previous slideNext slide1 of 3Rooftop view. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY012Starters included things like fritto misto ($22), hummus ($12), baba ghanoush ($12), beef carpaccio ($21) and tuna tartare ($20). The soups and salads looked quite tasty, including the burrata and charbroiled vegetables ($18). The main courses included a catch of the day ($26), rigatoni with Bolognese ragu ($21), tagliatelle with fra diavolo sauce and poached lobster tail ($30), beef filet with sauteed spinach and cremini mushrooms ($35), veal chops and steaks, and some house classics such as guacamole, shrimp aguachile and gorditas. Previous slideNext slide1 of 3Fritto misto. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY012I ordered the baba ghanoush (so light and delicious) and the 24-hour marinated grilled chicken with endives and chimichurri sauce. I tried to replicate the recipe at home and it wasn't nearly as yummy. I would order that again if I had the chance. Previous slideNext slide1 of 2Grilled chicken. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY01BarsThe rooftop bar takes on a romantic tone as the sun sets. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUYYou can order a drink from one of two full bars. One is in the lobby. The other is at the rooftop restaurant, Noia, and it was open every time we passed by from the afternoon and well past dinner. While this hotel is intimate, it does offer a nice range of amenities. Our favorite amenity, by far, was the rooftop pool. It's a long, rectangular plunge pool, faced by a raised dais of very comfortable lounge chairs, with accompanying shade umbrellas and cocktail tables. One side of the pool has an infinity edge. It's a very relaxing spot, but be aware that the water gets so warm that it feels more like a hot tub than a pool. We liked it since the days had turned a bit cool, but it's something to keep in mind if you travel during hot weather. Previous slideNext slide1 of 6Rooftop pool. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY012345In addition to the pool, the rooftop has a few seating areas overlooking the town and within the outdoor bar/restaurant, just a few steps down from the pool. We were the only ones at the pool on both days we visited. Noia's bar staff took care of us while we were there. The fitness center is on the ground floor at the end of the hall, behind the lobby. It was incredibly clean and had a nice array of fitness gear. Previous slideNext slide1 of 3Free weights. ANDREA ROTONDO/THE POINTS GUY012SpaBy appointment only, the small spa offers treatments such as facials (from $135), deep pore cleansing ($135) and collagen repair ($168). Massages — relaxing, hot stone, Swedish, deep tissue and reflexology — are also offered as either 50- or 80-minute sessions ($114-$162). Often, smaller boutique hotels abroad don't offer accessible accommodations. I'm pleased that Numu does. Book the 516-square-foot accessible rooms with wide doors, two queen beds, roll-in shower, emergency strobe light and strobe-light smoke detector, lowered thermostat and light switches, and lowered door peephole and door latch. These rooms also have a lovely private garden terrace. However, as I mentioned above, there is no elevator access to the floor that features the pool and restaurant serving lunch and dinner. You must use the stairs. However, the rest of the hotel is accessible for anyone using a mobility assistive device, such as a wheelchair or walker. There is no step upon entering the hotel and hallways and doors are wide, allowing clear and easy access. We were sorry to have to head home so soon. Pancho, the lobby dog, gave us a play pose and head bump when he saw us with our bags on the morning of departure, and he walked us out to the car parked in front. So sweet. Next time we visit, we'll stay longer. While the Rosewood across the street also looks divine, Numu's staff and the gorgeous building, courtyard and rooftop pool won us over for future visits — not to mention the great value if booked using World of Hyatt points. The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach That’s why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality Copyright © 2025 The Points Guy, LLC. All rights reserved. A Red Ventures company. UPDATE (2:41 p.m.) - The fire is 100% contained, according to CAL FIRE SLO, and better mapping shows the fire burned nine acres.___ UPDATE (1:50 p.m.) - CAL FIRE SLO reports that the fire has burned 11 acres. Forward progress has been stopped. The fire is 65% contained.___ (1:06 p.m.) - A brush fire broke out Tuesday afternoon southeast of San Miguel. The fire was reported just before 12:40 p.m. on Rancho Lomas Way near Valle Mirada. Multiple fire engines and air resources responded. According to CAL FIRE SLO, the fire has burned seven acres. , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved This quaint city in Mexico is a charming place for a vacation, according to Travel + Leisure readers. 2024Miradouro da Vista Do Rei in the Azores.Photo: Getty ImagesSave this storySaveSave this storySaveAll products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links Spiky pineapples popping out of the ground, volcanic rock spilling into the azure ocean, and thermal pools steaming with heat. You may think I’m waxing poetic about Hawaii This string of nine volcanic outposts between Portugal and the United States is as lush an island paradise as you’ll find anywhere in Europe it’s been a longtime favorite for adventurous Europeans lacing up their hiking boots or road-tripping the island’s craggy corners—and now Dolphins in front of Mount Pico.Photo: Getty ImagesThe largest and most populous of its islands is São Miguel nicknamed the “Green Island” for its pastoral rolling hills dotted with dairy cows travelers can drive from west to east in an hour and a half The island’s startlingly wild volcanic landscapes and endless scenic viewpoints mean that it will actually take days and head for the hydrangea-lined roads of Portugal’s “Big Island” equivalent An outdoor pool at Octant Furnas.Photo: Courtesy of Octant FurnasThe majority of accommodation is located in the island’s capital city of Ponta Delgada budget-friendly hotels to small boutique hideaways But the allure of the Azores isn’t found along concrete sidewalks; the best places to stay in São Miguel are sprinkled around its green countryside and charming villages Located down the hill from the steaming and sputtering geothermal Caldeiras the smell of sulfur lingers in the air outside the vintage-inspired yet simple rooms But the best part of the hotel is the spacious spa featuring various pools filled with geothermal waters heated to different temperatures they’re overflowing with helpful Azores ideas for your trip The owner makes his own gin and encourages a gin-swap program with the hopes of having the largest collection in the world this year its traditional white exterior and terracotta roof house nine modern suites and two villas breezy interiors with pops of orange and waves so close that the sound of crashing against the cliffs will lull you to sleep Grab a drink from the bar and sit in their outdoor area made for watching surfers wait for a table inside for comforting croquettes and fresh seafood design-focused pizzeria serves the island’s best Neapolitan pies paired with a killer soundtrack If you’re in Furnas, a pit stop at Queijaria Furnense is practically a requirement This shop makes all their own cheese and cheese-flavored chocolates Order a variety board with a selection of their hand-made favorites don’t leave without tucking into their infamously addictive garlic bread volcano-made swimming hole has warm geothermal water cooled by the ocean waves Take water shoes as the rocks can be sharp A view of the lighthouse of Ponta da Ferraria.Photo: Getty ImagesThe Miradouro da Boca do Inferno graces the cover of every Azores advert The stunning lookout spot over the volcanic crater lakes on the island’s west side is worth braving the inevitable crowds Another fantastic volcanic crater lookout is in the middle of the island Lagoa do Fogo is a water reservoir with an emerald lake that may as well be cut from a scene in Jurassic Park Travelers can take the path down to the shores of the lake for a peaceful hike but just be prepared to climb the steep path back to the top head across the street into its rolling tea hills for a circular one-ish hour hike that reveals panoramic ocean views The Danish Home Lighting Trend That Can Improve Your Mental Health In America’s Cities, Saunas Are Becoming the Hottest Social Spot Millie Bobby Brown Shares Her Favorite Paella Recipe—and Details About Her Wedding to Jake Bongiovi A Day-by-Day Guide to Hiking the Legendary Nakasendo Trail in Japan Never miss a Vogue moment and get unlimited digital access for just $2 $1 per month March in San Miguel de Allende is a celebration of community spirit This vibrant month transforms the city into a dynamic stage where art and ancient traditions come together in a wide array of events Whether you’re drawn to the soulful notes of live concerts are willing to be mesmerized by indigenous dancers celebrate your renewal with the arrival of Spring or want to pitch in to help our furry friends Step into a world of color and creativity at Fabrica La Aurora’s Art Walk This fun-filled afternoon is when all the art galleries throw open their doors to showcase fresh exciting works by local and international artists chat and maybe even discover that perfect piece to brighten your home This cherished Art Walk is a lively celebration where beauty and community mingle in the most delightful way This is also a fantastic opportunity to meet people in town and make new friends Get ready to be inspired as you explore San Miguel de Allende’s monthly art extravaganza Delight your eyes and taste buds at the 7th Annual Food in Film Festival This event blends captivating films with tasty snacks and drinks The day kicks off at 11:00 with a screening of the documentary “Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table.” At 3:00 join Emblema for an insightful lecture on the history and craftsmanship of their tequila At 5:00 enjoy the classic “Babette’s Feast” (1987) a story that celebrates the transformative power of sharing a meal A post shared by Sotol Sónico (@sotol_sonico) Experience the electrifying sound of Sotol Sonico a groundbreaking jazz quintet formed by some of the most beloved musicians in San Miguel de Allende: Sergio Carrillo This dynamic ensemble presents their own creations original music created in the city that inspires many artists They blend popular and traditional styles with the freedom of improvisation creating vibrant rhythms and rich textures One of the most deeply-rooted traditions in San Miguel The Festival in Honor of the Lord of the Conquest brings together dance groups from San Miguel de Allende and across Mexico to pay homage to the sacred image preserved by the Parroquia of San Miguel Arcángel and mark the start of a prosperous planting season the Jardín comes alive as hundreds of dancers converge synchronized to the pulsating beats of drums and shells create an enchanting event in an ancient ritual of gratitude The energy grows throughout the day as more dancers continue to arrive and carry the celebration spirit well into the night Step back in time and immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Baroque music Experience the captivating violin of Hiram Herrera Godínez a member of the National Symphony Orchestra and the soulful cello of Guillermo Sánchez Romero one of Querétaro’s most acclaimed performers This is a unique opportunity to witness masterful interpretations of timeless compositions and experience the spirit of the Baroque era Grammy winner and Met Opera soloist Terry Barber will be delighting San Miguel’s music lovers Known for performing with everyone from the London Philharmonic to Madonna Terry will delight with this concert at a private home in Los Frailes Guests will be treated to delicious snacks all proceeds benefit the Pro Musica Academy of Music supporting the next generation of musical talent It’s a chance to enjoy great company The Equinox Community Festival celebrates the arrival of Spring as a season of rebirth and transformation natural space that invites creativity and collective learning this gathering offers a mystical opportunity to deepen your connection to yourself and others Embrace the flow with a soul-expanding yoga practice and lose yourself in the liberating rhythms of ecstatic dance The day reaches its peak in a sacred equinox ceremony followed by the soulful melodies of Moyenei Valdes This event also delights everyone with heart-opening cacao treats and fun activities for kids Seize the day by welcoming the cycles of life in a uniquely embodied way Cozy up for a heartwarming evening that celebrates the love and charm of our furry friends The event begins with a welcome cocktail and presentation followed by a captivating opera performance featuring Estefanía Silva and Gabriela Perales The Dogs Without Borders Foundation is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming street dogs in San Miguel de Allende and shelters in Austin Its mission is to ensure that every dog thrives in a nurturing and safe environment while also empowering communities through education and fundraising initiatives Your support will help build a future where every dog finds a forever home Sandra Gancz Kahan is a Mexican writer and translator based in San Miguel de Allende who specializes in mental health and humanitarian aid. She believes in the power of language to foster compassion and understanding across cultures. She can be reached at [email protected] ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC FALL RIVER — The Great Feast of the Holy Ghost of New England — arguably the largest event honoring the Azores’ religious and cultural traditions in the United States — will return to Kennedy Park in Fall River from Aug the celebration draws more than 100,000 visitors Here is what you need to know before you go: Closures and potential delays are expected to affect streets around Kennedy Park. For updates on parking and street closures during the feast week, visit the City of Fall River Facebook page or fallriverma.org Where can I park my car near the Holy Ghost feast?Residents living near Kennedy Park will get special permits from the Fall River Police Department allowing them to park nearby street parking in the immediate area of the Holy Ghost feast may be hard to find but spaces may be available a short walk away The festivities will kick off on Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 5 p.m. with the recitation of the rosary. It will be followed at 6 p.m. by the free distribution of the traditional Holy Ghost Soup which this year will be prepared by the Irmandade do Divino Espírito Santo do Pico (Brotherhood of the Divine Holy Ghost of Pico) of New Bedford Following the tradition of charity and solidarity a bowl of soup and sweet bread will be served to everyone The soup mainly consists of meat and broth poured on top of bread a special illumination ceremony will turn on thousands of bulbs lighting up the giant crown in Kennedy Park and other decorations on the feast grounds They will perform at Kennedy Park and march in the Bodo de Leite ethnographic parade and Crowning Procession Starting at 7 p.m., the musical acts are geared toward younger audiences, with performances by Nathan Pimentel; Sabrina; Xa Xa; Dimanne; Pedro Vieira; and Band Inc. Headliners Legacy band will perform from 10 to 11 p.m Other performers include Folias do Espírito Santo da Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Providence (8:30 p.m.); Jessica Amaro of Canada (9 p.m.) Portuguese-American singer Nelia and her band will headline on Saturday Other performers include: Filármonica Lira Nossa Senhora Estrela of Candelária Azores (7 p.m.); Nelson (8:45 p.m.); and Promix (9:05 p.m.) Headlining Sunday will be Portuguese-American singer Joey Medeiros of California from 8:30 p.m Other performers include Filarmónica Estrela do Oriente of Algarvia Azores (5:30 p.m.) and Jessica Amaro of Canada (7:15 p.m.) Does the Holy Ghost feast help the needy?On Friday, 366 pensões, or offerings of bread, meat, and other food items, will be blessed at 7 p.m. by Bishop Armando Esteves Dominges of the Angra do Heroísmo Diocese, Azores After he sprinkles the pensões with holy water they will be donated to 366 needy individuals and families epitomizing the celebration’s meaning of charity and gratitude — one for every day of the year The Filarmónica Lira Nossa Senhora Estrela of Candelária local and Azorean artisan vendors will sell regional products from the Azores On Saturday, Aug. 24, the crowd-favorite ethnographic parade of Bodo de Leite will make its way from the Gates of the City on Ponta Delgada Boulevard to Kennedy Park A colorful portrayal of Azorean folk life and culture folklore groups and hundreds of participants in traditional costumes recreating traditional Azorean village life The Filarmónica Estrela do Oriente of Algarvia several folkloric groups will take part in a Folklore Festival Performing will be the Cranston Portuguese Club Folklore Group and the Despensa de Mar e Terra Vila de Rabo de Peixe USA What food will be available at the Holy Ghost feast?There will be an abundance of Portuguese food and desserts during the feast as well as American favorites like hamburgers When do the Holy Ghost feast Mass and Crowning Procession start?On Sunday, Aug. 25, the Mass and Crowning Ceremony will take place at Santo Christo Church on Columbia Street at noon, concelebrated by Bishop Armando Esteves Domingues of Angra do Heroísmo pastor of Espírito Santo Church of Fall River Featuring several philharmonic bands and numerous brotherhoods from all over the region the procession will start at Columbia Street and head to South Main Street toward Kennedy Park When does the Great Feast of the Holy Ghost end?The feast will come to a close on Monday Tickets are $55. For more information or to reserve tickets, call 603-557-0311 or email info@grandesfestas.org For more information about the Great Feast of the Holy Ghost of New England, visit their website at grandesfestas.com. San Miguel’s Fiesta will offer two days of good food, music, and games this year as well as a chance to win $500 and $1,000. Although there are no official records on the earliest days of the San Miguel Fiestas, the best estimate is that it has been an annual event in Socorro for more than 100 years. The fiesta commemorates the feast of St. Michael the Archangel and is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, September 28 and 29. San Miguel, founded in 1615, is one of the oldest churches in the state and – if you count the founding mission – one of the oldest churches in the nation, with a unique place in American history. Socorro, in fact, was one of the first Spanish settlements in what is today the United States. While the Fiesta’s attendance has had its ups and downs over the years, this year the committee plans to host the ever-popular Bingo games on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, along with the Silent Auction and the wide array of entertainment. There will be a variety of food available including hamburgers, Frito pies, hot dogs, roasted corn and funnel cakes that are beyond delicious, and much, much more. Sunday’s food delights include barbeque and Navajo tacos. Almost all the food and drink have been donated by parishioners, which helps keep costs down. This year’s event features a variety of music from some of New Mexico artists. Also performing this year will be the young dancers from the Rising Stars Dance Studio in Socorro. Fiesta attendees will be able to play Bingo after Mass on Saturday night until 9:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Festivities begin Saturday at noon with the opening food booths games, silent auction and the White Elephant booth. A variety of entertainment also will start at noon with local DJ music as well as other local talent and entertainment. At 5 p.m. the Fiesta will be paused for the Fiesta Mass at San Miguel Church followed by the crowning of the King and Queen Reyes and Rose Mary Rosas and Prince and Princess Paul Chavez-Lopez and Mary Elizabeth (Emmy) Riley respectively. Booths will reopen after Mass at 6:30 p.m. with Bingo and other entertainment, including Mesa Blue (formerly Suavecito) and The Murillos. The drawing for $500 will take place at 9 p.m. On Sunday, the local celebration begins with the Fiesta Mass at 10 a.m. followed by a BBQ, fun booths, games and entertainment begins. Sunday’s entertainment also includes the ever-popular Los Amigos Nuevo Mexico mariachis band performing from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. Bingo will start at 12:30 p.m. The grand prize drawing of $1,000 will take place at 4 p.m. and will conclude the Fiesta. Wanda is the publisher of El Defensor Chieftain and Vice-President of Number 9 Media. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account. Despite being the largest in the archipelago measuring just 748,82 km².137,699 inhabitants live here The sea is a constant presence All the islands of the archipelago are frequently hit by storms will tend to become more frequent and stronger perhaps more dangerous: the sea level rise According to the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change, global mean sea level “will rise between 0.43 m (0.29–0.59 m, likely range; RCP2.6) and 0.84 m (0.61–1.10 m, likely range; RCP8.5) by 2100 (medium confidence) relative to 1986–2005”. Source: Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low-Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities (pdf) Islands and coastal communities will be particularly affected by this phenomenon: “(i) the permanent submergence of land by higher mean sea levels or mean high tides; (ii) more frequent or ghintense coastal flooding; (iii) enhanced coastal erosion; (iv) loss and change of coastal ecosystems; (v) salinisation of soils ground and surface water; and (vi) impeded drainage.” will the small islands be able to offer conditions for survival Or will its inhabitants be doomed to become climate refugees and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Our mission is to help and support photographers and writers Advertise their products.Our goal is to improve their visibility Don't have an account? Octant Ponta Delgada is a gastronomic paradise on São Miguel Island. Rui Soares/Courtesy of Octant Hotels Ponta Delgada From left: Courtesy of Octant Hotels Ponta Delgada; Hugo Moreira/Courtesy of Octant Hotels Ponta Delgada From left: Courtesy of Octant Furnas; Susmita Baral/Travel + Leisure The page you requested could not be found There could be an error in the URL you entered into your browser why not take a look at some of the other great sections on the Express website: If it’s still a mystery don’t hesitate to contact us here order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive Daily Express uses notifications to keep you updated This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page We look at some of the best hikes and treks across the stunning nine islands of the Azores and editor of the Much Better Adventures Magazine 2022 Travel Media Awards Finalist: 'Young Travel Writer of the Year' 'Sustainability Feature of the Year' More posts by Stuart Kenny Hiking in the Azores means walking amongst volcanic foothills ancient forests and along dramatic coastline This is the European Union's most remote frontier - and while the hiking trails here are well-mapped isolated in the Atlantic Ocean between Lisbon and New York The islands are an autonomous region of Portugal and they boast everything from deep craters to lush the Azores does not have such an extensive history of tourism But with that comes a tranquillity that matches the secluded location The islands here were only settled in the 15th century and each has developed at a different pace since They have differing geography and vegetation people riding horses and pony-drawn carts are no rare sight The nine islands themselves are Corvo and Flores to the west; Faial São Jorge and Terceira in the centre; and São Miguel and Santa Maria in the east São Miguel is the largest and most populous island and it's also home to the archipelago's largest city Ponta Delgada and the range of scenery makes them perfect for hopping and hiking What’s more, each island has waymarked, well-developed hiking routes and fantastic online resources promoting those routes When selecting this list of the best hikes in the Azores our primary aim was to capture the variation of flora that exists across the nine islands Here are the 10 routes which we've selected as the best hikes in the Azores: Of course, this guide is designed to inspire, but not to help you navigate on the trails themselves. Make sure you get more detailed route information for any hike you do decide to take on before setting off on the route - and go prepared trails can open and close with the seasons Do double check the trail you're heading out to walk is open and safe before you go Here you can see the distribution of the 10 hikes we've selected as the best in the Azores They are sprinkled around the different islands Pico da Vara is the highest point on São Miguel It’s also the centrepiece of the protected Nature Reserve of Pico da Vara; an area put in place to protect the native laurisilva forest and which is home to critically endangered animals including the endemic Azores bullfinch The reserve has a whole host of rich botanical landscapes and this hike will give you beautiful views of a lot of it The elevation is around 480m (1,574ft) in total This trail is one that was historically used for coal and livestock From the top of the island you’ll be able to look back over the valley of Povoação the majestic crater of Furnas Volcano and the volcanic massifs of Fogo and Sete Cidades that view is just as remarkable as it sounds To climb this trail, you have to first register with the Environment Services of São Miguel This is a quick process and you should have the permission quickly This is an otherworldly trail on Corvo - an extinct volcanic island which is the smallest of the Azores islands The hike will bring you out to the stunning collapsed crater of Caldeirão and see you descend 150m (492ft) to the edge of the watery pools below Local legend has it that from the starting viewpoint the crater lake is a visual representation of the nine islands of the Azores and then walk down to hike past the wetlands and lakes the level of the water can shift massively there are few other places in the world where you see and hike terrain like this Those after a serious hike can combine this circular with the 10.3km Cara do Indio another trail which links into the crater walk We should also note that Corvo isn’t exactly the easiest island to get to but there are flights and boats from nearby Flores A beauty of a through-hike with remarkable coastal views will take you 4.7 miles (7.6km) and about three hours from Povoação to Ribeira Quente passing by Lomba do Cavaleiro on the island of São Miguel You'll start off on the beach of Povoaçãom heading over the centennial bridge and soon head down a dirt track to the creek of Agrião The viewpoint at Ponta do Garajau provides fantastic views of Santa Maria and the Chapel of Santa Rita Grab a drink and toast your hike in quaint little village of Ribeira Quente This is on the opposite side of the island to the Pico da Vara hike (from point one) so it’ll be all new coastlines for you even if you've been to the peak so it’s one of the best hikes in the Azores for those looking for a family trail but without sacrificing much in terms of views we’d highly recommend heading to the Ribeira Quente waterfall a popular crater lake just 20 minutes away It's also a site of hot springs and geysers The circular trail around the Lagoa das Furnas starts near Largo das Três Bicas and the lake and forest views really are beautiful São Jorge is a narrow island with incredibly dramatic scenery and this circular route on the north coast shows you the best of it - beaches Starting on the outskirts of the Parish Council of Norte Pequeno you’ll head into the village and then onto the sea where you’re in amongst the lush vegetation You’ll pass the Chapel of Santa Filomena and get postcard-perfect coastal views out to both Fajã das Pontas and Fajã do Mero falling all the way down to near sea level (a descent of around 450m/1,476ft) and then climbing back up to altitude That means the terrain and the views both keep changing Update: This trail is currently temporarily closed and unavailable to hikers. See the Visit Azores alert page for the latest information on trail status Pico is one of the Central Group islands of the Azores which is dominated by, and shares a name with, its central peak - Mount Pico. It's 2,351m (7,713ft) high, making it the highest peak in all Portuguese territory. Hiking in the Azores doesn’t get much more hardcore than this - but the effort is worth it to reach the roof of Portugal all climbers will check-in with Casa da Montanha where you will be given a GPS tracker to hold on to This is great as it means you’re tracked and kept safe but it’s certainly not a bad idea to also get a local guide to ensure you don't get lost in the first place There are 47 numbered poles - but trail markings won't help you find shelter (the weather can turn quickly) and they won't provide you with on-trail tales either You'll trek over volcanic rocks and bright moss and climb steeply uphill to the crater of Pico you need to hike up the even steeper Piquinho you can look out to Faial and São Jorge and beyond particularly if you get the bad luck of the rain and clouds coming in Some of the best hikes in the Azores are pretty darn difficult The 22.8 miles (36.8km) coast to coast hike across Faial is nothing short of remarkable There's a reason the locals say that the trail takes you back to the very formation of the island you’ll follow one of the transversal fault lines of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge this fault line dates back to the last great continental separation; a defining moment not just for Faial or the Azores at the breathtaking Caldeirão of Faial; the crater of a dormant volcano which stretches 2,000m (6,561ft) in diameter and down 400m (1,312ft) in depth It happens bluntly and the contrast in landscape is stark All the greenery around you will disappear altogether as you enter the moon desert of Capelinhos Volcano on the western side of the island This gives the hike a fell of moving between worlds If the 36km of the Faial coast to coast hike seemed a bit much We simply had to include this island-spanning beauty on our list of the best hikes in the Azores on the island of Santa Maria - and this hike takes us round the entire island with accommodation options dotted around the island (and wild camping unfortunately forbidden) Section one runs from the Fortress of São Brás and Vila do Porto to the rural area of Cardal Highlights include an ancient ascent passage connecting the Chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios to the village of Santo Espírito Stage two is from Cardal to Norte on the east coast of the island following the old regional road towards Ponta do Castelo and the viewpoint of Tia Raulinha natural pools of Maia and enjoy beautiful views over the Bay of São Lourenço you'll move inland and pass the Cai’Água waterfall You'll later reach Pico Alto - a spot with an abundance of endemic flora The final stages close the loop and bring you back to Vila do Porto via 23.5km on the west coast through Raposa Bay You'll get amazing views of Ponta do Pinheiro and Cré bay find a statue of Cristóvão Colombo in the village of Ponta dos Frades and eventually follow a dirt road back to your starting point is split into two days and will take you anti-clockwise around roughly two-thirds of the island of Flores - sticking near to the coast for most of the journey Day one takes you from Santa Cruz to Ponta Delgada over the course of eight hours past flowing streams and then moving along the northeast coast nesting seabirds and a lot of coves and islets a rural civil parish with accomodation and campsites and the second day then runs 16.2 miles (26km) a small township separated from the centre of the island by a 300m fossil cliff Poço da Alagoinha is particularly notable - a fall which plummets down a crack in an otherwise perfectly green cliff face and fills up an idyllic lagoon at the bottom was one of the first settlements on the island - camouflaged amongst the rocky outcrops of the terrain and protected from North Atlantic pirates by ridgelines Graciosa is the second smallest island of the Azores you'll also find those characteristics which characterise so much of these islands - volcanic landscapes beautiful greenery and sublime coastal views The Subdia ao Cume (PRC05 GRA) trail is one of the tougher day hikes on the island taking you on a circular from the civil parish of Luz to the summit of Pico Timão (405m/1,328ft) which is the highest point on Graciosa Island the route largely takes place in the Caldeira da Graciosa forests You'll climb up to the ridge of the Caldeira which is a depression of volcanic origin on top of the smallest stratovolcano in the Azores taking in the highest point on the island and looking into the caldera not doubling back but taking in a lot of the same cedar forests taking you from the interior of Terceira right to the coast You'll start on a dirt track in Malha Grande and walk through an area rife with endemic vegetation (white flowers You'll pass farming roads and come to the Rocha do Chambre viewpoint where you can see teh caldera of the Pico Alto volcano and you'll reach the trail high point of 704m The descent will take you towards the Vale do Azinhal (a valley) and then through a lava tube called Gruta dos Balcões the result of the last terrestrial erupton on the island You'll walk through forest paths and rocky outcrops sculpted by lava and then woodland roads and orchards will take you down to the bay of Baía das Pombas where you'll find some beautiful natural pools The pools were formed by ancient volcanic eruptions with solidified lava which has then been eroded by the sea They were adapted to turn them into swimming pools back in 1969 The summer months in the Azores run from April to early October This is the ideal time to go for whale watching The inter-island ferry service should also be running at its fullest during this period and the temperatures are lovely - around 14°C to 25°C The hedgerows will be out in June and July and the native species of the Azores also thrive in this time period (as well as in the wider May-September months) You are unlikely to escape the rain altogether when you're hiking in the Azores so things are a bit busier at this time of year we should highlight that the Azores is really a year-round hiking destination things don't get too chilly (12°C-18°C) and in March and April when spring is bringing the flora back out and the wildlife is emerging Autumn runs from October almost into December here The Azores sit in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and so it will be no surprise that most of the interest wildlife is either aerial or marine there are dolphins of all sorts - bottlenose Cuvier's beaked whales and false killer whales hammerhead sharks and flying fish all swim through these waters - as are white marlin you have an extensive range of incredibly varied accomodation This ranges from lavish resorts and boutique hotels to simpler family-run businesses and a range of rural options meaning private houses which are part of a farm Other styles of rural accomodation include Turismo de Habitação; usually a large manor house or similar with some sort of architectural or artistic interest which siply means accomodation in the typical regional style of architecture Lapas dos Açores (limpets) are the most popular form of shellfish served They're similar to clams or mussels but are a little chewier They're best when eaten as soon as possible after harvesting Fried chicharros (Atlantic hose mackerel) are often served tapas-style You'll also see a lot of different variations of seafood stew as you move around the islands Bolos Lêvedos is a type of bread which is best dipped in garlic butter The best ones are baked in a Furnas - a volcanic spring town on São Miguel Eat the cheese from São Jorge island when you get a chance It's a little squishy and is usually matured for a good while By plane: Most visitors heading to the Azores fly into Ponta Delgada on São Miguel or Lajes on Terceira.  Sata Azores Airlines is the main airline of the Azores and runs internal flights between the islands. See their flight map of the Azores By boat: The ferry service is more affordable than flying, but takes a lot longer and is limited. The benefits are that you're in a very nice part of the world - so you can look out for sea birds, whales and more as you travel. Popular ferries include the short, 35-minute journey between Pico and Faial and the four-hour journey between São Miguel and Santa Maria. See Atlanticoline for more By bus: Buses serve the islands of the major towns in larger islands but these buses are neither frequent nor reliable Inspired? Check out our range of adventure holidays in Portugal, and other hiking and trekking adventures in good places with good people The 38 Best Restaurants in Rome, Italy The 18 Best Louisville Restaurants The 38 Best Restaurants in Mexico City Beef marrow tacos at a Thai Mexican hotel restaurant pastries filled with orange and cactus fruit at a creative bakery vegan enchiladas from a specialist in local organic produce San Miguel de Allende (SMA) is considered one of the great colonial-era jewels of Latin America nestled among the central mountains of the state of Guanajuato has been a must-visit destination since the 1960s when artists and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Stirling Dickinson fell for the creative spirit of the place The main attractions are the stunning beauty of the architecture and the general bohemian vibes you’ll find throughout the local art galleries and boutique hotels Outdoor enthusiasts and eco-tourists find plenty to love here too And while Michelin declined to recommend any restaurants when its first guide to SMA landed this year the food scene is nevertheless impressive for a relatively small city thanks to the bounty of surrounding ranches as well as a flourishing community of foreign expats with diverse tastes the main focus is on rooftops and small restaurants within boutique hotels and Huitzil join the list thanks to their attentive hospitality and simple well-executed menus anchored in local flavors and ingredients satisfies locals’ demand for quality pastries while La Cabra Iluminada offers enticing vegan fare have taken cocktails to new levels of quality Natalia de la Rosa is a food writer and taco- and mezcal-lover based in Mexico City. She is a podcast host at The Latest Food Chef Eduardo Palazuelos’s Mexican Thai cooking is on display at Zibu located inside the Live Aqua San Miguel hotel Palazuelos became well known in his hometown of Acapulco for his ability to effortlessly combine the flavors of two seemingly disparate culinary traditions House specialties include golden noodle shrimp served with a creamy turmeric sauce and beef marrow tacos with ajillo-marinated octopus The cocktail menu is considered the most memorable in the city A post shared by Mex-Tai®️Fusion (@zibuallende) Gorditas Doña Consuelo has delighted locals with nixtamalized corn huaraches The secret behind the longevity and local preference is the cooking technique: Instead of a comal the corn dough is carefully laid on charcoal embers The result is quite delicious since each bite carries a charred character and the gorditas arrive quite hot and tender at the center The best-seller is the chicharron gordita topped with cactus prepared with cacao and sweetened with sugar cane A post shared by Gerardo Rivera (@gerardoriverachef) In a minimalist space with a lush patio in the back La Cabra Iluminada is one of the best places in town for specialty coffee and plant-based food quietly and masterfully showcasing SMA’s organic local bounty Don’t miss the nixtamalized corn basket with milpa veggies and poblano sauce or the green enchiladas stuffed with pea cheese Chef Daniel Durán is behind Mexican specialties like slow-cooked tongue tacos Ocre’s drinks are dangerously tasty with options like a Mandarin Sour or Clover Club but blossoms into a bona fide scene at night A post shared by Ocre (@ocrecocinadefuego) Internationally acclaimed Bekeb sits on the rooftop terrace of the boutique hotel Casa Hoyos The bar offers a centrally located post to soak up San Miguel de Allende’s stunning sunsets while sipping craft cocktails inspired by Mexico’s unique traditional beverages and ingredients a Jalisco-native mixologist and former bartender at Cosme uses a unique floral and herbal flavor palette that only comes with the understanding of fresh and locally sourced pulque and other agave spirits like sotol In addition to house classics like a Lavender Sour visitors can currently sample concoctions from the “Mexico Ancestral” menu where each drink revolves around a specific ingredient like corn or garambullo — an acidic berry native to Guanajuato and specializes in modern cuisine with a Mediterranean touch The terrace is an ideal place for a hearty Mexican breakfast of enmoladas made with black mole sauce the beer-braised short ribs with carrots and Brussels sprouts are your best bet The freshest news from the food world every day This is the place to experience San Miguel’s local ingredients at their peak Áperi’s internationally celebrated tasting menu is exclusively sourced from area farmers and utilizes seafood from the northern regions of Mexico while the dishes themselves lean Mexican with a few French flourishes The intimate chef’s table experience at Áperi is another level — just be sure to book far in advance You are here for one thing: to drink mezcal Located just a few blocks from the main square this charming bar offers a short but very sweet mezcal list sourced from across Mexico The selection covers all of the most popular varieties so it is a great place to cover your ABCs on Mexico’s most beloved spirit there are mezcal margaritas in flavors like ginger and mint A small selection of Oaxacan-style dishes brings it all together The main draw of Hortus is its location — it sits right on the main square of Jardín Allende The restaurant took over a corner space inside an 18th-century mansion where diners can now enjoy a Mexican Mediterranean blend of flavors while overlooking the buoyant pedestrian plaza just a few steps away from San Miguel de Allende’s central neo-Gothic parish Hortus takes a casual approach to its Italian influences while sprinkling Mexican flair here and there and the menu follows a seasonal compass with a foundation of local ingredients Look out for options like fresh ricotta cheese dip with squash blossoms Choose the main salon for a sit-down lunch or dinner the small bar for an afternoon cocktail or a glass of Mexican wine or the pastry window for a morning cup of coffee and a sweet bite on the go Located in a historic ochre-and-blue storefront Lavanda Café is a small specialty coffee shop known for its signature drinks infused with lavender flowers a multitude of drip and espresso methods (Chemex made with single-origin beans that highlight the best of Mexico’s coffee-growing regions Cushion your stomach before all the caffeine with a classic breakfast like eggs Benedict or a BLT sandwich located inside the El Recinto boutique hotel fits the bill for an intimate yet casual dinner — the experience is approachable and the food filling The restaurant uses local ingredients and blends international and Mexican flavors in dishes like crispy chicken with peanut sauce and roasted carrots or crab cakes with creamy garlic sauce opt for a local riff like the Mexican mule or the flavored mezcalitas A post shared by Huitzil Restaurante Bar (@huitzilrestaurante) Chef Pablo Gil’s quest to reconnect diners with nourishing and locally grown ingredients makes Bennu one of the best casual places to eat in San Miguel de Allende The focus — pizza and veggies — might seem generic but Gil’s culinary work shines through the minutiae of ingredient sourcing and execution blends organic Mexican flour with Italian-sourced grains and rests for over 24 hours of fermentation Vegetables are elegantly plated to bring forth the best flavors like pibil cauliflower with pickled red onion or corn with pumpkin seed butter A post shared by Bennu (@bennu.mx) Tunki is a collaboration between Belmold’s Casa de Sierra Nevada hotel in SMA and Mexico City’s lauded Handshake Speakeasy friendly service and a short but sweet list of original drinks that will carry you through San Miguel’s sunsets The tapas menu is fresh and heavy on Peruvian-inspired seafood options like the Amazonian ceviche (catch of the day and leche de tigre) and the patarashca fish marinated with ají Book in advance to choose between the lounge A post shared by Casa de Sierra Nevada (@belmondcasadesierranevada) The century-old cantina El Manantial is one of San Miguel de Allende’s most historic treasures The bar is on the small side but works just fine to kick off a night out in the city with classic cocktails or sippers of tequila and mezcal El Manantial is a regular hang for the local artist community so be prepared to mingle with creative spirits Mestiza is a cozy little Mexican restaurant located on Aldama Street one of San Miguel de Allende’s most photographed cobblestone streets you walk through a boutique store that leads to Mestiza’s patio In a town saturated with overpriced lunch options this place stands out with solid food and friendly hospitality The menu focuses on comal-style Oaxacan cooking and all-time Mexican favorites like green pipian mole A post shared by Mestiza (@mestiza.sma) The breathtaking skyline of San Miguel de Allende is a composition of the Bajío plateau and mountain landscape the majestic Baroque towers of San Miguel’s cathedral drink in the view (along with some libations) at Luna Rooftop Bar It’s located inside the Rosewood Hotel overlooking the city’s beautiful architecture it’s also a great place for visitors to spend the afternoon with tapas and a round (or several) of the bar’s famous margaritas Panina has earned its status as the best bakery in town blocks away from the tourist enclave of SMA’s Zona Centro double-dipping as a baking workshop and cafe where visitors can find sourdough pastries and a friendly outdoor place to sit down and dive into the local vibe who is at the forefront of the women-led project can often be found geeking out over baking with whoever wants to listen Add Panina to your itinerary for breakfast and enjoy the avocado toast with bacon and poached egg or the ham and cheese focaccia sandwich for an off-the-beaten-path Mexican-style breakfast Chef Vanessa Romero offers a menu rooted in homey flavors and recipes like molotes (deep-fried corn quesadillas) a unique creation of corn dough stuffed with crispy chicharron A post shared by RAÍCES SMA (@raices_sma) CORAL GABLES, Fla., Nov. 5, 2024 /CNW/ - Sucro Limited (TSXV: SUGR) (OTCQB: SUGRF) ("Sucro" or the "Company") an integrated sugar refiner focused primarily on serving North American sugar markets one of the largest sugar refiners in Mexico by volume and sales has acquired subordinate voting shares from the Company's controlling shareholder representing 15.93% of the voting and equity shares of the Company which prior to the transaction owned approximately 67.5% of the voting and equity shares of the Company Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company BSM has granted the Company certain first offer first refusal and matching rights for the purchase of raw and refined sugar exported by BSM from Mexico Sucro has appointed a nominee of BSM to its board of directors and granted BSM certain board nomination and pre-emptive rights under an investor rights agreement Jonathan Taylor and SC Americas have also entered into a "hard" lock-up and support agreement with BSM under which they have agreed to tender a certain number of Sucro shares to BSM if BSM makes a formal takeover bid for all subordinate voting shares of the Company within certain defined periods in 2027 or 2028 or to vote in favor of an equivalent alternative transaction "This strategic relationship with BSM brings together two innovative companies with a shared vision for growth and North American expansion The transaction not only underscores BSM's confidence in our business but also strengthens our ability to serve the North American sugar market."  Mr Taylor also added "While this transaction marks a critical time in Sucro's growth and development it also provides important potential upside value if Sucro continues to execute on its current operating plan Sucro management continues to own in excess of 60% of the voting and equity shares of the Company and we are extremely motivated and focused on delivering value for all shareholders." added "This partnership with Sucro presents a solid strategic rationale for BSM We recognize the potential to create value for both companies by leveraging solid complementary strengths and expertise that exist between us We are enthusiastic about the opportunity presented by Sucro's business plan which targets high-growth segments such as the Canadian market and the U.S This alliance enhances BSM's position as a more prominent player in the international market further strengthening our geographic diversification." Under a securities purchase agreement (the "Securities Purchase Agreement") BSM acquired 3,750,000 subordinate voting shares from SC Americas on November 5 representing 15.93% of the voting and equity shares of Sucro SC Americas converted 37,500 proportionate voting shares into 3,750,000 subordinate voting shares in accordance with the terms of the proportionate voting shares SC Americas continues to own 121,441.02 proportionate voting shares representing approximately 51.6% of the voting and equity shares of Sucro Under a sugar supply agreement (the "Sugar Supply Agreement") BSM has granted to Sucro certain first offer first refusal and matching rights on all of BSM's raw sugar export quota and up to 75% of BSM's refined sugar export quota to the United States assigned by the Mexican Secretary of the Economy (subject to compliance with the current suspension agreement entered into by Mexican sugar producers/exporters with the U.S  BSM has also granted to Sucro first offer first refusal and matching rights on all raw and refined sugar BSM may export outside of the United States and Mexico (after serving the Mexican domestic market) Under a lock-up and support agreement (the "Lock-up and Support Agreement") Jonathan Taylor and SC Americas have agreed to tender sufficient shares to BSM to allow it to complete a formal takeover bid pursuant to which it would acquire as reported in Sucro's audited financial statements for the year ending December 31 if the takeover bid is commenced within the specified period in 2027 or the Canadian dollar equivalent of eight-times diluted comprehensive income from continuing operations per share if the takeover bid is commenced within the specified period in 2028 in either case subject to a minimum bid price calculated as the Canadian dollar equivalent of eight- times average diluted comprehensive income from continuing operations per share as reported in Sucro's audited financial statements (subject to permitted adjustments) for the three most recently completed financial years Jonathan Taylor and SC Americas have also agreed to vote in favor of an equivalent alternative transaction and any ancillary matters and to vote against any acquisition proposal or other action or proposal made in opposition to or competition with or which interferes with or prevents the consummation of the potential BSM takeover bid or alternative transaction The Lock-up and Support Agreement does not contain any right to withdraw in the event that a superior offer is made for the shares of the Company The making of any takeover bid or alternative transaction is in the sole discretion of BSM and there can be no assurance that any takeover bid will be made or an alternative transaction will occur Sucro has also entered into an investor rights agreement (the "Investor Rights Agreement") with BSM under which BSM is entitled to nominate for election to the board of directors of Sucro a percentage of directors that is not less than the percentage of the voting and equity interest owned by BSM and its affiliates in the capital of Sucro and BSM has also been granted pre-emptive and top-up rights to maintain its voting and equity interest in the Company The Investor Rights Agreement also contains customary standstill restrictions on BSM and a covenant of BSM that any shares it may acquire under a formal takeover bid pursuant to the Lock-up and Support Agreement will be excluded for purposes of determining whether "minority approval" of a second-step transaction (that would be completed not more than 120 days after the expiry of the takeover bid) has been obtained under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions In connection with the transaction with BSM to the Company's board of directors as an additional sixth director Patrik Palafox has been the Chief Strategy Officer of BSM since 2018 and the Chairman of the board of directors of BSM since 2024 strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions having led transactions valued at over US$1.5 billion He holds an MBA from the IESE Business School Special Committee Review and Board Approval a committee of independent directors of Sucro (the "Special Committee") was formed consisting of Andrew Ferrier (Chair) who after reviewing and considering such information and matters determined to be necessary and relevant and with the advice of independent legal counsel unanimously determined that the transactions to which Sucro is a party are in the best interest of the Company and unanimously recommended approval thereof by the full board The entering into by Sucro of the Sugar Supply Agreement and the Investor Rights Agreement has been approved unanimously by the board of directors of the Company (with Jonathan Taylor abstaining from voting) following the recommendation of the Special Committee BSM acquired 3,750,000 subordinate voting shares (the "Acquired Shares") from SC Americas at a price of C$9.00 per share for total consideration of C$33,750,000 The transaction was completed by private agreement and did not occur on any stock exchange or other securities market None of the parties to the Securities Purchase Agreement are and none of the Acquired Shares were acquired from or were offered to be acquired from parties located in any province or territory of Canada The value of the consideration paid for the Acquired Shares was not greater than 115% of the market price of the Acquired Shares as determined in accordance with Section 1.11 of National Instrument 62-104 – Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids BSM did not beneficially own or exercise control over any shares of the Company BSM beneficially owns 3,750,000 subordinate voting shares representing 15.93% of the voting and equity shares of Sucro (and approximately 35.5% of the subordinate voting shares without considering the proportionate voting shares which are convertible into subordinate voting shares) BSM has advised the Company that BSM has acquired the Acquired Shares for investment purposes BSM will evaluate its investment in Sucro on an ongoing basis and may increase or decrease its holdings in Sucro including pursuant to a formal takeover bid in accordance with the Lock-up and Support Agreement and otherwise engage with the Company in the future subject to contractual restrictions set out in the Investor Rights Agreement market conditions and other relevant factors. The address of BSM is Paseo de la Reforma No SC Americas directly beneficially owned 158,941.02 proportionate voting shares representing approximately 67.5% of the voting and equity shares of Sucro (and approximately 95.1% of the proportionate voting shares). Upon completion of the transaction SC Americas directly beneficially owns 121,441.02 proportionate voting shares representing approximately 51.6% of the voting and equity shares of Sucro (and approximately 93.6% of the proportionate voting shares) SC Americas has advised the Company that its remaining shares are held for investment purposes and it may increase or decrease its holdings in Sucro in the future including pursuant to a formal takeover bid made by BSM in accordance with the Lock-up and Support Agreement subject to contractual restrictions (including those set out in the Lock-up and Support Agreement) market conditions and other relevant factors The address of SC Americas is 2990 Ponce de Leon Blvd is a Mexican leading fully integrated sugar group operating 11 mills with an annual production of over 1 million tons of sugar offering a range of high-quality sugar products and flexible services including year-round availability and swift delivery Strategically located near major Mexican ports the company efficiently manages both national and international distribution BSM is also known for its high sense of social responsibility actively contributing to the communities in which it operates Actual results could differ materially from those projected herein The Company does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking information except as expressly required under applicable securities laws Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release Do not sell or share my personal information: Ann Abel is a Lisbon-based writer covering luxury travel with a soulFollow AuthorJun 14 11:30am EDTShareSaveCommentThis article is more than 3 years old.Sete Cidades there’s an understanding that the harder a place is to reach If we press on for one more flight (or drive or ferry) But it turns out that São Miguel is very much a destination in its own right not just a layover on the way to someplace less traveled And while it’s true that there were some cruise ships and package tours before the pandemic They are not people who book a flight to some place they can’t pronounce just because there’s a promotion is a head-scratcher.) They are not people whose idea of an island vacation is lying on a sandy beach in the sun They aren’t people who are afraid to get muddy or wet (This is one of those places where tour guides and hoteliers like to trot out that cliché about four seasons in one day.)  they are people who appreciate nature at its most jurassic technicolor and surreal (and people who own hiking boots and rain pants) The blues and greens of the lagoons and mountainsides are almost electrically charged—so vivid they practically make your eyes hurt Seagulls build their nests in the lush vegetation especially around the island’s other famous crater lake Candy-colored hydrangeas line the winding roads as a practical matter (their strong roots defend against erosion) everything lights up hot pink with azaleas Paulo Medeiros leads canyoning excursions around the islands starting with the beginner-friendly half-day at Ribeira dos Caldeirões (“hot springs stream”) a relatively easy downstream trail with some rock slides and and small jumps but a good way to warm up is the second half of one of their adventure days an e-bike ride across the undeveloped northeast corner of the island Common dolphins off the coast of São Miguel but they do have excellent taste and connections in the world of small Portuguese hotels where people used to go in hopes of being cured of a variety of ailments (You can still taste 22 kinds of medicinal thermal water just outside the property—ask experience manager Nuno Fevereiro for a tour.) But the best things to eat aren’t in restaurants. An initiative from a Portuguese food communications agency, the Art of Tasting Portugal introduces visitors to top chefs throughout the country What started as a client showcase has turned into something more soulful On São Miguel, their ambassador is Cláudio Pontes, the former executive chef at the Azor Hotel and now the proprietor of his own project Pontes takes guests on a heritage food tour around the island with stops at the organic farm and social project Kairos which supplies vegetables to many of the top restaurants; the geothermal cooking pits near Furnas where traditional meat stew (or in my case cake-like bread) is slow-cooked for hours underground; the tea plantation Gorreana; and then a stop in the fishing village of Porto Formoso There, Pontes picks up some fish that is practically still breathing, and gets to work. Guests can opt for a guided walk along the clifftops or a cruise around the bay on a working fishing boat with the local outfitter HáMar (There’s also the option of organizing the day differently and going out at sunrise to catch fish with the local fishermen.)  overlooking the bay and the beautiful church Pontes and his team cook everything outside and the procession of dishes that come out is impressive: fish stews It’s wise not to plan any afternoon activity that day and all the more reason not to skip São Miguel João Couto pours wines for a lunch organized by the Art of Tasting Portugal Getting there: SATA Azores Airlines has frequent service from Lisbon and Porto to São Miguel (about two hours) and regular service from Boston PortugalChevron Vera MarmeloSave this storySaveSave this storySaveThis is part of Global Sounds a collection of stories spotlighting the music trends forging connections in 2024 In the first episode of Turn of the Tide a 2023 Netflix series set two decades prior in the Azorean working-class neighborhood of Rabo de Peixe a young man peruses DVDs in a video rental store “The new releases haven’t changed in weeks.” “When does anything new happen in this godforsaken place?” a mere 244,000 people (and steadily shrinking) But sometimes isolation is the best crucible for creativity Today a homegrown music scene is simultaneously exploring new worlds and rescuing ancient traditions for all the hardship that Azoreans have suffered is one of the many cutting-edge artists who have traveled to the Azores to perform at Tremor music festival Tremor's biggest headliner is the destination—unique locations like hot springs are used for performances throughout the festival that tie the festival's sounds to the Azores' unique landscapes Tremor—a Portuguese word for “earthquake”—reflects not only the islands’ seismic instability but also the desire to shake São Miguel back to life working alongside a few collaborators: the imprint’s founders and actor who grew up on São Miguel but fled the island at the age of 15 “If the community doesn’t have the money to come to the festival let’s bring the festival to the community,” Kitas recalls thinking “We realized that Tremor could be a solution to a lot of things.” Tremor is an experience for both attendees and artists. Tremor Todo-o-Terreno is a project that invites visiting artists to create soundtracks to local hiking trails Brussels-based drummer Landr0se takes the stage at Tremor. “I just wanted to get cool new bands in the Azores, the kind of bands you’d hear in Berlin," festival founder Luis Banrezes Kitas says The name Kitas came up with, Tremor—a Portuguese word for “earthquake”—reflects not only the islands’ seismic instability but also the organizers’ desire to shake São Miguel back to life. “It was really innocent in the beginning,” Kitas admits. “I just wanted to get cool new bands in the Azores, the kind of bands you’d hear in Berlin.” “The headliner of Tremor is always the island." the honor went to the Portuguese city of Évora though Ponta Delgada will be the Portuguese Capital of Culture in 2026.) “It’s not just a concert with a nice backdrop more like a total immersive experience,” Lopes says of Tremor’s programming Some of the most distinctive events take place in nature—next to waterfalls or on the shores of those breathtaking lakes Som Sim Zero is a 30-person percussion group and the result of an ongoing collaboration between the Ondamarela collective and the Deaf Association of São Miguel because when an artist we’ve invited arrives on the island and visits the trail for the first time ‘This doesn’t need any music,’” says Márcio Laranjeira ‘What am I going to add to this amazing sound?’” “The headliner of Tremor is always the island,” Kitas adds Tremor organizers are cognizant of the role they play in pushing back at the threat of overtourism “We don’t want to be a festival just for foreigners,” Durães says “It’s important to have the local audience connected with what we’re doing.” (Attendance is roughly 40 percent locals.) Tremor has tapped some of the Azores’ deeply entrenched philharmonic groups—marching bands and percussion ensembles that typically play religious celebrations and civic events—to participate in unconventional performances collaborated with mainland experimental musicians Henrique Apolinário and João Pais Filipe on a Terra Incógnita soundtrack to Lagoa das Furnas a group of ornately costumed farmers and fishermen who play castanets in colorful street processions The Azores are an archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic shaped by volcanos and marked by verdant landscapes a Lisbon trio with a sound that is equal parts punk and psychedelic “The image that has been created around the place is highly unfair,” Lopes says of the hard-luck community captured in the Netflix series there's a feeling that islanders are long looked down upon by mainlanders paired with poverty and social exclusion from the rest of Portugal can lead to a sense of low self-esteem as a community “It brings a sense of pride to these people and tells them We’re not only poor and miserable and stigmatized; we have value that can be shared and celebrated.’” To unite local amateur musicians with the festival’s cosmopolitan demographic “is really about that tremor—the shivering but also the possibilities of intersecting different worlds “You really feel you’re in a safe space of wild nature while the rest of the world deals with their foolish warmongering." Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore knows that shivering feeling intimately He first traveled to the Azores for an artistic residency and was so inspired that he wrote a poem called “Rabo de Peixe.” “You really feel you’re in a safe space of wild nature while the rest of the world deals with their foolish warmongering,” he said calling the islands “a remarkable place to contemplate our responsibilities in allowing the planet to heal.” tapping into the same fusion of sound and landscape that fuels Terra Incógnita despite the archipelago’s cultural renaissance “gigging is difficult and resources are scarce.” but the performance got him noticed by Turn of the Tide’s producers an iconic Portuguese American rapper who grew up in Massachusetts’s Azorean expat community and became a folk hero in the islands a guitar-like instrument central to Azorean tradition the twin hearts carved into the body of the instrument represent the islands’ history of emigration: One heart is for those who ventured off in search of a better life; the other for those who stayed behind.) The album features a mix of traditional songs and originals but all of them are based in the folklore of the islands drawn from Bairos’s conversations with islanders of his grandparents’ generation “Most people don’t know Azorean folk music,” he says “One of my goals is giving it a twist and making it cool again.” With his rough-and-tumble image Rafael Carvalho a musician and educator who is the viola da terra’s most prominent ambassador “There’s a phrase we use in Portugal: If the tradition doesn’t evolve it will die.” His own albums are focused on folk repertoire and originals that explore the possibilities of the instrument but he has also performed in hybrid acoustic-electronic duos and contemporary-music ensembles “But we can’t forget our roots,” he stresses I’m representing everyone that has come before me.” makes literary indie rock in the vein of The National In Bairos’s case, that not only means carrying on the folk music of his grandparents. He also recorded an acoustic version of Sandro G’s early-2000s anthem “Eu Não Vou Chorar” (“I Don’t Want to Cry”); in the video images of Bairos cradling the viola da terra are crosscut with scenes filmed in Rabo de Peixe featuring actual residents of the neighborhood Part of what makes Sandro G such a compelling figure for Azoreans is his dual identity—something that Bairos understands well to which her own parents emigrated from the islands it was hard to understand who I was,” he says he picked up the viola da terra and found his voice “It turns out it was right under my feet.” up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse We understand that time is the greatest luxury which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world Already a member? Log in Not a member? Sign up Explore our Food Tours → Those pastry shops that seem to command just about every corner in Lisbon They’re an important institution in the city as well as an utterly delicious way to start the day the range of pastries sold in Lisbon is limited and many of those sweets are produced on an industrial or semi-industrial level Leonor Oliveira and Pedro Nunes wanted to create a pastry shop that went in the opposite direction “We call it ‘National Gastronomic Archeology,’” says Pedro describing the impetus behind Casa São Miguel the pastry shop and café he runs with his wife the tiny cafe is something of a living museum of Portuguese pastries it has a distinctly Art Nouveau feel via a mint green paint job Yet the centerpiece of Casa São Miguel is undoubtedly its glass case filled with around 30 different pastries and sweets regional pastries are forgotten in the capital,” Pedro tells me as we scan the case which holds an almost jewel box-like variety of tiny tarts paper-wrapped mysteries and even a few savory pastries from across the country The sweet that takes up the most real estate is Yet compared to the commonly found semi-industrial versions made using the couple’s own recipe which also includes a relatively hearty pastry crust “A lot of people go straight for the pastel de nata but we try to steer them to other things,” Pedro tells us We ask him to point out some of the more obscure options and he directs us to a small an important ingredient in traditional sweets in the Algarve in Portugal’s south; a square tart from Caldas da Rainha filled with a sweetened chickpea mixture – “We’re the only ones in Lisbon who have these,” he says – a pastry named for Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro one of Portugal’s greatest artists; and a palm-sized the name translated as “Economical Biscuit,” formerly made by shepherds in Portugal’s far north so we have them on rotation,” Pedro explains a visit to Casa São Miguel can be a different experience “We think there is no other shop in Portugal that has this selection of pastries from north to south,” Leonor adds Leonor worked corporate jobs for more than 30 years which took her to just about every corner of Portugal exposing her to the country’s vast scope of sweets she does research in books and she also takes advantage of Lisbon’s regional associations spaces where people meet to cook and share recipes from their ancestral homelands as many of the pastries are made by small producers in remote corners of the country some arrive at the shop via a bus ride in a box “on someone’s knee.” “I’m not so interested in conventual sweets which are mostly egg yolks and sugar,” she tells us of what are arguably Portugal’s most famous sweets explaining that the expansion of convents led to these ingredients having become commonplace across the country “I want to feature sweets that highlight the indigenous ingredients from each region.” the menu at Casa São Miguel is organized by region Leonor was in the process of updating that document is more of an informal encyclopedia of regional Portuguese pastries She also has plans to write a book about the topic Customers can pair their selection with coffee tea or a vast selection of Portuguese tisanes all of which are served in antique china – another of Leonor’s interests The couple have also commissioned their own line of jams and a few other sweet-leaning food items are available for sale as well We ask Leonor if traditional Portuguese pastry making is a disappearing art and she replies “I think it’s the opposite.” She tells us that she feels that local governments have done a good job creating and promoting local gastronomy; in particular This has led to new recipes being invented all the time and Leonor and Pedro are happy to stock those as well; that baked homage to Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Yet these subtle differences in region and era might be lost on Casa São Miguel’s customers “I hope that this project draws more Portuguese people,” says Leonor A location in the heart of Alfama means lots of foreign tourist foot traffic and it doesn’t hurt that the shop is utterly Instagramable the couple generally label the sweets in English by main ingredient or place rather than by name and is happy to walk customers through the options – no matter where they’re from loading map - please wait...Map could not be loaded - please enable Javascript!→ more information You’ve jetted through the sprawling Istanbul International Airport and fallen in love with historic yet innovative cities like Copenhagen Read on to start planning your next round of travels—these are the best cities in the world View the Readers’ Choice Award winners for the best cities in the United States here. This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date there’s something for everyone to love among these small international cities Wander the limestone streets and walk along the ancient city walls or take a short ferry ride to the island of Lokrum and climb to the top of an abandoned 11th-century monastery for stunning panoramic views MexicoPuerto Vallarta is often associated with cruise ships and bars hosting rowdy groups of spring breakers—but there’s so much more to this Pacific coast town than its immediate associations Though Old Town certainly has its charms (think winding cobblestone streets lined with bougainvillea) it’s once you venture a bit off the touristed path that you’ll really discover the treasures of this city reservations-only lunch spot built into a rocky cove and serving up grilled lobster Or head to Yelapa Beach—another only-accessible-by-boat gem—to fill up on fish tacos and spend the afternoon lounging in a hammock on the beach and designers are bringing a new spirit to its old-world appeal That blend of the modern and traditional is deliciously personified at Casa de Chá da Boa Nova where sea urchin crème brûlée is served with floor-to-ceiling ocean views in a building designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Álvaro Siza Vieira a Condé Nast Traveler Hot List winner that stuns with art nouveau architecture and lake views from every single room Florence’s center for contemporary culture save room for a panino al lampredotto—this stewed tripe sandwich is a Florence must with grand rooms featuring hand-carved furnishings and 360-degree views of the skyline from the rooftop tapas bar book the chef’s table at Aperi for one of the best dining experiences in the city and you’ll find no shortage of options in central Parte Vieja head to Playa de la Concha to lounge on the beach or take in surfer culture in Gros A favorite vacation spot of Queen Maria Cristina in the late 1800s San Sebastián has retained much of its splendor which you’ll find in the breathtaking views from the top of Monte Igueldo Some are classic travel spots that many have visited multiple times while others are slightly less-touristed—but all equally deserve your attention we dare say there’s never been a better time to visit the Danish capital there’s no way you’ll be able to fit everything in one visit—but you’ll already be dreaming about your next trip before your departure plane leaves the tarmac There’s something wonderful about visiting a city where you can be in the heart of a metropolis eating a five-star meal one day and enjoying the skyline from the seat of a kayak the next day There’s perhaps no better place in the world for lovers of classical music—the city nurtured the talents of Haydn after all—and visitors can find a constant string of performances at the Vienna State Opera and the Musikverein all year long make time to get a figurative taste of royalty at Schönbrunn a chocolate cake that is one of the city’s culinary specialties Just be sure to ask for it mit schlaag (with cream) where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in prison (You can also get a taste of the capital’s entire arts and culture calendar during Vivid Sydney typically held between May and June.) Whatever the season get spectacular 360-degree views of the city from Sydney Tower Eye’s glass viewing platform The twin blue and green lakes of Sete Cidades from the Vista do Rei viewpoint São Miguel is the largest island of the Azores archipelago and wears its elder status proudly with an enviable landscape of forest-wrapped volcanic peaks azure lakes and improbably perfect calderas Its charming capital Ponta Delgada oozes history from every balconied mansion but the true reason to visit São Miguel is the call of the verdant terrain that gives it the nickname ‘Ilha Verde’ (Green Island) and its dramatic coastline battered by the wild Atlantic Ocean The twin blue and green lakes that fill the base of the Sete Cidades caldera in the west of São Miguel are so beautiful that it’s no surprise their formation is explained by legend: they are apparently the tears of star-crossed lovers a green-eyed princess and a blue-eyed shepherd The true explanation for the startling colour difference is more prosaic: the depth of the larger lake (Azul) means it reflects the sky shallower Verde mirrors the greenery of its surroundings It’s possible to hike around the lakes themselves or do the 12km loop around the caldera rim The finest lookout is the Vista do Rei (King’s View) and from here you can hike down to the village of Sete Cidades next to the lakes It’s an easy 8km jaunt that takes a couple of hours who runs full or half-day trips with a very high likelihood of sightings a forested garden with thousands of camellias that bloom vividly between December and March A trail takes you along the peaceful lake shore past the Capela da Nossa Senhora Das Vitórias a lovely neo-Gothic church built in the late 19th century; then through a forest past a century-old sequoia to the pretty Salto do Rosal waterfall at the end of the route a meat and vegetable stew cooked beneath the simmering ground along the lake shore For a more contemporary bathing experience try the Poça da Dona Beija a complex of five pool areas all supplied with the soothing waters of a thermal spring It’s well worth spending a day in São Miguel’s comely capital Ponta Delgada full of handsome white buildings with basalt details and intricate balconies Start in the main square at the Igreja Matriz de São Sebastião It's built in a curious mixture of styles: originally 16th-century late Gothic with a Portuguese Manueline facade and baroque features added in the 18th century Next to the church are the trio of 18th-century arches that form the Portas da Cidade (City Gates) originally located at the quayside then moved to their current spot during construction of the Avenida Infante Dom Henrique along the waterfront Another town highlight is São Miguel’s largest fortress which once protected the island from attacks by pirates and privateers These days it houses the Military Museum of the Azores there’s an ocean swimming pool and several bars to stop at for a relaxing drink Grab lunch at Alcides, an atmospheric steakhouse where delectable steaks are washed down with Azorean red wine. And while in town, don’t miss cheese emporium O Rei Dos Queijos (King of Cheeses) The Azores produce over 50% of Portugal’s cheese and this place sells cheese from all over the archipelago Tom travelled to São Miguel with support from TAP, Azores Adventure Islands, Pedras do Mar Resort & SPA, Picos de Aventura and Terra Nostra Garden Hotel. Lonely Planet contributors do not accept freebies in exchange for positive coverage.