Must-Do List: Hot Springs

Hot springs were one of only two items on our Must Do list for our week in Sao Miguel (the other was the Gorreana tea garden).

There are several around the island, and we committed to soaking in as many as possible. Or that we were moved to. We ended up visiting three. With most of the springs you reserve a 90 minute time slot online and pay a modest fee. Changing rooms and showers vary wildly in quality (if they exist at all).

Poça da Dona Beija in Furnas was our favorite. Changing rooms were lovely. There were lockers for your dry clothes, and the natural setting was amazing, despite being located in the town of Furnas. There are multiple soaking pools of varying temperatures and depths. All are man-made structures with the thermal waters diverted into them. We chose one that was goldilocks perfect and just soaked there the whole time. A cool rain was falling on the lush ferns around us. The crowd was thin. Fantastic.

The second spring was Caldeira Veha in the center of the island. A slightly more naturalistic setting with similar man-made pools, the pools were a bit shallower, more crowded, and the changing rooms were very rustic. While not our favorite, it was worth it to sweat away in the sulfur scented waters feeling cool rain on our faces, under positively jurassic looking tree-sized ferns.

Perhaps the most unique is Ponta da Ferraria, an ocean hot “spring” on the eastern end of the island. Rocks heated by the volcano heat the salt water in a tiny cove on the barren, rugged sea coast. It’s free, and recommended that you only visit when the seas are calm, which was not the case when we visited. The air was damp and chilly, and rough seas churned like a washing machine set for delicates.

It was still an amazing, almost religious experience. Dipping into cold, 50 degree ocean, you swim over to the hot rocks, which warm the salt water till you’ve lost the chill and start to sweat. The ocean becomes even more alive. Not just salty, breathing and restless, but warmed by the deep pulse of molten rocks. Soaking in the ocean, warmed by a volcano was truly a life changing experience.