Sao Jorge is a small island that along with several others make up what is known in English as the Azores archipelago. The Azores are a part of Portugal and are located in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Portugal and Morocco. I've included a few maps here for your reference, taken from my own post about Sao Miguel: Azores.
Sao Jorge itself is a long and narrow island located to the west of the main island of Sao Miguel and a stones throw away (relatively speaking) to its close neighbors - Pico and Faial islands.
On a clear day you can actually see the island of Pico from Sao Jorge. We got lucky on one of our days on the island and were able to view Picos pyramid shaped mountain reaching up into the clouds and beyond.
The island was noticably less inhabited than Soa Miguel, with only around 8000 people scattered throughout compared to Miguel's population of around 140,000 people.
Velas City (above)
Velas the capital city of Sao Jorge felt more like a small town than a city, which it basically was.
Town of Topo (above)
Most of the other inhabited areas felt like smaller villages or in some cases more like a hamlet, with maybe no more than a few hundred houses and small businesses.
Sao Jorge was also much more natural, rustic and remote feeling, giving off a strong feeling of a more traditional laid back lifestyle.
It was a great destination for outdoor activities like hiking, but maybe not suited to those who prefer indoor activities.
There weren't a lot of indoor things to do from what I could see, though there might have been a museum in Velas that im not aware of(?).
The island is really quite small as well. You can drive end to end in maybe an hour most. We did exactly that on one particularly rainy day that we were struggling to find activities to occupy our time.
Each island that we visited in the Azores was unique and had it own distinct character about it. It was to the point where it was almost as if each island had its own theme or themes.
For instance if Sao Miguel island's themes were hot springs, tea, and volcanic craters then Sao Jorge's were black rock, cliffs and fajãs.
The island was essentially made up of black lava rock and we saw it everywhere we travelled to along the coast.
Fajãs are a unique land formation common on the island of Sao Jorge as well. They are essentially flat land plateaus that jut out from the islands cliffs.
They are formed by lava flows and landslides during volcanic erruptions and are incredibly flat looking. When you look at them you can almost picture molten lava sliding down the cliff and pooling in the water below before solidifying.
Some of the fajãs are more gradual but others are incredibly distinct - like a large incredibly flat piece of land jutting off the side of a steep cliff.
They are actually really quite spectacular to see in my opinion. They are one of those things that you can take for granted and easily by pass without much thought, but if you stop and think about it for a second you get a sense for how incredibly interesting nature can be, as well as the continuous formation of earth. New land is constantly being created on this earth.
Fajã de Santo Cristo
That brings us to one of the most unique parts of Sao Jorge - Fajã de Santo Cristo. It's a remote small town built on a fajãs at the base on a large steep cliff.
It's not accessible by car or truck, but only by ATV or by hiking along a red shale pathway from an adjacent small town.
One one of the days of our visit we hiked to the small village in the pouring rain. There isn't a lot to do there other than eat or drink at one small restaurant, but it's nonetheless worth visiting simply because it's so remote. It doesn't even get wifi.
Similar to Sao Miguel island, there are many look out spots located all around the island of Sao Jorge.
They are generally located off the main roads and look out over various fajãs, cliffs or small towns and villages.
Basically anytime you see a sign with the word "Miradouro" on it you can pull over and expect to see something picturesque.
Most of the photos in this post were taken from various lookouts that we came across while driving from one destination to another.
Ponta dos Rosais: abandoned lighthouse (above)
On one of the days we drove from the farthest point of the island all the way to the farthest point on the opposite end. We drove tip to tip and made several stops along the way at the various lookouts.
Ponta dos Rosais: Western tip of the Island (above)
We spent 3 days and 3 nights in Sao Jorge after visiting Sao Miguel. This post was just a high level overview of the island and I will get into more details of the specific locations that we saw and various activities that we did a little later on.
