29/04/2024
Let me tell you the story behind this island and why it was on my bucketlist.
Much like people getting lost down the Tiktok or Youtube hole, I get lost down the Google Earth hole. I like to search around finding far off places, looking at photos others take in particular spots, and putting places on the radar for where I want to travel. About 10 years ago, I found this tiny little island with a town inside the caldera of a volcano. I thought it was fascinating. I went down to street view, exploring the town virtually.
On my next venture down the google earth hole, I wanted to find this island again and could have sworn it was in the Pacific. I searched every island (there's A LOT, FYI) to no avail. I thought it was lost forever.
When we booked this cruise a year ago, I didn't know much about the ports except that we would end up in Barcelona, and the Sagrada Familia was there and had been on my bucketlist since learning about it in art history class in college. So it was a no brainer.
I didn't start looking into the other ports to plan things until months after we booked it. I saw Ponta Delgada was the first stop. I knew it was in the Azores, but that's all. Like most people (or maybe just me, because I love geography) I put the city in on the Google Earth search, and it took me to the layout of the city. As I began zooming out, something was familiar. And as I did, I realized what island this was.
So, we rented a car and hiked about half an hour to get to this viewpoint, and there it was. My little village inside of a volcano: Sete Cidades.
