Not every wrong turn leads you down the wrong path.
I’m not big on planning my trips. This can lead to unnecessary problems, but also – luckily – some nice surprises.
While exploring São Miguel (part of the Azores Islands of Portugal,) I really wanted to see the craters from the viewpoint called Boca do Inferno. So, early one morning I took a bus that way to only find out halfway that the bus couldn’t go any further because of an important road being blocked. What now?
My thumb went up and I was lucky enough to be able to hitchhike with a lovely couple who were headed in the same direction. Coming up to the crater we had planned to walk around it, but alas, we took a wrong turn.
The sandy path we were on became smaller and smaller and pine trees, ferns, and high rocks started closing in on us — we realized this wasn’t the way. However, the twists and turns of this ‘wrong’ path intrigued us, edges us on. We just needed to know what was around the next corner.
That was when we came to this fairytale scene. Rocks covered with moss and fern on one side, lit up by the few sun beams that came through the tiny pine trees on the other side. I love how unplanned turns can turn up so beautiful.
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