Santa Maria is the eastern most and the oldest island of the Azores. It’s also the only one that is located on the African plate (the others are on the Eurasian). It only takes a 15 minutes flight to get there from the main island (shortest one ever).
On Santa Maria the clocks go a little slower. It’s not touristy at all, you feel more like a guest and not like an annoying tourist. It has beautiful green hills, white houses and gorgeous coastal cliffs and rock formations – a perfect place for hikers. And that’s what we did. Hiking. The weather was nice and sunny most of the time and the scenery stunning with lots of views, vineyards, cool forests and even a tiny red desert (due to clay mineral weathering of volcanic rock).
On the last day we walked down a steep path to a bay. It was such a pretty walk, a pretty place. We had a picnic by the shore, listened to how the current drags in all the pebbles. Ate all the remaining food we had. It was very hot and humid that day but for me it was one of the best things we could have done on this island. When we left I almost teared up because I knew that would have been my last hike. The last time I would see the ocean (well, for now). It was the last activity I did on this world trip, and it was a perfect ending to it.
I have been traveling around this globe for 217 days . Stopping over on the Azores and especially on Santa Maria rounded it up beutifully. I had a great time.
Thanks to all of you who were interested in my travels, there will be more to come in the future. I made it back home safely and without any incidents…
See you soon!
Run Around The World 
The Azores are sooo special….
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