We started our day with a drive to Faial da Terra on the eastern end of the island where we did a 4 kilometer hike to the Salto do Prego waterfall. The trail brochure described it as easy and hard. Only after completing the 2 hour round trip do I fully appreciate the meaning and accuracy of that description. Having developed quite an appetite, we made a beeline for Furnas where we had lunch reservations at the Terra Nostra Garden Hotel. Knowing we would be ordering the Codiza, a traditional dish cooked underground in volcanic steam vents, we stopped en route at the caldera where our lunch was being cooked to watch as men removed pots containing the ingredients for our meal from the ground.

After lunch we strolled through Terra Nostra Park, a 200 year old botanical garden that is among the best I have ever experienced. Pictures do not do justice to the beauty, design and magnitude of these gardens, only a fraction of which we could enjoy during our three hour visit.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the park is a massive mineral water thermal pool where we treated our hiking weary muscles to the soothing 95F waters. The unusual color of the water is due to the high iron content which is believed to be of some curative value. True or not, I did not care as I positioned my shoulders and back under one of the the 2 foot high main spigots which feed the pool (think hot shower with 100s of gallons of water per minute pounding down on your back). It was the best massage I have ever experienced in my life and reason enough to return to the Azores again.