Azores archipelago, Terceira, beautiful volcanic islands in Atlantic Ocean. by Marjolein Zijlstra

The Azores is a Portuguese island archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and Europe's furthest point towards the Americas. The different islands all have their own character and peculiarities. What they share is the beautiful and large amount of natural greenery, the subtropical climate, the wonderful tranquillity and absence of daily stress, beautiful mostly simple architecture using lots of natural local building materials. Agriculture and animal husbandry are abundant on the nutrient-rich volcanic soils. The use of barbed wire is practically non-existent here. Property partitioning is mainly done with pile walls of lava chunks or hedges of various types of hedge plants but also very often with Hydrangea's that apparently ground very easily here in this climate and soil. Hiking trails are plentiful on all islands, usually well-signposted. There are also plenty of well-described walking guides of the Azores islands in various languages. The volcanic origin of the Azores is still clearly visible in many places. Often, old volcanic mountains are now overgrown but still clearly visible in silhouette. In a few places, active volcanism is still present, which is usually clearly visible, but also easy to smell with its sulphur smell that then spreads in the surroundings. Azores, a wonderful place to stay on holiday, relax and enjoy the beautiful nature.