Steaming Lagoa das Furnas: Full-Day on São Miguel

By the time the van pulls off the main road and down toward Furnas, steam is already rising like breath from the earth. It wreathes the lake—Lagoa das Furnas—in a soft gray veil, tanging the air with sulfur and fern- damp green. Walkers step from the vehicle into a landscape that feels both cultivated and volcanic: manicured gardens and steaming fumaroles rub shoulders with fern-carpeted slopes and basalt outcrops. This is a place where geology does the cooking, and where a single day can fold together a botanical garden, a volcanic lake, hot springs, and a lunch that literally bubbled from the ground.