Looking for an Overview of the Azores

Could these lonely Atlantic Ocean islands be part of the legendary Lost Continent of Atlantis?

Certainly the Azores have a lengthy history. The Phoenicians knew about them in the 6th Century BC, Norse sailors came across them hundreds of years later, and they appear on an Italian map of 1351.

But could Plato possibly have been referring to these scattered isles when he wrote of a continent and civilization wiped out by an earthquake around the 10th mil- lennium BC, leaving only a few island remnants in the Western Ocean?

The answer probably will never be known. What is known is that after lying undisturbed and uninhabited for decades, the Azores were rediscovered by Portuguese explorers in 1427.

A dozen years later the Ilhas dos Acores or Islands of the Hawks began to be settled by the Portuguese. Today the archipelago of nine larger islands and assorted islets is home to about 250,000 people.

Off the Beaten Track

Lying 870 miles west of the Portuguese mainland, the islands are somewhat off the beaten track for tourists. All the same, they are well worth the effort involved in getting here.

Not that that is too difficult anymore. With the recent inauguration of nonstop TAP Air Portugal service from Los Angeles to the Azores and on to Lisbon, special tour packages are being planned that will offer everything from scuba diving to mountain climbing.

Tourism is the wave of the future. In addition to the mansions, palaces, fortresses and museums that tell of centuries past, the islands now offer a variety of hideaway hotels, lodges and fine restaurants.

On arriving in Ponta Delgado, capital of Sao Miguel, the largest island, I was handed a new tourism map that details three nearby mountain hikes.

Grand Overview

A climb up Pico da Vara ascends from pastures and forests to steep ridges and crests at a height of 3,620 feet. This offers a grand overview of the island and its coastline. Bird watchers can add the priolo, a gray bullfinch, to their list of observed species.

The ascent of Serra de Agua de Pau leads up steep and densely forested slopes to the spectacular crater of an extinct volcano in which lies Lagoa do Fogo, the Lake of Fire. The hike can include the cliffs and luxuriant foliage of Lombades Gorge.

I chose the climb up the steep trails of Salto do Cavalo, rising above the village, the steaming geysers and thermal spas of Furnas Valley and the shores of Lake Furnas.

It was a Sunday morning in late May, and the Festival of the Holy Ghost was under way. This is a religious celebration dating from medieval times and begins in the village church before becoming a procession through the streets.

Starting the Climb

I started at the old Gothic church, where festival musicians outside the entrance greeted worshipers leaving the sanctuary. Following a road called Rua de Ferro I began the ascent out of the village to the mountain trail sketched on my map.

I paused briefly at a shrine with the image of a young Mary set in colorful tile into the face of the cliff, above a small candle holder. It had been placed there as an expression of gratitude by someone who had survived an accident while cycling with full milk cans along the road.

Leaving the road, I hiked across pastureland into the forest and then up a ridge to the summit and its view of the village, its church, the lake and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

On a scale of one to five, from an easy to a difficult, the steepest part of this climb could be rated about three. At the lower levels you can still enjoy grand vistas.

Nearly two hours later the music of the festival and the laughter and shouts of the street dancers welcomed me back into the village.

Color-Coded Trails

The active traveler can swim, dive, fish, sail, row and windsurf on the lakes of Sao Miguel, as well as off its ocean beaches. New walking trails will soon be marked around the twin green and blue lakes of the Caldeira das Sete Cidades (Cauldron of the Seven Cities). The trails will be coded yellow, green and red according to degree of difficulty, with red being the most difficult to climb.

The name Sete Cidades preserves the legend of the Seven Cities around the crater when it was part of the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Now there is a picturesque village with its 19th-Century neo-Gothic parish church set amid green pastures, magnificent trees and azalea gardens.

All the lake trails are fragrant with wildflowers, Sao Miguel being known as the Green Island because of its lush foliage and the extraordinary fertility of its volcanic soil.

On the slopes above Lake Furnas, a sporting holiday can also include golf on a nine-hole course and tennis on courts bordered by flowering hydrangea trees and shrubs.

The midweek round-trip TAP Air Portugal fare between Los Angeles, the Azores and Lisbon, Monday through Thursday, is $939 U.S. The weekend fare, Friday through Sunday, is $989. Direct flights leave Los Angeles on Sunday and Thursday, but if you want to fly on another day of the week, Air Portugal will give you the same fares by booking you to New York on American Airlines, then on its own transatlantic flights.

TWA flies from Los Angeles to Lisbon via New York with a midweek summer fare starting at $782, but does not stop in the Azores. Lufthansa flies Los Angeles to Lisbon via Frankfurt at comparable rates.

If you arrive in Lisbon from Los Angeles or any European destination, the round-trip fare between Lisbon and the Azores is $280 if bought in Lisbon, which is the budget-wise thing to do. The same fare bought in the United States is $416.

Buses and rental cars provide transportation on all the larger islands of the Azores.

Call TAP Air Portugal toll-free at (800) 221-7370.

My flight from Los Angeles landed at the international airport on Terceira, the third-largest island of the Azores.

Looking across the bay and harbor of the principal town of Angra do Heroismo, where as many as 50 treasure-laden galleons at a time once took refuge from pirates, I saw canoeists and windsurfers heading out into the Atlantic.

The fiberglass canoes belonged to a student and boy scout organization. The young people were friendly and cooperative when I asked about getting a canoe for a couple of hours.

To paddle out of the bay and into the roll of these mid-Atlantic waters is a mood-setter that should happen in every canoeist’s lifetime.

Wear a life vest, check the weather reports and watch the horizons for any unexpected changes in cloud formations. With these precautions, an experienced canoeist can paddle with serenity.

The Azores are linked by boat service and SATA inter-island flights. The smallest is the pastoral and fishing island of Corvo, with a tiny village and scarcely 400 inhabitants.

The island of Pico has the highest mountain, rising to 7,714 feet. The volcano is still active, so climbing it is an adventure recommended only for the fit, and taking along a guide is strongly recommended.

For more information on travel to the Azores, contact the Portuguese National Tourist Office, 590 Fifth Ave., New York 10036, (212) 354-4403.