Lisbon McMission: Azores (Açores)

This week we packed our bags, boarded a plane, and headed to the Azores (Açores to the Portuguese).

The Azores are a group of nine volcanic islands located 950 miles west of Lisbon.

While part of Portugal, the Azores are essentially in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and are still largely untouched by mass tourism.

We chose Terceira Island mainly because our friends, Luis and Nair Avles call this island 'home' and we were interested in seeing where they came from!

The closest city to the Terceira airport is Praia do Victoria, which is a quaint town with a large sandy beach. This is where we stayed.

Hotel Praia Marina

Don Amelia is the name of the super dense pastries on the island. They taste a little bit like a chewy gingerbread. You really need a glass of milk to get through one.

Black volcanic rock walls criss-cross every field.

Algar do Carvão is one of the most impressive sites on Terceira as it is one of the only places in the world where you can actually go inside a volcano. They built a staircase inside the lava tube.

This is what it looks like inside the lava tube of an extinct volcano!

Terceira is also home to the Atlantic's first European city - Angra do Heroísmo.

The best things to do in Angra is to simply walk around and admire the public gardens and colorful houses and cathedrals - because the cobblestone streets are exceedingly narrow and twisty. And very scary to drive on!

This is also the city where the church is located.

We came across a huge bull statue which was located right the middle of a roundabout. Bull fighting is a tradition of Portugal but it’s different to Spain. The bull does NOT get killed and some of it happens on the streets and not in a ring. It's called Tourada à corda (rope bullfight) and in this centuries-old tradition, the bull is led along the streets on a rope, held by six people – the pastores – and anyone who dares, taunts and teases the bull.

The bulls are treated more like sports stars than circus animals. Every bull has its statistics and reputation that it builds over the years, and many locals follow their favorite bulls around the island like a sports team.

We enjoyed our drive around the island. Larry not so much. He was our chauffeur and all the roundabouts took their toll on him - and Don as the 'co-pilot'. The island is about 18-by-11 miles and shaped kind of like an avacado. The mountains in the center, extinct volcanoes, are often shrouded in fog. It can be cloudy and rainy only three miles from sunshine. The air is squeaky clean. Little villages hug the coast, or perch above on the hillsides. There are great views everywhere you look. Terceira has about 57,000 people (all nine Azorean islands total 250,000), but the people are outnumbered by cows and goats.